For for the first time, TIME has partnered with Statista to identify the world’s most sustainable companies for 2024, with the aim of highlighting corporate responsibility and promoting sustainable practices. In an era marked by significant environmental challenges and social inequalities, it is crucial to recognize and reward companies that prioritize sustainability. By presenting these leading entities, the ranking establishes a reference for other businesses, promoting transparency and accountability and encouraging the integration of sustainability into main corporate strategies.
Methodology
The ranking process began with a comprehensive selection of more than 5,000 of the world’s largest and most influential companies, considering factors such as revenue, market capitalization and public prominence. The process involved a rigorous 4-step methodology to identify the top 500 companies, evaluated based on more than 20 key data points.
- Exclusion of Unsustainable Businesses: The first step excluded companies involved in non-sustainable industries such as fossil fuels or deforestation. In addition, companies that appeared on negative lists related to sustainability issues, such as those identified as major in carbon or associated with environmental catastrophes, were automatically disqualified. This step also considered significant sustainability-related scandals or controversies.
- Commitment and ratings: The second stage involved evaluating companies based on external sustainability ratings and commitments from reputable organizations. Key criteria included CDP ratings, membership in the UN Global Compact, alignment with the Science Based Targets initiative, inclusion in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook, participation in the UNFCCC Race to Zero, and MSCI ESG & SRI ratings.
- Reporting and Transparency: The third stage assessed the availability and quality of sustainability reports. This included checking whether companies have published an ESG report for 2022, ensuring these reports have undergone external verification, and assessing compliance with international reporting standards such as GRI, SASB and TCFD.
- Environmental and Social Management: The final step involved researching several environmental and social Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from companies’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports. Environmental metrics included emissions intensity, emission reduction rates, energy intensity and proportion of renewable energy used. Social metrics covered aspects such as gender diversity in the board and leadership, gender pay gap, job security and employee turnover rate.
An overall sustainability score was calculated, with a maximum achievable score of 100. The 500 companies with the highest scores were awarded the title of World’s Most Sustainable Companies 2024. These companies are spread across more than 30 countries, with the U.S. , Japan , and the United Kingdom host the highest numbers.
See the full list here.
About Statista
Statist R is the world leader in creating rankings and top lists of companies, brands and products, based on comprehensive market research and data analysis: Statista R recognizes the best. With a team of more than 100 expert analysts and in cooperation with more than 40 high-profile media brands across all continents, Statista R creates transparency for consumers and business decision-makers and helps companies build trust and recognition in a infinity of sectors and product categories. Statista R is a division of Statista. The leading data and business intelligence portal provides an extensive collection of statistics, reports and insights on more than 80,000 topics from 22,500 sources across 170 industries.
About GRI
GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) is an independent international organization that helps companies and other organizations take responsibility for their impacts by providing them with a common global language to communicate those impacts. The GRI Secretariat is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and has a network of seven regional offices to support organizations and stakeholders around the world. GRI provided the data for the assessment.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
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