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ESG News Review 22 — 28 March 2014

Suez Environnement was among the most praised companies last week, as it announced it will build an incinerator near Shanghai to treat hazardous and medical waste that will generate steam and supply energy. SAP AG announced it will power all its data centers and facilities globally with 100% renewable electricity starting in 2014. Neste Oil published an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report on its project to modernize its power plant at the Porvoo refinery (Finland), highlighting how it will comply with future emission and energy efficiency requirements. General Mills said it will source 100% of its palm oil from responsible and sustainable sources by 2015.  Thomson Reuters said it is proposing changes to its foreign exchange trading rules and implementing controls that should minimise the scope for market manipulation and abuse; also, the financial information company has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute as one of the 2014 World’s Most Ethical Companies.

Apple and Google appeared among the most criticized companies last week, as they have been named in a U.S. antitrust lawsuit for allegedly agreeing to not recruit each other’s staff — while Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer said she refused to participate in this agreement; Google is also accused by UFC-Que Choisir, a French consumer rights group, of breaching privacy laws – Facebook and Twitter face the same accusation. Deutsche Lufthansa’s pilots have voted in favor of a strike in a dispute over pay and retirement benefits, while employees of Fraport (Frankfurt airport) went on strike for higher pays, which led to delays and numerous flight cancellations. UBS has suspended four of its traders in the wake of a global investigation into collusion and manipulation by big dealers in the foreign exchange market, Bloomberg News reported.

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

ESG News Review 22 — 28 March 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 22 — 28 March 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 22 — 28 March 2014

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

In terms of volume of information USA,France, UK, Germany, Canada, China, Japan, South Africa, and India.

Last week statistics

Positives 1619 Companies 422 Countries 74
Negatives 1723 Mostly praised 252 Sources 568
Total 3342 Mostly criticized 154
Positives / Total 48%

These figures show the activity in Covalence EthicalQuote database during the week of 22-28 March 2014.

Historical statistics

ESG News Review 22 — 28 March 2014
Positives 362186
Negatives 221956
Total 584142
Sources 38432
Start 01.01.2002
End 28.03.2014

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