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ESG News Review 23-29 November 2013

Mediaset was among the most criticized companies last week, as its founder Silvio Berlusconi was expelled from the Italian Senate after he was found guilty for masterminding a complex and illegal system to lower the taxes for his media group. UBS had its Paris headquarters raided by French authorities in tax evasion probe. EADS announced that it will be reducing its workforce by 20%, which equals the loss of 8000 jobs. Wal-Mart will replace its CEO due to evidence that the company paid bribes to the Mexican authorities in order to speed up building processes, and that the company’s executives were aware of that since 2005. Finally RWE announced that thousands of jobs will be cut, transferred overseas, and/or transferred to other companies.

Mazda was among the most praised last week because they are working on a new and highly fuel efficient motor technology, called Skyactiv, which they plan to release by 2018. Vodafone has selected the recipients of the 11th annual Vodafone New Zealand Foundation World of Difference Awards, while its foundation in Germany is awarding the German Teacher Prize for innovative teaching. The Linde Group, another top performing company this week, endeavors to use liquified natural gas instead of heavy oil or marine diesel for large ships in order to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. To support this ecological goal they are building a gas station in the flower sand harbor, which will open in 2015. 3M won the German Sustainability Award last week for their commitment to reducing its carbon footprint throughout all levels of its chain of production. Ferrovial is involved in building six new plants focused on ecological waste management in Canada, which will also create 300 more jobs, and it is partnering with the Red Cross in Spain.

The most praised companies last week were: Mazda Motor Corp., Vodafone Group plc, The Linde Group, 3M Co., and Ferrovial S.A.

And the most criticized were: Mediaset SpA, UBS AG, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS N.V., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and RWE AG.

The tag cloud below shows words found in news about these companies.

tagcloud131202

Words found in news about most praised and most criticized companies last week

This weekly review has been produced using the EthicalQuote reputation index run by Covalence, which tracks 2800 companies worldwide. It gives a summary of positive and negative news published last week about Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), ethics and sustainability.

The EthicalQuote reputation index integrates thousands of news pieces gathered online and classified according to 50 ESG criteria inspired by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and to their positive or negative sentiment.

The next heatmap represents the sentiment calculated for each of the 50 criteria last week. The 50 criteria are embedded into 7 dimensions, following the structure of the GRI. The color indicates the ratio of positive news / total news.

ESG News Review 23-29 November 2013

Ratio of positive news / total news for 50 criteria last week 0 % countryofactionBAR130610_70 100 %

The map below represents countries where action described in the news takes place, the color reflecting the ratio of positive news / total news for each active country using last week’s data.

ESG News Review 23-29 November 2013

Ratio of positive news / total news 0 % countryofactionBAR130610_70 100 %

In terms of volume of information USA, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, UK, Mexico, Austria, Philippines, and China.

Last week statistics

Positives 356 Companies 197 Countries 64
Negatives 838 Mostly praised 69 Sources 180
Total 1194 Mostly criticized 124
Positives / Total 30%

These figures show the activity in Covalence EthicalQuote database during the week of 23-29 November 2013.

Historical statistics

HistoryChartRatio_131125
Positives 347849
Negatives 203585
Total 551434
Sources 36765
Start 01.01.2002
End 29.11.2013

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