Piraeus Bank ESG Analysis – Where Greece Ranks

According to a Piraeus Bank analysis entitled “State Evaluation Based on ESG Characteristics”, Greek ESG scores along with Belgium, Italy, and Cyprus stood out as “top performers” between the 4 years 2020-2024.

The ESG score ranks companies’ practices and performance associated with environmental, social, and governance factors to assess their showing on various aspects such as sustainability and ethics.

The Piraeus Bank report was based on a model using 37 publicly available variables for countries evaluated according to environmental and social criteria, while also considering governance issues, using a sample of 27 OECD countries.

While Greek ESG scores improved between 2020-2024 was noteworthy, the country remained consistently below the Southern European average. Despite this, Greece’s dynamics exceeded the Southern European average, converging to the rest of the region in recent years.

The Piraeus analysis zeroes in on the dynamics (i.e., changes of Δ variable compared to the previous year) to identify the best-performing countries. Top-tier countries are considered those with a score above 50 points and positive dynamics over the past four years, while low-ESG countries exhibit negative dynamics falling under the “low performers.”

The countries of central Europe rank consistently high in the state evaluation model based on ESG characteristics, maintaining their advantage in absolute scores, while emerging markets lag.

According to Piraeus Bank’s model, the five countries with the highest scores—Denmark, Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, and Singapore—maintained their leadership positions in the overall rankings, with only minor changes among them.