Unilever was honoured in December as the first recipient of the Sir Mervyn Pedelty award, confirming the consumer products group’s standing as a corporate leader in sustainability. The award, in memory of the inspiring first chairman of the FTSE4Good Policy Committee, Sir Mervyn, recognises the major sustainability achievements constituent companies have made. Out of the approximately 2,400 companies assessed for the FTSE4Good ESG Ratings, eight sector leaders that achieved improvements over time were identified. In addition to Unilever, three companies were highly commended – Go-Ahead, Intel and Diageo.
The FTSE4Good indices are based on the performance of companies against globally recognised environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards. In 2011, ten years after the launch of the FTSE4Good indices, the ESG Ratings were unveiled. These ratings are a quantitative measurement system for ESG risks and performance and provide an objective and flexible service to integrate these considerations into investment and stewardship approaches.
To gauge how far companies and investors still have to go, we invited the award winners to a roundtable discussion with leading asset owners and managers. They debated how seriously businesses and investors are taking sustainability and what can be done to make this a more prominent issue in investor relations and investment decisions.
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