CSR: The Latest in Company Ratings

Shell Falls in Sustainability Ratings...

Royal Dutch Shell no longer features in the GLOBAL 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World. Shell was one of the pioneers of CSR reporting, publishing their first report as early as 1991, of course back then it wasn't quite called 'CSR'. Since then however, their sustainability ranking has considerably fallen. They were once thought to be pioneers of ensuring environmental standards were met and for an oil company, this was a new concept.

Working in one of the most environmentally damaging businesses, Shell talked about community upliftment, health & safety, environment impact etc long before anyone else was. This year however, after several years of being included in the top 100 albeit with falling ratings, Shell has completely disappeared. Many CSR experts have criticized the company for resting on past laurels and not updating their policies with the changing times.

Other issues that added to Shell's woes were the Nigerian oil-leaks, Argentine spill and Canadian oil-sands all of which happened well after Brent-Spar. Indeed it can be said that the explosion was the precursor to Shell's rudimentary CSR. However its lack of investment in green energy technologies, transparency and disregard for health & safety as well environmental standards have all added to make Shell less sustainable in its operations.

... But there is slightly better news in the GreenBiz Annual Report

The fourth annual GreenBiz edition of State of Green Business report highlights the many positive impacts of the emerging green economy. The report aims to measure "the progress of U.S. business and the economy from an environmental perspective, and highlights key trends in corporate culture in regard to the environment."

According to GreenBiz, companies are beginning to take a long-term approach to sustainability. Even during economically challenging times, companies invested in sustainability and CSR initiatives. Although, corporate reporting is one area where U.S.-based firms are trailing behind European and Asian companies the report notes that sustainability initiatives are on the upswing.

However the authors note, "that even in those areas where corporations are leading the charge on innovation and efficiency, there is a notable lack of political and consumer will to drive change to the next level." The biggest worry is perhaps the amount of emissions generated by the energy used per dollar of GDP. Although the report says that there is a steady year-over-year decline, "the rate of improvement in reducing emissions is nowhere near what is needed to avert the worst impacts of climate change."

In spite of this, the report has found that several companies are taking the lead in increasing CSR spend on improving energy efficiency. Procter & Gamble made the commitment to power all of their factories with renewable energy within the next ten years. Fedex aims to improve vehicular fuel efficiency by 20% by 2020. Wal-mart pledged to sell $1 billion of fresh produce sourced from 1000 small farmers thereby reducing transportation needs.

Overall there are many positive trends according to the report but it is in consensus with the general opinion that environmental improvements are not happening fast enough across the board.