The world’s 100 most sustainable companies pay an average of 27 per cent more in taxes, have three times as many top female executives, and generate six times more clean revenue than their global peers.
Analysis of Corporate Knights’ 2018 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations draws a direct line between the most sustainable companies and their longevity. The average age of the 2018 Global 100 companies is 85 years, while the average multinational has been around for less than 40 years.
There is also a link between value for society and superior financial performance, with the Global 100 Index outperforming the MSCI All Country World Index by nearly a third since its inception in 2005.
The Global 100 Index is drawn from a pool of 5994 publicly listed companies and assesses them on 17 environmental, social and governance indicators.
The top-ranked entity this year was Dassault Systèmes, the French multinational software company whose digital technologies assist companies and governments in reducing waste, adopting renewables and creating smarter cities. Dassault moved up from 11th place in last year’s list due to strong female representation on its board (six of 11 directors), a relatively low ratio of chief executive-to-average worker pay ratio (30 to 1) and a strong financial contribution to society (it paid taxes equal to 26.5 per cent of EBITDA over the last five years). The company also draws a quarter of its revenue from products and services that preserve the environment.
To put part of this in perspective, JUST Capital in the US reports for Forbes that, among the 728 members of the Russell 1000 for which it has compensation data, the average chief executive’s pay is 204 times what the average worker makes.
The criteria Corporate Knights uses to assess the companies are: energy productivity; carbon productivity; water productivity; waste productivity; research and development revenue; cash/taxes paid ratio; chief executive/average worker pay ratio; pension fund status; injury rate; number of fatalities; employee turnover; women on board; women executives; link between executive compensation and ESG; clean revenue; and clean air productivity.
The 14th– annual Global 100 was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Here’s the list:
2018 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World
- 1 Dassault Systèmes
- 2 Neste
- 3 Valeo
- 4 Ucb
- 5 Outotec
- 6 Amundi
- 7 Cisco Systems
- 8 Autodesk
- 9 Siemens
- 10 Samsung SDI
- 11 Aareal Bank
- 12 Enbridge
- 13 Merck
- 14 Natura Cosméticos
- 15 Pearson
- 16 Amadeus IT Group
- 17 Bayerische Motoren Werke
- 18 Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais
- 19 Koninklijke Philips
- 20 Allergan
- 21 Honda Motor
- 22 Sanofi
- 23 McCormick
- 24 Commonwealth Bank of Australia
- 25 Vivendi
- 26 Intel
- 27 Itron
- 28 Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
- 29 Halma
- 30 Deutsche Börse
- 31 Kesko
- 32 Télévision Française 1
- 33 BioMérieux
- 34 AstraZeneca
- 35 Nokia
- 36 BNP Paribas
- 37 Eli Lilly
- 38 Storebrand
- 39 ABB
- 40 Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget
- 41 Intesa Sanpaolo
- 42 Analog Devices
- 43 Applied Materials
- 44 Takeda Pharmaceutical
- 45 Schneider Electric
- 46 Shinhan Financial Group
- 47 Kering
- 48 Ingersoll-Rand
- 49 Banco do Brasil
- 50 Nestlé
- 51 Legrand
- 52 Engie Brasil Energia
- 53 GlaxoSmithKline
- 54 ING Groep
- 55 Sekisui Chemical
- 56 Acciona
- 57 H & M Hennes & Mauritz
- 58 Aberdeen Asset Management
- 59 NVIDIA
- 60 Daimler
- 61 Diageo
- 62 BT Group
- 63 Singapore Telecommunications
- 64 Novartis
- 65 Sandvik
- 66 Chr. Hansen
- 67 Coca-Cola European Partners
- 68 Nissan Motor
- 69 Texas Instruments
- 70 Ørsted
- 71 Allianz
- 72 Lenovo Group
- 73 Telus
- 74 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
- 75 MetLife
- 76 Banco Santander Brasil
- 77 HP
- 78 Sun Life Financial
- 79 Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- 80 National Australia Bank
- 81 General Electric
- 82 Verbund
- 83 AkzoNobel
- 84 L’Oréal
- 85 AXA
- 86 Nordea Bank
- 87 Orkla
- 88 Wärtsilä
- 89 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
- 90 Renault
- 91 Syngenta
- 92 Johnson & Johnson
- 93 Posco
- 94 Suez
- 95 Umicore
- 96 Vestas Wind Systems
- 97 SSE
- 98 CapitaLand
- 99 Derwent London
- 100 City Developments
