Take the Pressure Off During Submission Season: Tips for Preparing and Responding to the Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA)

The 2026 cycle of the S&P Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) is now underway, sending many companies into deadline mode between now and November to submit their responses.

In the , we explained how the CSA is a strategic tool with benefits beyond compliance and disclosure. For many companies, the CSA is playing a growing role in shaping how they think about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and long-term value creation.

However, many companies still approach the CSA reactively and end up preparing only at the . This can make the process more resource intensive and more challenging overall. With a few key practices, submitting a CSA disclosure can be smooth and efficient, leaving you with more time and resources for operational improvements and other ESG initiatives.

What’s happening now? The CSA questionnaire is visible in the Sustainability Reporting Portal as of April 1st. This is the right time for companies to select a participation window and begin organizing the data, documentation, and internal reviews needed for submission. Below we outline six principles to guide the process.

1. Start Early: Treat CSA Preparation as a Continuous Process

A common challenge is managing the timing of the CSA process, which involves selecting a submission window, responding to specific questions once the questionnaire is released, and, ideally, incorporating feedback from S&P from previous years. Starting CSA preparation after the questionnaire is released compresses timelines and increases pressure across teams.

Leading practice is to treat CSA preparation as a continuous cycle rather than an annual event. A year-round approach includes:

• Maintaining a of supporting documentation, updated as needed each reporting cycle
• Tracking your company’s policy updates, progress on ESG initiatives, and governance changes throughout the year
• Reviewing S&P Global’s feedback on your company’s previous submission and identifying gaps to be addressed this year, before the questionnaire is released

This approach significantly reduces deadline pressure during submission season.

2. Build a Cross-Functional Ownership Model

The responsibility for CSA responses rarely falls to a single team. The process typically requires input from various departments (e.g., sustainability, legal, human resources, risk, operations, etc.). Without clear ownership and coordination, this can lead to duplication, misalignment, or delays.

An effective structure includes:

• Identifying a subject matter expert for each topic
• A central coordinator to manage timelines and consistency
• Clear escalation paths for data validation and approvals

3. Work from the Scoring Logic, Not Just the Questionnaire

S&P Global uses a multi-level approach when scoring the CSA questionnaire, assessing responses based on the quality of evidence provided, consistency across disclosures, and the completeness of the information. Understanding the scoring logic provides a useful foundation for prioritizing reporting efforts, with a focus on:

• Higher-weighted topics, which warrant more detailed documentation
• Questions on governance and risk management, which often carry significant scoring weight
• Whether evidence should be maintained internally or disclosed publicly

This approach helps ensure that responses focus on heavily-weighted topics and are supported by documentation of the quality needed to back up the response.

4. Organize Supporting Documentation Early

One of the most time-consuming parts of the CSA process is gathering supporting documentation for the written responses. A best-practice approach is to update documents each reporting cycle, to include:

• Revised policies and procedures
• Newly available data
• Refined data collection/calculation methodologies(e.g., emissions calculations, assumptions, and data sources)
• New ESG initiatives
• Historical data to support year-over-year comparability

Organizing documentation in advance helps to avoid delays and gaps in responses, while also reducing workload during submission.

5. Centralize ESG Disclosures for Consistency

CSA questions often align and overlap with other sustainability disclosures and frameworks; this alignment is. Duplicating preparation efforts for sustainability reporting is a common source of inefficiency, particularly as reporting increasingly intersects across climate-related and broader sustainability frameworks.

In practice, companies can ensure alignment and consistency across ESG disclosures and frameworks by:

• Leveraging ESG reports as supporting evidence for CSA responses, and adding or refining disclosures to fully address CSA questions
• Ensuring consistency in metrics, definitions, and boundaries
• Using a centralized source for key data points

This improves both credibility and internal efficiency.

6. Focus on Year-Over-Year Improvement

CSA success comes from continuous improvement across . At G&A, we find that steady, year-over-year progress typically contributes to higher scores and stronger outcomes over time.

Effective submissions come from companies that:

• Track prior years’ scores and feedback
• Focus on closing high-impact gaps incrementally
• Decide how to allocate limited resources (e.g., employee time and effort) to improve scoring and holistically enhance ESG initiatives

This creates a more sustainable and realistic approach to improvement.

Conclusion

The CSA remains a key benchmark for ESG performance, but organizations can struggle to organize their information for a seamless submission, no matter how much progress they may make on their ESG initiatives.

Strong CSA performance is much easier to achieve if the effort is spread out over the year, with a structured approach.

Where to Start

At G&A, we help companies respond to the CSA and turn insights into action, strengthen disclosures, and close performance gaps over time. Learn how our team can support your CSA journey.

Looking to streamline your CSA preparation process and improve submission outcomes? G&A can help you build the structure, documentation, and approach needed for more efficient, year-over-year performance improvement.

Natali Alsunna

Natali Alsunna is a Senior Sustainability Analyst at Governance & Accountability Institute. Her role includes supporting client needs across several industries including responding to surveys such as CSA and CDP, gap analyses, and benchmarking research. Natali is passionate about environmental, social, and governance issues and about helping corporations foster sustainability to create a positive impact on society. Natali holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the German Jordanian University and a MSc. in International Business Management from Coventry University. Her background in engineering and management across several countries has provided knowledge and a depth of technical skills in engineering while also building leadership skills.