RIL, Tata Motors among top 10 sustainable firms: survey

New Delhi: Corporate giants like RIL,Vedanta, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, and Wipro are among the top 10 companies which have emerged as India’s most sustainable firms, according to a survey.  However, out of 100 companies profiled belonging to 20 sectors, only 18 companies responded to the Information Request (IR), while two companies partially responded. The remaining firms either did not respond to the IR or declined to participate. “When companies in a sector do not share information in the process, they make a dent on overall sector performance. Transportation, other financial services and media had the lowest overall scores. That also reflects the lack of transparency in those sector,” CII stated. Ten companies got Sustainable Plus Platinum, seven got Sustainable Plus Gold, and the remaining 83 companies got Sustainable Plus Bronze. Sustainable Plus Platinum companies are the ones that emerged as India’s most sustainable. According to the poll, governance continues to be the strongest dimension of sustainability as compared to environment and social. “The impact of requirements of corporate governance, and transparency and disclosures in the Companies Act 2013 have definitely helped companies do better on governance. “Companies have adequate disclosures on board structure and committees, whistle blower mechanism for key stakeholders, and risk management framework for addressing business, financial as well as sustainability risks. They also have employee code of conduct to ensure ethical operations and policy for conflict of interest management,” the survey said. However, it observed gaps in reporting on aspects such as rotation of auditors, identification of sustainability risks and opportunities, and measuring the effectiveness of code of conduct and risk management framework. The 20 sectors include textiles, apparels and accessories, transport, media, diversified, pharmaceuticals, consumer durables, other financials, banks, utilities, oil and gas; capital goods, automobiles, construction materials, household & personal products, chemical & petrochemicals, food, beverages & tobacco, metals and mining, software and services, telecom services and general industrials. CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development (CESD) undertakes Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) analysis of top 100 companies across 20 sectors and provides Sustainable Plus label. First the 20 largest (by market capitalisation) sectors are identified and then top five companies in each sector make it to the list of 100 companies for Sustainable Plus. After the initial public scan, each company receives a customized information request to fill gaps. The overall performance of the company improves in relation to the quality of disclosures. Once the analysis is completed, companies are given Sustainable Plus labels as well as a summary report. CESD conducts the process by informing each company that they are being analysed for Sustainable Plus. Inclusion of companies in the list is by their market capitalisation and not by their consent to be analysed. PTI   (Disclaimer: Firstpost is part of Network18, owned by Reliance Industries Limited.)