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Last updated: May 2026
Ziggma is a portfolio analytics platform built for self-directed investors who want to align their investments with their values
Impact data is provided by ACA Ethos, an independent impact data provider that aggregates environmental and social metrics from hundreds of global sources. Ziggma does not build or own the underlying impact methodology — it surfaces ACA Ethos data in a clean, portfolio-level interface designed for individual investors.
The Ziggma Impact Score (0–100) reflects how positively a company or fund contributes to real-world environmental and social outcomes. A higher score means greater positive impact on the planet and society.
The score is not an ESG risk rating. ESG ratings measure how environmental, social, and governance factors affect a company's financial performance. The Impact Score measures the reverse: how a company affects the world around it. A fossil fuel company can carry a high ESG risk rating — meaning it manages its regulatory exposure well — while still scoring low on real-world impact.
The Impact Score is not a single metric but a composite built from hundreds of underlying data points. ACA Ethos follows a five-step process to turn raw environmental and social data into a single 0–100 score that is comparable across companies, industries, and geographies.
ACA Ethos calculates scores across ten impact themes relevant to private investors. Each theme aggregates multiple topic-level scores — covering everything from a company's climate action and water usage to its labor practices and corporate governance standards. Together they give you a 360-degree view of where a company is creating positive change and where it falls short.
ACA Ethos sources data from five categories of inputs, each subject to multi-layer quality control before integration. For self-directed investors, this matters in a concrete way: the quality of your impact screening is only as good as the data behind it. Ethos's multi-source approach — refreshed monthly, with controversy monitoring running multiple times daily — means the scores you see in Ziggma reflect what's happening in the world now, not what a company reported two years ago.
All data passes through multi-layer quality control and validation in a staging environment before release. Ethos performs randomized datapoint audits that must achieve 100% accuracy before data enters the live environment.
Ethos scans global media multiple times daily across major markets including the US, UK, Europe, Japan, India, Australia, and Brazil. Each controversy is reviewed by analysts who assign a severity score (1–10) and one or more of 25 category tags — covering human rights, environmental damage, labor practices, product safety, and more. Validated controversies are incorporated into the Impact Score as downward adjustments, regardless of whether the controversy is financially material to the company.
Ziggma provides 85+ impact and ethical screens via ACA Ethos. These include fossil-free strategies, fair labor filters, deforestation-free criteria, gender equality screens, and transparency and accountability screens. Screens can be combined with Ziggma's fundamental stock analysis in a single portfolio view.
These two approaches answer fundamentally different questions — and confusing them is one of the main reasons ESG investing has attracted greenwashing criticism. A company can score well on MSCI or Sustainalytics simply by managing its regulatory and reputational exposure effectively, regardless of whether it is actually reducing emissions, protecting workers, or avoiding harm. Ziggma's Impact Score is built on a different premise: that what matters is real-world outcomes, not risk-adjusted optics.
Where companies do not disclose certain data, Ethos models values using peer-group averages adjusted for revenue or workforce size. All modeled datapoints are clearly flagged in Ziggma, and users can choose to exclude them from their ratings.
Coverage varies by market and company size. Larger companies with robust disclosure practices have higher data density than smaller companies or those in markets with weaker reporting standards.
The underlying impact methodology belongs to ACA Ethos. Ziggma does not conduct additional independent audits of the data.
