ESG News Review 15 — 21 March 2014

First Solar was among the most praised companies last week as it signed a power purchase agreement with Shams Ma’an Power Generation for a planned 52.5 megawatt solar power plant in Jordan. PepsiCo said it is rolling out a new land policy “with zero tolerance for illegal activities in our supply chain and for land displacements of any legitimate land tenure holders”; this land policy was developed with NGO Oxfam which urges F&B companies to improve ethical standards among suppliers in poor countries. Mott Community College (USA) will get a $55.8-million software in-kind grant from Siemens to help train students to work in a variety of manufacturing jobs. Volkswagen is joining the Clean Shipping Network, an association of cargo owners, and will use the Clean Shipping Index (CSI) assessment tool to analyze and reduce the environmental impact of marine shipment. Bombardier will provide 240 locomotives to Transnet in South Africa; all locomotives will be constructed locally, which will generate investments and create jobs in line with the Black Economic Empowerment program.

Kering was among the most criticized companies last week, as 3 trade unions, CGT, CFDT and Sud, were still rejecting the social plan proposed by the management regarding its La Redoute affiliate, which is in the process of being sold. Toyota has reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to settle a four-year criminal investigation into its disclosure of safety problems including faulty brakes; Toyota is also facing a wage dispute in India where it temporarily closed two plants after some workers had stopped production to protest a delay in salary hikes after 10 months of negotiations. General Motors announced its second massive recall in two months as it faces several investigations by U.S. authorities for being too slow to react to ignition defect affecting some of its models from 2001 on. Barclays drew criticism as the Independent revealed the bank plans to reduce the pay of its contract staff by 10%, after it has increased its top bankers’ bonuses by 10%. A U.S federal grand jury convened as part of a criminal investigation triggered by the Duke Energy coal ash spill that coated the Dan River with toxic sludge.

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, UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, India, China, South Africa,and Brazil.

Last week statistics

These figures show the activity in Covalence EthicalQuote database during the week of 15-21 March 2014.

Historical statistics

Positives	360567
Negatives	220233
Total	580800
Sources	38202
Start	01.01.2002
End	21.03.2014

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