NASDAQ Adds Sustainability Index

The NASDAQ has joined the trend of tracking companies by their sustainability efforts. The NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index tracks companies on the "leading edge of self-reporting sustainability activities," said NASDAQ OMX Executive Vice President John Jacobs.

According to a press release, the index tracks a company's efforts to:

• produce a publicly available corporate sustainability/responsibility report;
• disclose compatible sustainability data according to (GRI) G2/G3 guidelines;
• report at least 20 percent of total core environmental performance indicators;
• report at least 20 percent of the total core social performance indicators; and
• report at least 70 percent of the total financial performance indicators.

The index is a partnership between NASDAQ OMX and CRD Analytics.

Earlier this year, the Standard & Poor's launched the S&P U.S. Carbon Efficient Index, which measures the performance of large cap U.S. companies with relatively low carbon emissions, while closely tracking the return of the S&P 500. The index is part of the S&P’s global thematic index series, which covers green themes including water, forestry, ecology and carbon efficiency.