50 UK firms named in top Sustainability Yearbook

Fifty UK based firms have been included in the RobecoSAM’s 2015 Sustainability Yearbook, which acts as “compass” for responsible investors.

Seven of the businesses - Reckitt Benckiser, CNH Industrial, Anglo American, United Utilities, AMEC, British American Tobacco and Royal Mail – were awarded ‘gold class’ medals which is the highest figure in Europe.

457 companies were named in the Yearbook with 69 awarded gold status.

The Sustainability Yearbook assesses the sustainability performance of companies across a range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and includes the top 15 per cent per industry, ranking them gold, silver or bronze.

RobecoSAM has been analysing the sustainability performance of the largest listed firms annually since 1999.

Daniel Wild, member of the RobeccoSAM executive committee, said: “RobecoSAM’s annual corporate sustainability assessment (CSA) focuses on examining financially material factors that impact a company’s core business value drivers. Factors such as a company’s tax strategy, ability to innovate, attract and retain talent or increase resource efficiency matter from an investor’s point of view because they impact a company’s competitive position and long-term financial performance. New aspects arise each day; this is why we constantly develop the CSA further.”

The Yearbook names the U.S as the region with the best corporate governance performance but Europe has the highest participation rate.

It also found that companies improved how they address sustainability issues by 0.4 per cent on last year’s results, suggesting it is moving up the agenda.

Michael Baldinger, CEO of RobecoSAM, said: “The Sustainability Yearbook is a compass for investors looking for companies across all industries with a competitive edge – based on corporate sustainability criteria. This year’s edition of the Yearbook is the culmination of two decades’ worth of rigorous investment research, focus and dedication.”