ESG News Review 31 May – 6 June 2014

Ford was among the most praised companies last week, as it unveiled its Lightweight Concept vehicle, which uses advanced materials to explore weight-reduction solutions that could improve performance and fuel efficiency while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Johnson Controls supports the inclusion of energy efficiency and distributed energy systems in the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Air Act 111(d). 600 General Electric employees volunteered in the community across the Detroit area. Intact Financial Corporation and the University of Waterloo announced a national initiative in Canada involving the implementation of 20 climate change adaptation projects designed to reduce the physical, financial and social impacts of extreme weather events. SunPower and AE-AMD Renewable Energy have completed two solar projects in South Africa.

BNP Paribas again appeared among the most criticized companies last week, as U.S. authorities are seeking more than $10 billion from the French bank to settle federal and state investigations into dealings with countries such as Sudan, Iran and Cuba which are under U.S. sanctions, according to the Wall Street Journal. General Motors has fired 15 employees after an internal probe found a “pattern of incompetence and neglect” in the automaker’s handling of faulty ignition switch recalls. Google, Apple, Intel and Adobe Systems agreed to pay $ 324 million to settle antitrust suit claims that they conspired to not hire each other’s employees. Working mothers at Walmart staged a series of strikes in protest over wages and conditions at the world’s largest retailer.

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, Germany, China, Canada, India, UK, Switzerland, and Japan were the main countries of action.

Last week statistics

These figures show the activity in Covalence EthicalQuote database during the week of 31 May – 6 June 2014.

Historical statistics

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Positives	372434
Negatives	235697
Total	608131
Sources	39801
Start	01.01.2002
End	06.06.2014
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