ESG News Review 11 — 17 January 2014

Alstom appeared among the most praised companies last week, as it announced it would cease engaging sales consultants to ensure it “conducts business in a responsible way and strives to achieve the highest ethical standards”. Alstom is also calling for a target of more than 30% of renewable energy sourced in Europe by 2030. Hewlett-Packard gathered several positive comments as it announced it wouldn’t cut jobs in France. In the USA HP is sponsoring the Western Governors University which celebrates 30,000 graduates, while it was mentioned among progressive companies making efforts to reduce the use of conflict minerals. Air Products has been named “2013 Corporate Citizen Role Model” and received the Green Chemical Award from China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF). McDonald’s announced its plan to purchase “verified” and “sustainable” beef by 2016, and aims at sourcing 100% sustainable beef in the future. FedEx launched its second small business grant contest, recalling last year’s winner statements: “The grant from FedEx has allowed me to hire more women in Nepal and India, which gives them the means to help support their families while providing me with great product to sell.”

On the negative side, BP was among the most criticized companies last week, as a US court rejected its appeal regarding “fictitious” claims related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Target may face Congress hearings after credit- and debit card data relating to 70 million customers have been stolen in December. Sanofi faced a national strike movement in France for wage-related claims. Google wasn’t able to block a U.K. privacy lawsuit over its tracking of web users on Apple’s Safari browser. Finally, the Burberry Group was named in a Greenpeace report that found hazardous chemicals in children’s clothing and footwear; other companies involved are American Apparel, C&A, Disney, GAP, H&M, Primark, Uniqlo, adidas, LiNing, Nike, and Puma.

The most praised companies last week were: Alstom, Hewlett-Packard Company, Air Products & Chemicals Inc., McDonald’s Corp., and FedEx Corporation.

And the most criticized were: BP plc, Target Corp., Sanofi S.A., Google Inc., and Burberry Group plc.

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

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.

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

Ratio of positive news / total news 0 % 100 %

In terms of volume of information USA, France, Spain, UK, China, Germany, Canada, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, and India.

Last week statistics

These figures show the activity in Covalence EthicalQuote database during the week of 11-17 January 2014.

Historical statistics

Positives	349480
Negatives	206519
Total	555999
Sources	37023
Start	01.01.2002
End	17.01.2014

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