24 February 2021
valon Advanced Materials Inc. is pleased to report on its Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance ("ESG") Risk Rating following an independent audit of the Company's business practices and policies performed by Sustainalytics, a Morningstar company, as first announced on November 3, 2020. Avalon’s overall management of material ESG issues is strong. No events or policies were identified that may negatively impact stakeholders, the environment or the Company's operations.
Sustainalytics is a leading ESG research, ratings and data firm. It assesses ESG risks of companies on a scale of 0-100, with 0 indicating the lowest risk. In January 2021, Avalon received an ESG Risk Rating of 28.9 in its industry, Diversified Metals, and ranked among the top 5% of 150 industry companies analyzed globally. Avalon is among a growing number of companies focusing exclusively on clean tech minerals development assessed per the Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Ratings methodology. It is due to this focus on a variety of rare metals and minerals that it was classified as part of the Diversified Metals industry group. While this relative ranking for Avalon is derived from a total score comparison with other companies in the industry, the five peers identified in the summary ESG Risk Rating report are meant to provide an overview per the market cap range than any direct score impact on Avalon’s score.