ESG News Review 2-8 November 2013

Iberdrola was among the most praised companies last week as it presented the first results of its SIGMA program aiming at reducing CO2 emissions during electricity generation. This Spanish company has also been named in other news covering its initiatives in favor of biodiversity, education and environmental awareness. Toyota said it reduced 29% of CO2 emissions from the cars it sells in Europe, and announced new awards of more than $1.3 million to 70 conservation projects in the USA. Wells Fargo donated a total of $89 million to community nonprofits in 2013. Fiat was praised by the European Environment Agency as its cars registered the lowest average emissions in 2012. Fiat also topped a recent ranking by Association Transport et Environnement (Switzerland) covering the environmental performance of vans and minibuses. Whirlpool Corporation was awarded Multi-Attribute Product Certifications by UL Environment.

On the negative side, Shell was among the most criticized companies last week after Amnesty International described its analysis of oil spills in Nigeria as “subjective, misleading and downright false.” Shell indicates that spills are mainly caused by theft and sabotage, while NGOs say Shell is first to blame. Alongside BP and Statoil, Shell is also being targeted by a U.S. lawsuit for alleged collusion to fix oil prices. Actor Danny Glover has joined campaigners who claim Chevron is responsible for pollution of the Ecuadorian rainforest. Deutsche Bank had its co-CEO named as a suspect in a dispute over the collapse of the Kirch media empire. HSBC has pulled out of the discussions to settle a European Union antitrust probe into rigging of Euribor lending rates.

The most praised companies last week were: Iberdrola SA, Toyota Motor Corp., Wells Fargo & Company, Fiat S.p.A., and Whirlpool Corporation.

And the most criticized were: Royal Dutch Shell plc, Chevron Corp., Deutsche Bank AG, BP plc, and HSBC Holdings plc.

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

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, Spain, UK, France, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa, India, and Canada.

Last week statistics

These figures show the activity in Covalence EthicalQuote database during the week of 2-8 November 2013.

Historical statistics

Positives	345993
Negatives	201022
Total	547015
Sources	36398
Start	01.01.2002
End	11.11.2013

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