From: SocialFunds.com - November 24, 2008
Annual measure of corporate accountability finds telecoms developing effective CSR vision, while oil & gas sector suffers due to operational performance. If the web sites of most of the world's major corporations are to be taken at face value, global warming will soon be a thing of the past, corporate stakeholders find the doors of executive offices always open to them, and sustainability and transparency are as important to the corporate value system as profitability.
One annual study has made a practice of rating corporate performance in areas of interest to sustainability investors by analyzing information mostly found on corporate web sites. The Accountability Rating 2008 is compiled by CSRNetwork a consultancy firm, and AccountAbility a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable development. The Accountability Rating, described on the web site as "a tool for measuring the extent to which companies have built responsible practices into the way they do business and their impact on the economies, societies and environments in which they operate," is applied to the 100 largest companies in the Fortune Global 500, which is comprised of the 500 largest corporations in the world.
Four domains of analysis are employed in the rating's current iteration. Governance and management, in which management systems, standard procedures, incentives and performance targets relating to extra-financial issues are measured; strategic intent; and engagement, in which dialogue with stakeholders, publication of social and environmental performance, and credibility are measured, are the three domains returned from previous ratings. A fourth domain, operational performance, was added this year.
Operational performance, the domain that was added this year, measures whether companies report important metrics in a variety of social and environmental impact areas, and if that and other areas of their performance improve from year to year. In a departure from the ranking's reliance on corporate web sites for the majority of its information, the domain surveys media reports on companies to determine if any controversies in the past twelve months might adversely affect performance.
As the global economy continues to decline, CSRNetwork and Accountability expect that those companies that have more proactively identified risks will tend to weather the downturn more effectively. In addition, some of the most pressing social and environmental challenges may well lead to profitable solutions for companies that identify them.
Read Full Article: World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
