We already pay for a data platform (ZoomInfo, etc.). Why do we need your list building services?

While platforms like ZoomInfo, Apollo.io, or Lusha offer great data in large volumes, these are generalist, static databases naturally prone to data decay. We specialize in B2B custom list building services, finding target prospects that align with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Our services offer the best coverage possible by combining data from prospecting platforms like ZoomInfo, validating it via automated scraping, and enriching it with additional records through manual research, ensuring low bounce rates and higher-quality leads, unlike generic data platforms.

How do you ensure data accuracy and low bounce rates?

We validate every email and phone number, using a combination of human research and automated systems to ensure data accuracy. This significantly reduces bounce rates and improves campaign success by providing you with reliable contact data.

Is your B2B list building service compliant with GDPR/CCPA and our legal policies?

Yes, our B2B list building services comply with prominent global data privacy regulations, like GDPR, as well as region-specific and enterprise-specific legal policies, ensuring your contact lists are secure and compliant. We also follow ethical data collection practices to protect your business.

We had a bad experience with another data vendor- how is your list building company different?

Most 'bad' data experiences come from vendors who resell static, pre-scraped databases. But we don’t sell data. We offer a custom research service, collect data specific to your criteria only, align domain experts to verify the nuances, utilize AI and automation to speed up the process, and ensure 99.95% field-level data accuracy before delivering custom B2B lists to your sales/marketing teams.

Will working with an offshore list building team be difficult?

Not at all. Every project is overseen by a dedicated manager who acts as a single point of contact and keeps things on schedule. Depending on your needs, we can offer round-the-clock support and the flexibility to scale resources as needed, ensuring that we meet your expectations without any communication friction.

ESG Exposure Research Services | Exposure Data Collection Services

Outputs	Methodology Markers	Coverage
Revenue-based exposure percentages, per metric, per company	SunTec's Four-Tier Exposure Confidence Framework applied to every data point (Exact Revenue / Best Estimate / Tentative Estimate / Qualitative Flag)	30+ sensitive-activity categories across business practices, environment & health, consumer goods, and fossil fuels
Binary exposure flags (Involved / Not Involved) across qualitative activity categories, such as animal testing or GMO research	Production (direct involvement) vs. Participation (indirect involvement) distinction on every metric	Non-English source documents processed, with language interpretation risks flagged in analyst notes
Analyst notes and full source attribution for every classified data point	Documented audit trail — including any AI-generated leads that were discarded as unverifiable	Custom schema, field mapping, and delivery cadence matching your methodology

WHO WE SERVE

Built for Teams that Need Defensible ESG Data

We work with organisations across the ESG data value chain, from ESG data providers and risk rating agencies to ESG index constructors, providing reliable data on the exposure metrics their methodologies depend on.

ESG Data & Ratings Providers

Your platform's value to subscribers scales with coverage. But expanding coverage in-house means hiring and training analysts (a 6–12-month cycle per hire), while the backlog grows faster than your team can handle.

We run the research layer underneath your product:

Collecting exposure metrics on the companies your subscribers are asking about.
Classifying them according to your confidence standards.
Delivering them into your ingestion pipeline.

Risk Rating & Credit Rating Agencies

Exposure data is a material input to your risk models, but it's where most rating processes face a bottleneck — particularly for mid-caps and emerging-market issuers whose disclosures are fragmented across languages, regulatory regimes, and reporting standards.

Our output is designed for your rating workflow:

Standardized field definitions.
Audit trails with traceability to the exact source document, page, and date.
Analyst notes with documented reasoning behind every tentative estimate.

Index Providers & Benchmark Constructors

An exclusion-based index is only as defensible as the exposure thresholds behind it. A 5% revenue exposure rule means nothing if a constituent company — or a regulator — can challenge how "revenue" was attributed.

Our data is built for that scrutiny.

Every data point at the threshold boundary carries a confidence tier, so borderline companies can be flagged for review rather than silently included or excluded.
Full source attribution means an exclusion decision can be defended line by line if needed.

Asset Managers & Asset Owners

The problem with licensing a pre-built ESG rating is that you inherit someone else's methodology, weightings, and black box. Building in-house solves that, but you still need reliable exposure data to feed the model.

We supply the input through comprehensive ESG exposure data research services:

Analyst-verified exposure datasets (you apply your own weightings, thresholds, and materiality view on top of data you can defend to your investment committee or your asset owners).
Custom research on your coverage universe and specific exposure metrics.

ESG RESEARCH SERVICES: PROCESS

A Proven Exposure Data Research Workflow

Our exposure assessment process combines systematic web research, AI-assisted analysis, data scraping, and rigorous verification by subject-matter experts to deliver accurate, audit-defensible exposure metrics. A typical proof-of-concept involves business involvement screening for 50–100 companies across 3–5 exposure metrics, delivered in 2–3 weeks with a full audit trail. Additionally, our controversial activity exposure research methodology can scale from 500 to 50,000+ companies, and data delivery can be calibrated to your preferences (for one-time or recurring schedules).

Scope Definition in Collaboration with the Client

Provide the company names, industry classifications, and the specific exposure metric(s) you need assessed. We also require details on schema requirements, delivery format, confidence thresholds, and any methodology-specific parameters before research begins.

ESG Research & AI-Assisted Screening

We systematically review company websites, annual reports, and sustainability disclosures. AI research platforms (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini) are used to identify potential risk indicators and directional leads. Every AI lead passes a mandatory verification check before entering your dataset. Unverified leads are discarded and retained in the audit trail.

Manual Data Verification & Deep-Dive Analysis

AI-flagged indicators are verified by an analyst against data sources such as regulatory filings, governance disclosures, investor presentations, and press releases. For complex corporate structures, we trace exposure through subsidiaries, joint ventures, and equity stakes.

Revenue Classification

Confirmed exposure is classified into four tiers: Exact Revenue (the company explicitly reports revenue figure), Best Estimate (exposure is derived from segment or product-level revenue proportions), Tentative Estimate (involvement is confirmed but revenue detail is insufficient; a conservative default is applied), and Qualitative Flag (applied to metrics not requiring revenue quantification, such as animal testing or GMO research, recorded as Involved or Not Involved).

Qualitative Classification

For metrics that do not require revenue quantification — such as animal testing, stem cell research, or GMO involvement — exposure is determined based on whether the company's disclosures, filings, or operational evidence confirm involvement in the activity. Classification is recorded as a binary flag: Involved or Not Involved.

Exposure Calculation & Data Delivery

The final exposure percentage is calculated, and the dataset is delivered with full source attribution, confidence tier, direct/indirect involvement, and analyst notes. Data is delivered in your preferred format, mapped to your schema.

Classification	Confidence	When Is It Applied
Exact Revenue	Highest	The target company explicitly reports the revenue figure directly attributable to the screened activity. No calculations or adjustments needed.
Best Estimate	Moderate	Exact revenue is unavailable. Exposure is estimated by analysing revenue proportions across segments, sub-segments, or products relative to total revenue. Production volume data may be used in place of revenue breakdowns when they are absent.
Tentative Estimate	Indicative	Where evidence confirms a company's involvement in the screened activity, but available disclosures lack the revenue detail needed to calculate a precise figure. Exposure is expressed as a conservative default value. To flag the involvement for further client screening without overstating the extent of exposure.
Qualitative Flag	Disclosure-Based	Applied to metrics that do not require revenue quantification (e.g., animal testing, GMO research, stem cell research). Involvement is determined based on company disclosures, regulatory filings, or operational evidence. Exposure is recorded as ‘Involved’ or ‘Not Involved’ labels.

ESG EXPOSURE DATA COLLECTION SERVICES: METRICS COVERAGE

What Activities Do We Screen for?

We research company involvement across the full range of ESG-sensitive activities. Each category is assessed for both direct (Production) and indirect (Participation) exposure and involvement.

Business Practices Metrics

Animal Testing — Companies that conduct, commission, or allow animal testing at any operational stage.
Animal Cruelty — Non-compliance with animal welfare standards in the breeding, keeping, care, housing, transportation, or slaughtering of animals.

Fur and Exotic Animal Byproducts — Companies involved in the production and/or sale of fur and luxury leather products.

Environment & Health-Related Metrics

Palm Oil Participation — Companies involved in the production (farming, extraction, processing, refining) of oil from the fruit or kernel of the oil palm tree.
Abortifacients Production — Companies involved in the production of substances that cause abortion or miscarriage.
Stem Cell Research Participation — Companies that conduct research using stem cells derived from human adult tissue.
Embryonic Stem Cell Research Participation — Companies involved in researching human embryos/fetuses or cloning.

Agrochemical Production — Companies involved in the production of specialized chemicals for agriculture, such as pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.
GMO Research Participation — Companies involved in any type of GMO research and development activities.
GMO Product Production — Companies producing and selling GMO products for agricultural/industrial use or human consumption.
Contraceptives Production — Companies that generate revenue from contraception and fertility control products or medications.

Consumer Goods Metrics

Adult Entertainment Participation — Companies involved in the production and distribution of content and services primarily intended to cause sexual excitement.
Tobacco Production — Companies manufacture cigarettes and other tobacco products and/or grow tobacco plants.
Tobacco Participation — Companies involved in services like retail, wholesale, distribution, marketing, or promotion of tobacco products.
Alcohol Production — Companies generating revenue from the production of alcoholic beverages.

Alcohol Participation — Companies involved in retail, wholesale, or provision of alcoholic beverages, or related specialized distribution and marketing services.
Gambling Production — Companies generating revenue directly from gambling activities, such as operating casinos or providing betting services.
Gambling Participation — Companies generating revenue from gambling-related activities like manufacturing gambling machines, receiving royalties, or retailing low-risk gambling items.

Fossil Fuels & Related Energy Metrics

Coal Mining Production — Companies involved in coal exploration, extraction, mining, processing, transportation, storage, or coke production.
Coal Mining Participation — Companies provide services directly related to coal production, such as supplying equipment, coal trading, or third-party processing.
Thermal Coal Production — Companies involved in mining, upstream transportation, and storage specifically for thermal coal used to generate electricity.
Oil Fuels Production — Companies involved in extracting oil (crude, bitumen, heavy oils), or supporting exploration, drilling, refining, storing, and transporting oil.
Oil Fuels Participation — Companies are indirectly involved in oil through retail, marketing, distribution, service provision (e.g., equipment), logistics, oil-based power generation, and wholesale.
Gas Fuels Production — Companies are directly involved in extracting gas fuels (mainly methane) or supporting natural gas production, processing, exploration, drilling, and transportation.
Gas Fuels Participation — Companies indirectly involved in gas fuels through retail, marketing, distribution, support services (e.g., equipment), natural gas wholesale, and electricity generation from natural gas.

Shale Energy Production — Companies are directly involved in shale energy exploration, production, or upstream/midstream storage and transportation.
Shale Energy Participation — Companies involved in products or services for shale energy production/exploration, or non-direct involvement with downstream shale operations.
Oil Sands Production — Companies involved in the exploration, extraction, refining, or upstream storage & transportation of oil-sands-based fossil fuels.
Oil Sands Participation — Companies involved in products or services for oil sands production, or non-direct involvement with downstream oil sands operations.
Arctic Oil Gas Production — Companies involved in the exploration and/or production of oil and gas within Arctic regions.
Coal Power Generation Production — Companies involved in the generation of electricity from coal or coal-based fuels for sale or self-use.
Coal Power Generation Participation — Companies provide services related to coal power generation, distribution, transmission, design/construction of assets, or reselling third-party generated electricity.

Weapon & Defense Involvement Metrics

Nuclear Energy Production — Companies engaged in the generation of nuclear energy for power.
Nuclear Energy Participation — Companies that manufacture or supply components for nuclear energy facilities.
Armament Production — Companies involved in producing conventional weapons and military equipment.
Armament Participation — Companies supplying parts, systems, or technology for conventional weapons.
Anti-Personnel Landmine Production — Companies that manufacture anti-personnel landmines banned by the Ottawa Treaty.
Cluster Bombs Production — Companies engaged in producing cluster munitions are prohibited under international law.
Cluster Bobs Participation — Companies that supply parts or technology used in cluster munitions.

Chemical and Biological Weapons Production — Companies producing chemical or biological weapons banned by global conventions.
White Phosphorous Production — Companies manufacture munitions containing white phosphorus with incendiary effects.
Nuclear Weapons Production — Companies involved in the development or production of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear Weapons Participation — Companies that provide components or systems for nuclear weapons.
Small Arms — Companies that manufacture or sell small arms such as pistols, rifles, and ammunition.
Riot Control — Companies producing riot control gear, including tear gas, rubber bullets, and related equipment.

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Exposure Data Research & Collection Services

01 What are ESG exposure research services?

ESG exposure research services identify and quantify a company’s financial involvement in specific activities, sectors, or assets that may be environmentally harmful, ethically sensitive, or misaligned with sustainability goals. They provide investors with a clear, revenue-based or qualitative measure of how deeply a company is embedded in sectors such as fossil fuels, weapons, tobacco, gambling, alcohol, adult entertainment, and other areas through controversial activity screening and ESG risk exposure data collection.

02 Why does exposure metric research matter to data providers, ESG risk rating firms, or index constructors?

Exposure data is a foundational input across the ESG data value chain. Data providers need it to power their screening platforms. Risk rating agencies use it as a material input to scoring models. Index constructors rely on it to set defensible exclusion thresholds. In each case, the quality of the upstream research directly affects the credibility of the downstream product. On the other hand, inaccurate or incomplete exposure data creates rebalancing risk, client disputes, and regulatory scrutiny.

03 How is SunTec different from MSCI / Sustainalytics / Bloomberg ESG data?

We are not a competitor to those vendors — we're a research layer that often feeds into them. MSCI, Sustainalytics, Bloomberg, S&P Global, and LSEG sell licensed access to pre-built ESG databases. Their product is a database with their proprietary methodology, coverage universe, and refresh schedule. That's the right fit for asset managers who want ESG data as a feed, not a research operation. SunTec India operates differently. We're a custom research layer for controversial activity exposure screening. You bring the company list, the metric definitions, and the schema. We research and classify the exposure data fresh, to your specification, delivered only to you. Our clients include ESG data providers, rating platforms, and index constructors who use our output to expand their own coverage — which is why we describe ourselves as a back-office research layer, not a data product.

04 Why would a rating agency outsource exposure research instead of building it in-house?

Three reasons, in order of how often they come up in our engagements.

First, coverage expansion speed: Hiring and training ESG research analysts takes 6–12 months per hire. Extending coverage from 5,000 to 15,000 companies in-house typically requires a multi-year hiring cycle. Outsourcing the research layer compresses that to weeks.
Second, edge-case specialization: Complex corporate structures — subsidiaries, joint ventures, minority stakes across different exposure tiers — require senior analysts for edge-case deep dives. A dedicated research partner absorbs that workload without inflating the in-house headcount.
Third, methodology neutrality: An external research layer has no incentive to push a particular scoring view — the analyst's only job is to classify the exposure accurately per the client's definitions. This is particularly relevant for rating agencies under regulatory scrutiny for methodology independence.

Against all three, the case for outsourcing ESG exposure data research services is simple: domain knowledge, quality control, and data exclusivity. With SunTec India, that benefit is compounded with our Proprietary Four-Tier Exposure Confidence Framework and full source attribution.

05 Are you an ESG exposure data provider?

Not in the regular sense. Exposure metrics data vendors sell access to a pre-existing database. Our model is different—we conduct bespoke research tailored to your company list, metric definitions, and delivery specifications. Unlike regular ESG exposure data providers, data is collected fresh for each engagement at SunTec India, structured to your schema, and delivered exclusively to your team.

06 What types of data do you collect for ESG exposure analysis?

Our core focus is revenue-based exposure data — quantifying what percentage of a company's total revenue is derived from sensitive or controversial activities — and qualitative exposure data — recording involvement in sensitive domains like animal testing, based on company disclosures. This falls under the broader category of activity-based ESG data, where the goal is to identify and measure controversial product involvement at the company level. In addition to company-level data collection, we also cover ESG disclosure data, sector exposure data, geographic exposure data, and environmental, social, and governance data, collected as needed.

Specifically, our ESG research services support:

Business involvement screening
Product involvement screening
Activity-based risk profiling
Norms-based research and screening
Due diligence data feeds

07 Do you collect exposure metrics as well as exposure risk management data?

No. Our ESG exposure data collection service is focused on identifying exposure and measuring the percentage of a company’s total revenue derived from specific activities. However, we do not assess management quality, operational efficiency, or ESG practices within those sectors. For example, a coal mining company earning 70% of its revenue from coal is flagged with 70% exposure, regardless of whether it is the best-managed or poorest-managed operator in its industry. Similarly, a company is flagged for animal testing because it performs the activity, not based on its testing standards.

08 What data sources do you use?

We gather data from a variety of sources, including annual reports, sustainability reports, corporate governance disclosures, investor presentations, press releases, company websites, and regulatory filings.

09 How do you handle companies with limited disclosure?

For revenue-based metrics, when a company’s disclosures lack sufficient data to quantify exposure, but there is evidence of involvement in sensitive areas, we apply a tentative estimate. This flags the exposure without overstating the extent of the company’s activities under suspicion.

For qualitative metrics, if a company's disclosures are ambiguous — for example, a pharmaceutical company whose filings neither confirm nor deny animal testing — the classification depends on the weight of available evidence. Where credible indicators exist (such as references to preclinical trials, regulatory submissions requiring animal data, or third-party reports), involvement may still be flagged. Where evidence is genuinely inconclusive, the metric is marked as ‘Unconfirmed’, with analyst notes detailing what was reviewed and why a definitive classification could not be made.

10 What’s the difference between Production and Participation in your exposure metric data?

'Production' refers to a company that directly makes the product or operates the facility (such as extraction, manufacturing, or refining) that falls under any risk category. 'Participation' refers to indirect involvement, such as retail, distribution, support services, financial stakes, or marketing. Most exclusion methodologies treat these differently, and our data is structured to reflect that distinction.

11 Can you deliver data in our proprietary format?

Yes. Our team will collaborate with yours during onboarding to define the exact format, field mapping, and delivery cadence, and then map the final data to your specific schema and format.

12 What’s the typical turnaround for a pilot?

The timeline for a pilot depends on factors such as the number of companies, the complexity of the metrics, and the quality of disclosures. You can get a more informed estimate of the timeline if you share your requirements with us at info@suntecindia.com.

13 Can you cover non-English markets?

Yes. Our ESG exposure data collection services include the processing of non-English disclosures. We are also transparent about the added complexity of translation, and flag any potential interpretation risks in our analyst notes.

14 How do you handle the risk of AI 'hallucinations' when using generative AI tools for ESG exposure research?

We use bots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini to discover initial leads, directing analysts toward where exposure-related evidence is likely to exist. However, before any AI-generated lead is pursued, analysts complete a mandatory lead verification check: they confirm that the referenced document, filing, or source actually exists and is accessible through its cited location. Only leads that pass this check enter the active research queue. AI-generated leads that cannot be verified as genuine are discarded and logged as unverified. This log is retained as part of the audit trail to monitor patterns of AI tool unreliability in ESG data research over time.

15 When should you NOT outsource ESG exposure research services to SunTec India?

Here are the scenarios where our business involvement screening services are usually not the right fit:

If you need a pre-built ESG database, data providers such as MSCI, Sustainalytics, S&P Global Sustainable, and Bloomberg are a better fit. We only build custom datasets tailored to your specific requirements.
If you need to know how well a company manages its ESG risks alongside exposure data collection, a full-service ESG rating provider is a better fit. Our scope is exposure research — quantifying the percentage of a company's revenue derived from sensitive activities or their involvement in suspicious categories. We don't assess whether the company manages those activities well relative to peers.
If you need a very fast turnaround (10,000+ companies covered, within a week, for instance), you’ll likely find that speed with vendors that sell pre-built databases and apply lighter verification pipelines. Our QA model — manual analyst verification on every data point — doesn't compress below a certain minimum because we deliver exposure data mapped to your methodology with a full audit trail.

16 How do you ensure data recency?

We start with a baseline recency benchmark (for example, no data points older than 18 months) determined via client discussions. However, different exposure metrics age at very different rates. A company's physical asset locations or facility count changes slowly. But regulatory violations, environmental incidents, or workforce injury rates need a very current assessment. Depending on the ESG risk rating requirements, we build this schedule collaboratively with the client.

17 How do you handle data collection if different clients define ESG exposure differently?

Two clients may define alcohol exposure differently — as "any revenue from production" and as "revenue exceeding 5% of total sales," for example. Both produce different data collection scopes. Additionally, exposure can be

Inherent: Risks that come with operating in an industry
Company-specific: Two companies in the same industry can have very different exposure profiles based on what they actually do
Geographic: Risk profiles of the regions in which the company's operations are concentrated
Revenue-dependent: Risks associated with the buyers
Regulatory: Jurisdiction-based compliance and legal risks

So, we define the ESG exposure research and data collection service scope depending on the client’s requirements and the type of target companies they list.

18 I'm building an AI-powered solution for ESG risk rating. Can you help?

Yes. We can produce structured, analyst-verified exposure datasets with confidence scoring and involvement-type labels that are well-suited as training data for AI/ML models. Beyond exposure data collection, SunTec India offers a full range of AI training data services that can support ESG model development, including data annotation, LLM fine-tuning, data preprocessing, and human-in-the-loop AI model validation. We can produce structured, analyst-verified ESG training datasets and work with your team to define custom labeling schemas calibrated to your model's requirements. To explore how our AI data services and ESG domain expertise can work together for your project, reach out at info@suntecindia.com.

ESG Exposure Research Services