Covalence tracks the ethical reputation of multinationals by sourcing information from the media, civil society, and companies. Covalence SA was founded in Geneva (Switzerland, 2001) as a limited company by six people with various backgrounds: political science, finance, NGOs, and law[1].

The purpose of Covalence is to increase the density of information about sustainable development. For this we have developed EthicalQuote, a system measuring the ethical reputation of multinational companies. Inspired by stock quotes, EthicalQuote measures the historical evolution of multinational enterprises’ ethical performance as it is perceived and communicated in society. Thousands of documents from various sources are gathered on the Internet and through an open network of correspondents among civil society organizations, enterprises, researchers, consultants and other stakeholders. The data is coded, quantified and synthesized into curves and volumes.

This ethical quotation system allows stakeholders to raise companies awareness by transmitting information within the public and financial markets: interested parties can communicate using the online form, thus feeding the database and influencing the “ethical quote” of companies. EthicalQuote is a base for offering news, rankings, research and management tools tracking the reputation of multinationals globally. Covalence has clients and readers among multinationals, investors, SMEs, governments, international organisations, NGOs and throughout the media.

In 2010 Covalence ethical quotation system includes > 150′000 information items from more than 10′000 sources, covering a universe of 581 companies within 18 sectors. This material has been collected and interpreted by 400 intern analysts coming from more than 30 countries in partnership with 40 universities.

Covalence has been named in Ethisphere 2009’s 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics, finalist of the Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2005 award in Switzerland, and laureate of the Cantonal Sustainable Development Prize (Geneva) in 2004.

Covalence research is distributed directly as well as on Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg, and Capital IQ.

The creation of Covalence in 2001 in Geneva has been supported by the Graduate Institute of Development Studies and NGOs ADAP (Association pour le Développement des Aires Protégées), AGSI (Association Geste Solidaire Immédiat), and GRAD (Groupe de Réalisation et d’Animation pour le développement).

Covalence IT partner is DataDoxa.

> For more information, see Covalence History.

[1] Founding members of Covalence in 2001: Ngenda Kigaraba, Antoine Mach, Marc Rochat, Jean-Félix Savary, Steven Street. In 2003 Mélanie Clerc and Matthias Brunner joined the company as well as, in 2005, Vincent Ossipow (financial advisor) and Beth Krasna (company advisor)