This week, the results of the RobecoSAM’s annual Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) were announced.  Along with it, we see the flurry of press releases coming from companies announcing their results — their inclusion in the various DJSI family of indexes or being recognized with the various other highly coveted recognitions  (such as the Gold Class, or Sector Leader recognitions, among others).
This year the three largest additions to the DJSI World index are:

1. Bank of America Corp
2. Telfonica SA
3. BHP Billiton Ltd

The three largest deletions, or companies dropped from the DJSI World Index are:

1. Cisco Systems Inc
2. PepsiCo Inc
3. Royal Bank of Canada

This morning on the RobecoSAM 2015 Results Webinar, we learned that the participation of companies in the CSA has been increasing dramatically year over year, with this year being no exception showing an increase of 4%.
This year was also the first year that companies which had a Media & Stakeholder Analysts (MSA) case against them in the RepRisk ESG risk monitoring tool received a report which details the way the case was considered in the scoring, and allows for a more comprehensive understanding of how negative public media attention can affect the CSA scoring by Robeco.
Companies that participated also received their benchmark scorecards last week, which gives a comprehensive view of how they performed on various dimensions of the CSA, and compares their results to their peers and the entire group of participating companies.
At G&A, several of the clients we assisted with the CSA increased their scores dramatically, and meetings are underway to discuss their benchmark scorecards.  Now we begin the process towards identifying their gaps, deciding on strategies to fill them, and ultimately become a more sustainable enterprise.  In addition, our clients are increasingly focused on working with us and their IR teams to engage with investors — the goal being to cultivate long term, patient, stable, and sustainable investors in their shareholder base.
If you’d like to know more about how G&A can assist your organization with the RobecoSAM CSA, and strategically engage with the growing number of investors integrating ESG, please contact Louis Coppola at lcoppola@ga-institute.com to explore this opportunity.
Congrats to all the winners, and good luck to all the participants for next year!

To view the full results, see the MarketWatch article below:
Results Announced for 2015 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices Review
(Thursday – September 10, 2015)
Source: MarketWatch – S&P Dow Jones Indices, one of the world’s leading providers of financial market indices, and RobecoSAM, the investment specialist focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing, today announced the results of the annual Dow…