Each year our friends at Corporate Knights pull together a list of the 100 most sustainable corporations in the world.  They base their assessment on an extensive analysis of the companies they study that includes a review of numerous facts and figures. CSRHub’s aggregation engine strives to determine a consensus of the perceived sustainability performance for the 17,000 companies we track by combining input from 500 different sources.  It is satisfying to see that Corporate Knights’ more direct measurement and analysis approach aligns well with our methodology.  Every one of the 100 companies on the Global 100 list had above average CSRHub ratings and the average overall rank was just below the 90^th percentile.

We’ve pointed out in the past that some of the other efforts to pick top companies have not been as successful.  A simple contrast of the average rating for Corporate Knight’s picks with those of several other popular lists and indexes illustrates the difference. 

We found it interesting to dig down one more layer in the Global 100 scores and look at the averages for each of CSRHub’s twelve ratings subcategories.  As you can see below, the Global 100 companies are especially strong in three areas: Compensation & Benefits, Energy & Climate Change, and Transparency & Reporting.

These three areas have historically been the best understood and most watched aspects of sustainability.  However our field is developing and expanding to include many other areas of corporate social behavior.  It will be interesting to see if Corporate Knights assigns more weight to these other areas of sustainability behavior in the future.  If it does, we could see new players rise to the top of future Global 100 lists.

Search a company on CSRHub and see their sustainability performance.

Bahar Gidwani is CEO and Co-founder of CSRHub.  He has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA, worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. Bahar has consulted to a number of major companies and currently serves on the board of several software and Web companies. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York City.

CSRHub provides access to the world’s largest corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information.  It covers over 16,800 companies from 135 industries in 133 countries. By aggregating and normalizing the information from 500 data sources, CSRHub has created a broad, consistent rating system and a searchable database that links millions of rating elements back to their source. Managers, researchers and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices, and seek ways to improve corporate sustainability performance.

We have coined the phrase “Dark Data,” to describe information on corporate sustainability that exists, but cannot normally be seen and evaluated.  Dark Data is exchanged privately as part of supply chain, certification, and regulatory interactions.  As such, it forms an important part of how companies interact with their environment.

CSRHub already has 94 million pieces of corporate sustainability data-and its database is growing by several million pieces per month.  Our data set includes a large part (we estimate at least half) of the publicly available data on corporate social behavior for about 150,000 entities.  While this sounds good, we believe “dark data” sets may contain information on hundreds of thousands of companies that are not in “illuminated data” sets.

What are the types of dark sustainability data and 5 future trends?

By Bahar Gidwani

Overview

The Green Bond concept was developed in 2007/2008 by the World Bank and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB).  They created this fixed income product to respond to demand from investors who wanted to support projects that address climate change.  By 2010, almost $4 billion of green bonds were being issued by a variety of institutions such as the World Bank and the European Investment Bank.  Corporate borrowers began issuing Green Bonds in 2011, followed by municipalities and local governments.

https://www.climatebonds.net/market/history

The initial market for Green Bonds was with socially responsible investors (SRI), who seek to both earn a return and to generate a positive social impact.  The market’s growth has encouraged mainstream investors to participate—and has encouraged a wide array of corporate and governmental entities to initiate Green Bond-fundable projects.  With more than $36 billion of green bonds issued in 2014, they have become a distinct “asset class.”

Green Bond buyers may expect the entities who originate Green Bonds to have better social and sustainability behavior than entities who do not.  This study tests this assumption by examining the perceived social performance of a set of Thomson Reuters-tracked Green Bond issuers, using CSRHub data on perceived social responsibility performance.  We found data on the social performance for 83% of issuers on Thomson Reuters list.  Together they accounted for 99% of the $951 billion cumulative face value of the Green Bonds issued by the 90 distinct entities we reviewed for this study.

To see the full research report, download a complimentary copy here or below.

About the Author

Bahar Gidwani is CEO and Co-founder of CSRHub.  He has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA, worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. Bahar has consulted to a number of major companies and currently serves on the board of several software and Web companies. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. Bahar was recently interviewed on Brian Lehrer TV. He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York City.

About CSRHub

CSRHub provides access to the world’s largest corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information.  It covers over 15,000 companies from 135 industries in 132 countries. By aggregating and normalizing the information from 400 data sources, CSRHub has created a broad, consistent rating system and a searchable database that links millions of rating elements back to their source. Managers, researchers and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices, and seek ways to improve corporate sustainability performance.

By Jennifer Saunders and Bahar Gidwani

Many aspects of a company’s performance affect its brand value. Marketing spend, distribution strength, and product quality all have proven effects. This study indicates that a company’s perceived sustainability performance may be another important factor.

In 2013, CSRHub showed that its measures of perceived corporate sustainability performance had a 28% correlation with Brand Finance’s Brand Strength Indicator (BSI). CSRHub recently published an update that showed this correlation continues to persist for financial companies. This study extends our analysis to include three other independent brand ranking systems:

• RepTrak Pulse Score.  The Reputation Institute’s RepTrak model examines the relationship between the emotional connection, or “Pulse” score, a “measure of the degree of Admiration, Trust, Good Feeling and Overall Esteem that a company stakeholder holds.”
• Interbrand’s Best Global Brands list.  Interbrand provides an analysis and picture of how your brand is contributing to business results today. Interbrand publishes annually a “Best Global Brands” list of the 100 brands it considers most powerful.
• CoreBrand’s CBI.  Tenet Partners’ CoreBrand Analytics group  generates an annual Corporate Branding Index (CBI) that measures and quantifies the impact of investment in the corporate brand and how brands perform against peers both across and within industries.

We compared data from these sources with CSRHub ratings and brand strength data from our long time data source in the branding area, Brand Finance. CSRHub provides sustainability information on more than 14,000 companies in 127 countries. CSRHub’s ratings and metrics are drawn from more than 380 sustainability data sources.Our research found that the scores from all four leading brand ranking systems correlated with at least one of CSRHub’s sustainability measures. Further, we found consistent results across the four systems that may help brand managers better understand how to coordinate with and support their company’s sustainability programs. In particular, we found a positive correlation between brand and Compensation & Benefits and Environment Policy & Reporting strength. Success in these areas seems tied to better brand rankings.

To see the complete details and next steps, download the full report here.

About the Authors

Jennifer Saunders holds a degree in chemical engineering from Melbourne University, a postgraduate diploma in management from the Melbourne Business School, and certificates in sustainability reporting and stakeholder networks approaches to socio-political risk. She worked for design and manufacturing multinationals for 15 years. Her main focus was on engaging cross-functionally to collect and analyse design performance data, report on sustainability metrics, optimize processes and manage supply chain projects. She recently re-located from Australia to the Pacific Northwest where she has further fostered her career to focus on sustainability working with CSRHub.

Bahar Gidwani is CEO and Co-founder of CSRHub.  He has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA, worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. Bahar has consulted to a number of major companies and currently serves on the board of several software and Web companies. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. Bahar is a member of the SASB Advisory Board.  He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York City.

About CSRHub

CSRHub provides access to the world’s largest corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information.  It covers over 14,000 companies from 135 industries in 127 countries. By aggregating and normalizing the information from 380 data sources, CSRHub has created a broad, consistent rating system and a searchable database that links millions of rating elements back to their source. Managers, researchers and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices, and seek ways to improve corporate sustainability performance.

By Bahar Gidwani

CSRHub recently examined corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability rating data for the 18,991 companies in fourteen major stock exchanges.  Despite the fact that CSRHub includes 64 million pieces of data from more than 380 sources, there is enough data to rate only 17% of the companies on these exchanges.  For some exchanges, only 1% of their companies could be rated.  The NASDAQ had the highest percentage of rated companies, with data available on 57% of its companies.

The average perceived sustainability performance of the companies varied, across the fourteen exchanges.  Companies on exchanges that require sustainability reporting had higher average ratings than those that did not.  We expect sustainability reporting to increase dramatically over the next few years in all parts of the world, as both exchanges and exchange regulators mandate more disclosure of material non-financial information.  Even without mandated disclosure, we should be able soon to assess the sustainability performance of most public companies, just as we currently measure their credit score or brand value.

Relative Performance

CSRHub measures twelve different areas of sustainability performance across four main categories of interest: community, employee, environment and governance issues.  There is enough data to fully measure the performance of 2,427 of the companies we studied—13% of the total.  We used this data to give an overview of the performance of the companies by exchange, as compared to all 9,300 companies we track.

To see the full discussion including variations in coverage, the current and future international reporting requirements and future implications, download a full report here.

Bahar Gidwani  has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA, worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. Bahar has consulted to a number of major companies and currently serves on the board of several software and Web companies. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. Bahar is a member of the SASB Advisory Board. He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York City.

CSRHub provides access to corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information on 14,400+ companies from 135 industries in 127 countries. Managers, researchers and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices and seek ways to change the world.