National Grid Transco has come top of the second Corporate Responsibility Index, produced by Business in the Community.
The index, which attracted 14 per cent more entries this year – 139 in all compared with 122 last year – is dominated by FTSE 100 companies, which fill seven of the top ten slots.
One relatively small business – Veolia Water, which has 1200 staff – takes fourth place. The other non-FTSE 100 firms in the top ten are The Co-operative Bank and Waste Recycling Group (see box).
National Grid Transco, a gas infrastructure company, employs more than 27,000 people and has been a leading CSR company for several years.
The index ranks each business according to how well it has integrated responsible practice throughout the organization in four areas – environment, marketplace, workplace and community – and also on its social and environmental performance.
Last year companies were put into five overall divisions but given no specific rankings. Although rankings have been published this year, Bitc is still at pains to stress that those lower down the order deserve credit for taking part and committing to make improvements.
The average score for companies taking part this year rose from 68 per cent to 80 per cent, although the scoring system has been slightly amended. Food and drug retailing was the best performing sector, as last year.
Bitc says that of the 139 companies taking part, four out of five have a board director with explicit responsibility for human rights and just under two-thirds have a human rights policy. Most have published a code of conduct, but Bitc says many need to do more to train staff on its implementation.
Fifty-six of the FTSE 100 took part this year, which is three more than last year.
Although the current index is UK-focused, Bitc eventually hopes to make it a global benchmark. To that end, a version of the index is to be launched in Australia by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Ernst & Young, and St James Ethics Centre, a business ethics NGO, using Bitc expertise. The index will assess the performance of companies by using their answers to 111 questions on social, environmental and financial issues.
Australia’s top 100 companies and members of the Business Council of Australia have been invited to participate, with results to be published by the two newspapers in mid-2004 and confidential feedback provided individually to the companies. Ernst & Young will compile the ratings.
Simon Longstaff, executive director of St James Ethics Centre, said that because the index will be run on very similar lines to the one in the UK, it should allow Australian companies to benchmark their performance against UK companies.