American pharma companies lead Global Sustainability Index

Biogen beat fellow American pharmaceutical company Allergan to top spot in this year's Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World Index.

German sportswear company Adidas finished third, followed by Singa­porean real estate corporation Keppel Land and Finnish retailing conglomerate Kesko in fifth.

The Global 100 Index is a global ranking by Canada-based media and investment advisory company, Corporate Knights, of the top sustainability performers and has come to be recognised as the gold standard in corporate sustainability analysis.

The index is determined from public data using twelve quantitative sustainability indicators which include leadership diversity, employee compensation, tax paid, innovation capacity, and energy and water use, among others.

“The Global 100 represent the corporate trailblazers who are forging new ways to make more with less, while raising the bar on good governance and social responsibility,” said Toby Heaps, ceo of Corporate Knights.

One of this year’s most encouraging findings, according to Corporate Knights, is the rapid uptake among firms to pay their executives to deliver on sustainability targets. In 2015, 85% of the Global 100 firms provided a monetary bonus to executives who achieved sustainability targets. For instance, Philips Electronics and Schneider Electric link their executives’ bonuses to achieving carbon emissions reductions.

While American firms earned the most positions on this year’s Global 100 Index, Corporate Knights note that France made substantial strides claiming 12 companies (up from eight in 2014), in part due to more substantive corporate reporting requirements that arise out of France’s Grenelle II Act. It is also notable that the small island state of Singapore, known for its high natural resource productivity, placed four companies on this year’s list.

For full rankings click here.