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ESG News Review 4 — 10 January 2014

The Automobile industry ranked first in our 2013 review (see this exclusive for GreenBiz). The trend seems to continue in 2014. Toyota was among the most praised companies last week, as it announced that it plans to start selling electric vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells by 2015. Ford presented the C-MAX Solar Energi Concept, a first-of-its-kind sun-powered vehicle which harnesses the power of the sun by using a special concentrator that acts like a magnifying glass. Also in the news was MyEnergi Lifestyle, a Ford collaboration with Eaton, Infineon, SunPower and Whirlpool showing how homeowners can save money on appliances and fuel through energy-efficient living. Three Honda manufacturing plants have earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ENERGY STAR certification. In the Food & Beverages sector, which also did very well last year, the Kellogg Company highlighted its commitment to the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP), a U.N. Women and U.N. Global Compact collaboration that offers guidance for empowering women in the workplace, marketplace and community.

On the negative side, the ethical reputation of banks continued to suffer last week as it did in 2013. JPMorgan Chase should soon pay $2 billion in criminal and civil settlements to the U.S. government, who suspects that it ignored signs of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Deutsche Bank has been criticized by German banking watchdog BaFin for the way it responded to a probe into manipulation of the Libor benchmark interest rate. JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, together with Citigroup Inc, UBS AG,  Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Barclays Plc, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, are facing a new investigation in the U.S. by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over alleged “significant misrepresentations” regarding mortgage bond trades from 2009 to 2011. Finally, Novartis is being sued by the Japan’s health ministry for exaggerated advertising to boost the sales of its blood pressure drug Diovan. In the USA, Novartis is facing a lawsuit alleging it paid kickbacks to a New York-based pharmacy company to boost sales of the company’s iron-reduction drug, Exjade.

The most praised companies last week were: Toyota Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co., Kellogg Company, Honda Motor Co. Ltd., and SunPower Corporation

And the most criticized were: JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG, Citigroup Inc., UBS AG, and Novartis AG.

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

ESG News Review 4 — 10 January 2014

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 4 — 10 January 2014

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 4 — 10 January 2014

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

In terms of volume of information USA, Spain, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Singapore, Australia, China, and New Zealand.

Last week statistics

Positives 437 Companies 182 Countries 50
Negatives 548 Mostly praised 100 Sources 120
Total 985 Mostly criticized 76
Positives / Total 44%

These figures show the activity in Covalence EthicalQuote database during the week of 4-10 January 2014.

Historical statistics

ESG News Review 4 — 10 January 2014
Positives 348805
Negatives 205572
Total 554377
Sources 36895
Start 01.01.2002
End 10.01.2014

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