Oct. 12, 2020 8:55 am ET
The following has been excerpted:
By Fabiana Negrin Ochoa, Dieter Holger, Maitane Sardon and Catherine Lindsay
The Wall Street Journal’s ranking of the 100 most sustainably managed companies was produced by the Journal’s environment, social and governance research analysts, who assessed more than 5,500 publicly traded businesses based on sustainability metrics in such areas as business model and innovation, external social and product issues, employee and workplace issues, and the environment.
The ranking’s methodology takes a broad view of sustainability, one which assesses a company’s leadership and governance practices for their ability to create value for shareholders over the long term.
The Journal research team’s assessments followed the framework of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, or SASB, which determines financial materiality of data points for each industry based on categories that are considered reasonably likely to affect the operating performance of a company. Those material categories were given greater weight in calculating the aggregate score that determined a company’s rank.
Each company was scored by combining up to 165 company-reported data items with an analysis of media coverage by more than 8,800 sources available via Factiva, a database information service owned by Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. Artificial-intelligence systems supporting the ranking were co-developed with data-service, advisory and technology provider Arabesque S-Ray, which also supplied the company data used for the scores.
For all of the companies, transparency was key. Scores reflect the amount of publicly available information about each company’s policies, initiatives and performance metrics—all of which can be important indicators of a company’s long-term financial performance and the effects it could have on the planet and people.
Making sustainability issues a core part of business practices is a defining characteristic of the WSJ ranking. Around the world for the past decade, many corporations have built out sustainability-related programs, often in response to pressure from customers, employees, regulators and investors. Climate change and inequality are among the biggest concerns, according to interviews with more than two dozen officials at the top 100.
Globally, trillions of dollars have flowed into investment funds and portfolios that reward and punish companies based on how they manage ESG issues.
Investors view sustainability as a company’s ability to generate strong business results while navigating the environmental and social challenges its industry faces today and in the future, from supply-chain disruptions and increased frequency of extreme weather events to growing competition to attract and retain diverse talent.
The World’s Most Sustainably Managed Companies
| Rank | Name | Industry | Country | Overall Score | Human Capital Rank | Social Capital Rank | Environment Rank | Business Model & Innovation Rank |
| 89 | Steelcase | Building Products & Finishes | USA | 71.3 | 99 | 37 | 64 | 31 |