On the International Day for Biological Diversity, Vigeo Eiris publishes the list of its 18 Top Performing companies on the criteria “Commitment to prevent risks of endangering biodiversity”
Vigeo Eiris rates 1,257 entities on their commitment to integrate protection of Biodiversity into their sustainability risk management and their corporate social responsibility strategy and operation. The overall score appears quite limited (30.8/100) with a clear difference in term of countries, sector and size of the rated organisations.
The player that gets the highest average score is ‘Local authorities’ (sector mainly composed of European cities and regions – with 60.8/100 on scale of 0 to 100). The second most publicly committed to protection of Biodiversity appears to be the ‘Forest Products & Paper’ (55.2/100). The rationale of such overperformance comes from the strong scrutiny and allegation of civil society against the firms of this sector.
Even if it is also exposed to high pressures and expectations from its stakeholders, the ‘Mining & Metals’ sector stands overall at limited level of commitment, getting a score of 38.5/ 100. The three weakest sectors in terms of mitigation of biodiversity risks are ‘Oil Equipment & Services’ (17.3/100), Industrial Goods & Services’ (20/100) and ‘Heavy construction’ (23.5/100).
Concerning regional distribution, European companies get on average the highest score, although limited (37.6/100), followed by Emerging countries (30.2/100), North America (27.9/100) and Asia Pacific (25.9/100).
Among the 1257 entities rated, 43.5 per cent do not publish any commitment to biodiversity protection. On the other hand, 16.4 per cent disclose highly pertinent policies. In terms of measures set up to implement such policies, 62.7 per cent of companies have no measure disclosed at all or have carried out measures considered as non-efficient. On the other hand, 14.5 per cent have implemented highly efficient measures.
Fouad Benseddik, Head of Methods, declares: “Protection of biodiversity is a crucial component of business fiduciary duty, requested by several authoritative international norms and recommendations: it’s the business interest to commit and account on this important risk driver”
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