Every year RobecoSAM rigorously assesses the sustainability performance of more than 2,000 companies across 58 sectors. Based on an in-depth analysis, each company is scored on up to 120 financially material economic, environmental, social and governance criteria specific to its own industry with a focus on long-term value creation.
The results are published in The Sustainability Yearbook as a guide to investors worldwide on which companies are doing the most to address the risks and opportunities of sustainability.
And the gold medals go to… Gold medals are awarded to the top-performing company within each sector and to those companies whose scores are within 1% of their sector leader’s score.
A total of 67 companies have been awarded gold medals in The Sustainability Yearbook 2013, which corresponds to just 2.5% of all companies assessed.
The country with the highest number of gold medal winners was the USA, with nine companies shining: Molson Coors Brewing Co (Beverages sector), Alcoa Inc (Aluminium), Sonoco Products Co (Containers & Packaging), Herman Miller Inc (Furnishing), UnitedHealth Group (Healthcare Providers), Baxter International Inc (Medical Products) and Waste Management Inc (Waste & Disposal Services). All these companies are leaders in their respective sectors. PepsiCo (Beverages) and MeadWestvaco Corp (Containers & Packaging) also scored highly enough to be awarded gold medals.
Germany and South Korea each account for six gold medal winners. German gold medalists are Siemens (Diversified Industrials), SAP (Software), BMW (Automobiles), Henkel (Non-durable Household Products), Adidas (Clothing, Accessories & Footware) and TUI (Travel & Tourism). Each one of them is a leader in its respective sector.
In South Korea, GS Engineering & Construction Co (Heavy Construction), Amorepacific Corp (Personal Products), SK Telecom (Mobile Telecommunications), KT Corp (Fixed Line Communications) and Lotte Shopping (General Retailers) set the standard as industry leaders. In addition, Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co is awarded a gold medal, which in total puts South Korea in second equal place internationally.
Australia, Taiwan and Canada also feature on the list of top 10 gold medal-winning countries
proving that Europe is no longer the exclusive bastion of corporate sustainability and that
sector-leading sustainability performance can now be found all over the world.
Michael Baldinger, CEO, RobecoSAM, said: “Since we launched our first Sustainability
Yearbook 10 years ago, it has become the reference book on corporate sustainability. Over the
last decade, sustainability has become an essential item on corporate agendas and companies
have made such great strides that today it is much harder for them to stand out against their
peers and make into the Yearbook. We congratulate them on their success and are convinced
that this competition benefits all stakeholders and shareholders.”
Yvo de Boer, Special Global Advisor on Climate Change & Sustainability, KPMG
International, said: “Business is entering a period of unprecedented opportunity and risk due to a potent cocktail of megaforces including climate change, population growth, water scarcity, urbanization and ecological decline. Investors should consider the companies awarded gold medals in The Sustainability Yearbook 2013 as among the best prepared within their own sectors to manage these challenges and make themselves fit for the future.”
Other highlights of the jubilee edition of The Sustainability Yearbook 2013
* Unilever (Sector leader: Food Producers) is the only company that has achieved sector
leader status every single year since The Sustainability Yearbook was first published in
2004
* The number of North American companies that have participated in the RobecoSAM
Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) has almost doubled since 2004 from 111 to
a total of 194 companies in 2012
* Among the five largest sectors, Banks and Real Estate have had the biggest improvement
in average scores since 2004 (+14% for Banks and +8% for Real Estate)
* The five companies that have most improved their scores since 2012 are: Samsung Life
Insurance Co (Insurance), Baker Hughes Inc (Oil Equipment & Services), Liberty Global
Inc (Media), Infosys Ltd (Computer Services & Internet) and Microsoft Corp (Software)