Kering, Inditex, L’Oréal among the top 100 world leaders in sustainability

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Jan 22, 2019

Canadian media and market research firm Corporate Knights publishes an annual ranking of the world's most sustainable corporations, highlighting the top 100 among the 7,500 groups it analyses. The calculations behind the ranking are complex, and the report provides a host of information on the ethical and environmental performance of the world’s corporate giants.

Among the top 100 world leaders in sustainability for 2019 are Kering (2nd), Natura Cosmeticos (15th), Inditex (54th), Unilever (65th), Adidas (84th), Kao (92nd) and L’Oréal (98th). Corporate Knights surveys corporations with sales of at least $1 billion, and takes into account 21 different elements, whose impact on the final score varies depending on the industry the groups operate in. The survey covers multiple industries: besides apparel, luxury goods and cosmetics, it also focuses on sectors like pharmaceuticals, arms, banking and digital technology.

The range of elements assessed is vast, going from carbon emissions and the volume of water used to wage equity and diversity within the corporations. This wealth of detail is the ranking’s genuine asset: for example, Corporate Knights gives data on employee turnover (20.9% at Kering), the share of women among senior executives (33.3% at L’Oréal), the share of ‘clean revenue’ generated (34% at Adidas), and even the wage ratio between CEO and average employee (391/1 at Inditex). This, besides the mere Top 100 ranking, is the report’s true strength.