Multidimensional assessment of the ESG profile of Portuguese municipalities: A proposal for a composite index using official indicators

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstractMeasuring environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance in the public sector requires tools capable of integrating heterogeneous, comparable, and geographically disaggregated information. This study aims to develop a composite index for the 308 Portuguese municipalities between 2018 and 2022, based on 95 officials' environmental, social, and governance indicators standardized through min-max normalization and combined using neutral weighting. The findings indicate that annual mean values remained relatively stable, ranging from 32.030% to 33.105%, with moderate growth until 2021 followed by a decline in 2022. The distribution was strongly concentrated around central values but retained substantial dispersion, with scores ranging from 26.361% to 72.621%, indicating persistent territorial disparities. In addition, jackknife analysis showed that the annual mean was only weakly affected by the exclusion of individual municipalities. The index does not measure reporting quality, formal ESG adoption, institutional transparency, or the causal effectiveness of public policies. Its contribution lies in providing a relative, transparent, replicable, and comparable measure for exploratory analysis of municipal ESG patterns.AcknowledgmentThis article is financed by CINAV–Navy Research Centre [CINAV–Centro de Investigação Naval].