New Company Rankings for Sustainability Reporting
Roberts Environmental Center Claremont McKenna College (A member of the Claremont Colleges) 925 N. Mills Avenue Claremont, California 91711-5916 Phone: 909-621-8190 Fax: 909-607-1185 www.roberts.cmc.edu Contacts: J. Emil Morhardt, Director (emorhardt@cmc.edu, 909-621-8190), Elgeritte Adidjaja, Research Fellow (eadidjaja@cmc.edu, 909-621-8698) To unsubscribe click here, or send a blank email to unsubrec@jsd.claremont.edu with REMOVE on the subject line. We apologize for resending this, but some of the links on the first transmission were broken. Claremont, CA (12 December 2007)-The Roberts Environmental Center analyzes the environmental and social reporting of the world's largest companies and publishes the results of up to 30 companies at a time in industrial sector reports. They rank the companies for overall quality of reporting and assign letter grades. Prior to final publication the companies are given an opportunity to point out any omissions or misunderstandings on the part of the Center's analysts, and to post additional material to their web sites for re-analysis prior to assigning the final letter grades. Many companies take advantage of this opportunity. The following are the summaries of the recently published reports: 2007 Petroleum Refining Sector, 2007 Mining and Crude-Oil Production Sector, 2007 Airline Sector, 2007 General Merchandisers Sector, and 2007 Homebuilders Sector. 2007 Petroleum Refining Sector REPSOL YPF AND CONOCOPHILLIPS BEST IN PETROLEUM REFINING SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING Total (US), Idemitsu Kosan (Japan), and Chevron (US) round out the A list Claremont, CA (4 December 2007)- Of the 30 companies in the petroleum refining sector whose environmental and sustainability reporting was analyzed by the Roberts Environmental Center in 2007, the relatively small Spanish firm Repsol YPF had the highest Pacific Sustainability Index (PSI) scores followed closely by the midsized American firm ConocoPhillips. Tied just below them in quality were midsize Total (US) and relatively small Idemitsu Kosan (Japan). The American midsize firm Chevron completes the A list. The two largest firms in the sector, Shell and Exxon Mobil, have scores that are just average for the sector. All materials were scored using the Center's Pacific Sustainability Index which also provides grades for six subcategories of reporting. The highest grade of A+ for the environmental categories went to Repsol YPF and Shell (Netherlands) for expressed environmental intent, Repsol YPF and Idemitsu Kosan for environmental reporting, and Repsol YPF for environmental performance. For the social categories, A+ went to Total for expressed social intent, to Chevron and Repsol YPF for social reporting, and to ConocoPhillips and OMV Group (Austria) for social performance. Repsol YPF's 128 page Corporate Responsibility Report is one of the best we have seen. In addition to presenting a full range of environmental and social data coupled with a clear narrative, it is beautifully designed and very easy to read. We recommend it highly as an exemplar of good sustainability reporting. These findings were initially based on the information available on the web sites of the largest 30 companies in the petroleum refining sector of the 2006 Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 1000 lists as of May 25, 2007. More than half of the firms in this sector responded to our offer to review our initial analysis, and many put additional information on their web sites and increased their scores. Repsol YPF's score, however, is based on its published 2005 Corporate Responsibility Report alone. 2007 Mining and Crude-Oil Production Sector ENCANA AND ANGLO AMERICAN GET GRADES OF A+ AND A IN MINING, CRUDE-OIL PRODUCTION SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING Occidental Petroleum, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton the three firms in the B category Claremont, CA (14 December 2007)-In the Roberts Environmental Center's 2007 analysis of the environmental and sustainability reporting of all 26 companies in the mining and crude-oil production sectors on the 2006 Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 1000 lists, the highest score, based on the Center's Pacific Sustainability Index (PSI), was achieved by mid-sized EnCana (Canada), with slightly larger Anglo American (U.K.) close behind. Occidental Petroleum (U.S.) and Rio Tinto Group (U.K.) shared grades of B+, and much larger BHP Billiton (Australia) received a B. The largest firm in the group, RAG (Germany) received only a C, and more than half the companies, mostly smaller U.S. firms, received Ds. All materials were scored using the Center's Pacific Sustainability Index which also provides grades for six subcategories of reporting. On the environmental side A+ went to Rio Tinto and Anglo American for expressed environmental intent, to Occidental Petroleum for environmental reporting, and to EnCana for environmental performance. In the social categories, A+ went to RAG for expressed social intent (somewhat mitigating their overall grade of C...they were clearly focused on social issues), to Rio Tinto for social reporting, and to Rio Tinto and EnCana for social performance. These findings were initially based on the information available on the web sites of all the companies as of June 2007. All firms were allowed to post additional information to their web sites to increase their scores after reviewing the first draft. 2007 Airline Sector BRITISH AIRWAYS AND LUFTHANSA BEST IN AIRLINES SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING Air France and Japan Airlines round out the A list, followed by Southwest Airlines (US) Claremont, CA (6 December 2007)- The Roberts Environmental Center has analyzed the environmental and sustainability reporting of all 16 airlines on the 2006 Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 1000 lists. The highest score, based on the Center's Pacific Sustainability Index (PSI) was achieved by mid-sized British Airways (U.K.), with Lufthansa Group (Germany), half again as big, sharing an A+ grade. Air France-KLM, Japan Airways, both about the size of Lufthansa, received grades of A. The highest scoring U.S. airline was Southwest Airlines, only a third the size of Lufthansa. Except for AirTran, the smallest of the U.S. airlines with a grade of B-, all the rest of the U.S. airlines performed at or below the size-adjusted average. All materials were scored using the Center's Pacific Sustainability Index which also provides grades for six subcategories of reporting. On the environmental side A+ went to Lufthansa for expressed environmental intent, to British Airways for environmental reporting, and to Continental Airlines for environmental performance. In the social categories, A+ went to Lufthansa for expressed social intent and social performance, and to British Airways for social reporting. This particular sector report is analyzed in more depth than our usual product because it includes the senior thesis of one of our student analysts as an appendix. These findings were initially based on the information available on the web sites of all the companies as of May 2007. All firms were allowed to post additional information to their web sites to increase their scores after reviewing the first draft, and six of them did. 2007 General Merchandisers Sector ARCANDOR AG AND TARGET BEST IN GENERAL MERCHANDISERS SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING Wal-Mart (US), despite its much greater size, gets only a B+ Claremont, CA (14 December 2007)- Of the 19 companies in the general merchandisers sector whose environmental and social reporting were analyzed by the Roberts Environmental Center in 2007, the relatively small German firm Arcandor AG had the highest Pacific Sustainability Index (PSI) score (A+) followed closely with an A by the midsized American firm, Target. The next-ranked Wal-Mart, six times as large as Target, which itself is more than twice as large as any of the other firms in the sector, was the only firm receiving a B+. All materials were scored using the Center's Pacific Sustainability Index which also provides grades for six subcategories of reporting. The highest grade of A+ for all three environmental categories of expressed environmental intent, environmental reporting, and environmental performance went to Arcandor AG, shared in the latter case with PPR. For the social categories, A+ went to PPR for expressed social intent, and to Target for both social reporting and social performance. These findings were initially based on the information available on the web sites of all the companies in the general merchandisers sector of the 2006 Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 1000 lists as of June, 2007. All firms were allowed to post additional information to their web sites to increase their scores after reviewing the first draft,, but although we had a robust conversation with several, none did. 2007 Homebuilders Sector CENTEX CORPORATION BY FAR THE BEST IN HOMEBUILDERS SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING Other firms, however, including KB Home, Standard Pacific, WCI Communities, and William Lyon Homes get grades of A+ in subsets of the PSI scoring system Claremont, CA (14 December 2007)-Of the 15 companies in the homebuilders sector of the Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 1000 lists, all are based in the U. S. Their environmental and social reporting were analyzed by the Roberts Environmental Center in 2007, and one of the largest of the group, Centex Corporation, was head and shoulders above the others in its overall scores. All materials were scored using the Center's Pacific Sustainability Index which also provides grades for six subcategories of reporting, and Centex was at the top of only three of these. The highest grade of A+ for expressed environmental intent was WCI Communities. KB Home recieved an A+ in environmental reporting, but none of the firms received any score for reported environmental performance (the first industry we have analyzed for which this is the case). William Lyon Homes, Standard Pacific, KB Home, and Centex tied with A+ for expressions of social intent, but only Centex got A+ for social reporting and social performance These findings were initially based on the information available on the web sites of all the companies in the general merchandisers sector of the 2006 Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 1000 lists as of May, 2007. All firms were allowed to post additional information to their web sites to increase their scores after reviewing the first draft. About the Roberts Environmental Center The Roberts Environmental Center, a research institute at Claremont McKenna College, is the leading analyst of corporate environmental and sustainability reporting, with free online analysis of more than 800 corporate reports. Students from all five of the Claremont Colleges study and work in the Roberts Center and this research is a joint effort among the center's faculty, research associates, and students. All analyses are available online at http://www.roberts.cmc.edu/ with more added weekly. Claremont McKenna College is currently ranked as the 10th best liberal arts college in the United States by U. S. News and World Report. Previous sector reports are available at http://www.roberts.cmc.edu/PSI/SectorReports.asp .