The 100 most sustainable companies in America according to Barron's
Environment — di Lorenzo Brenna
Finance magazine Barron's has published its ranking of the hundred most socially and environmentally sustainable US companies.
The 100 most sustainable companies in America according to Barron's
Finance magazine Barron's has published its ranking of the hundred most socially and environmentally sustainable US companies.
Barron's, the historic weekly that analyses the US financial landscape, has published for the first time a ranking of the hundred most sustainable companies in the United States. The initiative is perfectly in keeping with the magazine's editorial line, which has always sought to inform its readers on topics of interest to investors, and sustainability and corporate social responsibility are undoubtedly among these.
A hunger for sustainability
If in Italy almost thirty million people are actively interested in sustainability, in the United States too respect for the environment and workers' rights is taking on growing importance, and companies are moving in this direction.
How the ranking came about
To compile the ranking, Barron's, in collaboration with Calvert research and management, a leading company in the responsible investment sector, analysed the thousand largest publicly traded companies, measured by market capitalisation, headquartered in the United States. Each company was assessed by examining its performance — using data provided by Astitutional Shareholder Services, Sustainalytics and Thomson Reuters Asset4 — across five stakeholder categories: shareholders, employees, customers, planet and community. Among the parameters taken into consideration are pollutant gas emissions, the protection of human rights throughout the entire supply chain, corporate ethics and product safety.
Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable Companies barrons.com/articles/barro… via @BarronsOnline
A weighted ranking
Analysts at Calvert research and management ultimately assigned each company a score from zero to one hundred, weighing the score according to the companies' sector and their specific impact. For example, the "planet" category was deemed more relevant for chip manufacturers, which use large quantities of water in production, than for banks.
The 10 most sustainable companies
The top of the ranking is dominated by companies operating in the information technology and high-tech sectors. At the top of Barron's ranking we find Cisco systems, the multinational specialising in networking and IT — Cisco has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 41 per cent since 2007 and has achieved its goal of sourcing 80 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy. In second place is Salesforce.com, the Californian cloud computing company, while the third step of the podium is occupied by Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics retailer in the United States. Following in descending order are software developer Intuit, IT multinational Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments Incorporated, specialising in the manufacture of electronic devices, the well-known IT company Microsoft, OshKosh, a manufacturer of industrial vehicles, cleaning products company Clorox and Xylem, a leading company in the development of innovative solutions for water resource management.
More must be done
It cannot go unnoticed that the top-ranked company has a weighted score of just 80; it is therefore clear that there is considerable room for improvement. The ranking is also set to change as companies provide data on their sustainability and undertake new initiatives to reduce their environmental impact, because, as Dion Weisler, CEO of HP, has pointed out, "sustainability is not only the right thing to do, it's good business".