CSR ratings are ‘skewed’

Sustainability ratings generally favour companies most responsive to data information requests, rather than those that are necessarily the best performers, new research suggests.

Results from part two of the SustainAbility consultancy’s four-part Rate the Raters study show that more than 60 per cent of the 108 ratings identified depended wholly or in part on data submitted directly to the raters.    
 
SustainAbility concludes this means that ‘responsiveness trumps performance’ – or in other words, that ratings organizations ‘reward companies with the greatest capacity to respond to ratings requests rather than those with the best performance’.

The ongoing study also found that of the 108 ratings in the inventory, only 21 had existed in 2000, ‘which suggests that, of the ratings most prominent today, the vast majority have emerged within the last ten years’.

It says that ratings are being taken more seriously, ‘which means it’s more important than ever that we get ratings right’.