Every day this week we're looking at different aspects of environmental and sustainability management and counting down the top stories that grabbed your attention this year. Today we're looking at two subjects: environmental reporting/finance (below) and energy management.
Here are Environmental Leader’s top 15 environmental reporting and finance stories for 2012, based on reader interest:
15. Study: Symbolic, not Substantive, CSR Action Has Greater Positive Financial Impact
An academic study suggests that symbolic environmental, social and governance actions have a greater positive impact on a company’s market value than substantive actions. The study also concluded that a larger gap between symbolic and substantive actions has a higher positive impact on firm performance; and the more companies engage in both symbolic and substantive actions, the higher the value accumulates to the company...
14. Carbon Disclosure Raises Stock Prices, Study Finds
Companies that voluntarily issue press releases disclosing their carbon emission information see their stock prices rise significantly in the following days, according to a University of California study...
13. Companies’ Sustainability Improves – But Reputations Worsen
AXA, Coca-Cola, Deustche Bank, EADS, General Electric and L’Oreal – companies that last year were not getting enough credit for their actual environmental, social and governance performance – have now earned reputations that match their relatively high sustainability achievements, according to a report by Brandlogic and CRD Analytics. The study found corporations face growing skepticism among professional investors, supply chain officials and recent higher education graduates...
12. Unilever, BT, 13 Others Top Corporate Responsibility Index
KPMG, Unilever, EDF Energy, BT Group, Heineken UK, Marks & Spencer, PwC, J Sainsbury and seven other companies earned the Platinum Plus rating for corporate responsibility, retaining their status from last year, in rankings from U.K. non-profit Business in the Community. Platinum rankings, for scores of 95 percent and up, were earned by 42 companies including the BBC, Hallmark, National Grid, Heathrow Airport Limited, Tesco, and Jaguar Land Rover...
11. UN Documents Propose Mandatory Sustainability Reporting
Two influential documents – the Rio+20 negotiating text and the recommendations of the U.N. secretary general’s High Level Panel on Global Sustainability – both proposed tighter sustainability reporting requirements for businesses...
10. Nearly 50% of CFOs Say Sustainability is Key Driver of Financial Performance
Nearly one half of CFOs see sustainability as a key driver of financial performance and two-thirds are involved in driving strategies in their organizations, according to a global Deloitte survey of 250 CFOs, representing companies with greater than $1 billion in annual revenue...
9. Company Performance Linked to CSR, Deutsche Bank Finds
Companies with high ratings for corporate social responsibility and environmental, social and governance factors have a lower cost of capital and are a lower risk to investors, according to a report by Deutsche Bank’s climate change investment research group. The researchers reviewed 100 academic studies of sustainable investing, as well as 56 research papers, two literature reviews and four meta-studies...
8. Best Practices in Communicating about Sustainability
Laura M. Thompson, director of sustainable development at Sappi Fine Paper North America, offers clarity on how companies can proactively communicate their environmental efforts to key stakeholders including customers, employees and communities...
7. Consumers Demand Sustainability Results, Survey Says
Cone Communications found that 84 percent of Americans hold companies accountable for producing and communicating the results of CSR commitments by going beyond the mission to robustly communicate progress against well-defined purpose. Some 40 percent go as far as to say that they will not purchase a company’s products or services if CSR results are not communicated...
6. Nike, Walmart, Levi’s Launch Sustainable Apparel Index
Walmart, Nike, Target, JC Penney, Levi’s and fellow members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition unveiled the group’s index for measuring the environmental impact of apparel products across the supply chain. The Higg Index is an indicator-based tool for apparel that allows clothing manufacturers and brands to evaluate material types, products, facilities and processes based on a range of environmental and product design choices...
5. Carbon Disclosure Project Reveals Global Top 10; Apple and Amazon Don’t Respond
Bayer and Nestle — both with perfect 100 disclosure scores and A performance ratings — topped the Carbon Disclosure Project’s list of the world’s best companies in terms of climate change disclosure and performance. The 2012 CDP Global 500 Climate Change report, co-written by PricewaterhouseCoopers, found 81 percent of reporting companies have identified physical risks from climate change, compared to 71 percent in 2011, with 37 percent perceiving these risks as a “real and present danger,” up from 30 percent in 2011 and 10 percent in 2010...
4. Tesco Quits Carbon Labeling
Tesco, the U.K.’s biggest retailer, decided to stop using the Carbon Trust's carbon labeling program a few years after promising to label all 70,000 of its products. The retailer said the program is too expensive and time-consuming, with the research for each product taking several months, at least...
3. 100 Best Corporate Citizens Revealed
Bristol-Myers Squibb was ranked no. 1 on the list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens 2012 from CR Magazine, followed by IBM, Microsoft, Intel and Johnson Controls. Campbell Soup and Mattel, the other top five companies in 2011, moved down to eighth and twelfth overall, according the ranking...
2. PwC Report: How Companies Can Put a Dollar Value on Sustainability
Companies can measure the value of sustainability and how their environmental efforts directly contribute to profits, using two evaluation methods described in a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Putting a dollar value on intangible benefits, especially those over a long period of time, is where companies struggle, the consultancy said...
1. Adidas, General Mills Drop Off ‘Most Ethical’ List; Kellogg’s, Hasbro, Alcoa Join
Starbucks, Patagonia and General Electric were among the 23 companies named for six years running to Ethisphere’s Most Ethical Companies list, while Adidas and General Mills were among the major brands dropping off the list. Swedish electronics manufacturer Electrolux joined the list this year, as did Intel, Hasbro, Kimberly-Clark, L’Oreal, Honeywell, Time Warner, Alcoa, Tata Steel, Marks & Spencer, CostCo, PetCo and Kellogg’s...
