Erratum: 2009 Consumer Food, Food Production, and Beverage Sectors Analysis

An errata sheet is issued for the 2009 Consumer Food, Food Production, and Beverage Sectors Analysis report.  

The lowest overal scores companies are: Constellation Brands, Pilgrims Pride, and Land O Lakes.

NEW REPORTS GRADE SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING OF 48 U.S. ENERGY AND UTILITIES COMPANIES

Roberts Environmental Center gives top marks to Mirant and Pinnacle West Capital

To view the complete reports, visit: http://www.roberts.cmc.edu/PSI/SectorReports.asp. 

Claremont, Calif., May 18, 2009—The Roberts Environmental Center of Claremont McKenna College (CMC) today released a detailed analysis of the social responsibility reporting efforts of America’s top energy and utilities corporations. The two reports contain a compilation of Pacific Sustainability Index scores evaluating the environmental and social reporting of the 48 US energy and utilities companies on the 2008 Fortune 1000 list.

 The reports score companies based on the reporting, intent, and performance of environmental and social sustainability efforts. The research, based entirely on material released on the firms’ Web sites, found that two of the smallest firms—Mirant (energy sector) and Pinnacle West Capital (utilities sector)—did the best jobs of describing details of their socially beneficial actions and environmental management. The lowest scores were also shared by small firms—Adams Resources and Energy, Inc., and Atmos Energy Corp.—but there was a good mix of firms of all sizes throughout the range of scoring. In neither sector is size a predictor of good reporting.

 “In most sectors we analyze, particularly when large multinationals are included, we do see an effect of firm size on corporate reporting,” said J. Emil Morhardt, Roberts Professor of Environmental Biology at CMC and director of the Roberts Environmental Center. “The larger firms have greater visibility, are likely to be examined by investors and the public more closely, and they have more resources to do the data collection and reporting in the first place.” But, as Morhardt pointed out, “There are always some smaller companies that are proactive in this area, usually those that believe demonstrations of corporate environmental and social responsibility are expected from their customers.”

 To create the report’s ranking, Morhardt and his team evaluated each company’s Web site using the Pacific Sustainability Index including sector-specific questions. The index uses a general systematic questionnaire to analyze the quality of sustainability reporting. The selection of questions was based on the most frequently-mentioned topics in almost 1,800 corporate sustainability documents analyzed from 2002 through 2008 by the Roberts Environmental Center. The company’s grades in this report were assigned on a grading curve, giving an A+ to the highest scoring companies and those with scores near it.

 “In the current business climate, a demonstration of corporate social responsibility is more important than ever,” continued Morhardt. “What we are analyzing is the quality of that demonstration—how transparent the companies are with respect to their environmental and social issues, and how good a job they are doing resolving any problems they currently have and avoiding future ones.”

 The detailed analyses also reveal what social and environmental themes these companies perceive to be most important to the American public today. The research screened Web site content to determine the most frequently reported topics. Companies with environmental achievements tended to tout their accountability and energy efficiency efforts while socially responsible businesses highlighted their superior policies and care for human rights.

Scoring Summary

Energy Sector                                     Utilities Sector

Highest Overall Scores

Mirant                                                  Pinnacle West Capital

                        Constellation Energy                           Wisconsin Energy

                        American Electric Power                     Duke Energy

 Highest Environmental Reporting Scores

Mirant                                                  Pinnacle West Capital

Constellation Energy                           Wisconsin Energy

                        American Electric Power                     Pepco Holdings, Inc.

 Highest Social Reporting Scores

Mirant                                                  Pinnacle West Capital

Constellation Energy                           Duke Energy

Integrys Energy Corp.                         Wisconsin Energy

Lowest Overall Scores

Adams Resources and Energy            Atmos Energy Corp.

Ferrellgas Partners                             Ameren

New Jersey Resources                       AES Corp.

Guest Post: working on sustainability in the corporate world

Greetings, my name is Wilson Korol and I am a proud graduate of CMC (class of ’02).  I now work in the Corporate Citizenship (or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), or Sustainability, there are a lot of terms that apply) world for Nortel Networks, and as a result have come across, and been quite impressed, with the work done by the Roberts Environmental Center.  They have been kind enough to offer this forum to let me share a bit about my experience on the job and how the time at CMC helped prepare me for said job.

It is kind of ironic that I have ended up working in the CSR field (incidentally, my current title is Global CSR Analyst), as I did not avail myself of the course offers on the topic while in Claremont.  Honestly, I did not know this was an area where companies directed resources. I would have been interested had I known, but corporate sustainability was not an issue that gained much of my attention in the spring of 2002.  The reality is that even just 7 years ago the amount of resources devoted to these issues was minuscule compared to the current level, which has seen significant growth during that time.  For more consideration of the CSR field from the corporate side, check out our blog, greenroots: http://community.nortel.com/go/blogs/greenroots.

There are a handful of skills that I use every day that directly carry over from CMC

One thing about most CSR work in the corporate setting is that our departments/groups are quite small and lean, so people have to be quite flexible.  This relates back to the educational experience at CMC, where almost all of my professors focused on creativity.  Asking and probing students to solve problems without mandating what that solution entails is education at its finest.

The second aspect is the CMC emphasis on the interdisciplinary approach the world, which is particularly important in the CSR world, since there are so many issues that need to be considered and addressed for a robust corporate program and approach. For example, I believe a corporate CSR program in the tech industry should address products, climate chance, green it, e-waste, telecommuting, migrating business to the digital realm, employee engagement, community relations, stakeholder engagement, human rights, communication supply chain management. And that is just off the top of my head.  With so many topics, it is essential to make it all work together.

Lastly, I would be remiss to not briefly highlight communication skills, which are absolutely critical.  With the ever emerging modes of communication, being able to get your ideas and perspectives across remains absolutely critical, be it a telepresence high def conference call, in person presentations or via social media.

Hope everyone enjoys their summer. Congrats to the new grads from CMC and beyond, this is an exciting (and in this economy, probably a bit scary) time in their life.

Wilson Korol  

http://community.nortel.com/go/blogs/greenroots

NEW REPORTS GRADE SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING OF 120 LARGE COMPANIES IN FIVE SECTORS

Roberts Environmental Center analyzes the World’s largest companies in the motor vehicles & parts, forest & paper products, industrial & farm equipment; consumer food, food production & beverages; and telecommunications, network & peripherals sectors

To view the complete reports, visit: http://www.roberts.cmc.edu/PSI/SectorReports.asp.

Claremont, Calif., May 19, 2009—The Roberts Environmental Center of Claremont McKenna College (CMC) today released a detailed analysis of the social responsibility reporting efforts of many of the World’s top corporations. The five reports contain compilations of Pacific Sustainability Index scores evaluating the environmental and social reporting of the largest companies on the 2008 Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 1000 lists.

The reports score companies based on the reporting, intent, and performance of environmental and social sustainability efforts. The research, based entirely on material released on the firms’ Web sites, gives grades of A+ to Johnson Controls, Toyota, General Motors, and Daimler AG in the motor vehicles and parts sector; Stora Enso in the forest and paper products sector; ABB in the industrial and farm equipment sector; Coca Cola in the consumer food, food production, and beverages sectors; and France Télécom and Vodafone in the telecommunications, network, and peripherals sector.

“In this round of reporting, more companies than ever before are in the top quarter of the overall range of scores” said J. Emil Morhardt, Roberts Professor of Environmental Biology at CMC and director of the Roberts Environmental Center. “Clearly, sustainability reporting is continuing to be adopted, at least in these large corporations.” But, as Morhardt pointed out, “Although there is a general size effect in the quality of reporting in most sectors in this sample there are smaller companies that do a very good job.”

To create the report’s ranking, Morhardt and his team evaluated each company’s Web site using the Pacific Sustainability Index including sector-specific questions. The index uses a general systematic questionnaire to analyze the quality of sustainability reporting. The selection of questions was based on the most frequently-mentioned topics in almost 1,800 corporate sustainability documents analyzed from 2002 through 2008 by the Roberts Environmental Center. The company’s grades in this report were assigned on a grading curve, giving an A+ to the highest scoring companies and those with scores near it.

“In the current business climate, a demonstration of corporate social responsibility is more important than ever,” continued Morhardt. “What we are analyzing is the quality of that demonstration—how transparent the companies are with respect to their environmental and social issues, and how good a job they are doing resolving any problems they currently have and avoiding future ones.”

The detailed analyses also reveal what social and environmental themes these companies perceive to be most important to the American public today. The research screened Web site content to determine the most frequently reported topics. Companies with environmental achievements tended to tout their accountability and energy efficiency efforts while socially responsible businesses highlighted their superior policies and care for human rights.

Scoring Summary

Industrial Sector	Highest Overall Scores	Highest Environmental Reporting Scores	Highest Social Reporting Scores	Lowest Overall Scores
Consumer Food, Food Production, and Beverages Sector	Coca-cola PepsiCo Inbev	Coca-cola Groupe Danone Inbev	PepsiCo H.J. Heinz Company Coca-cola	Constellation Brands Pilgrims Pride Land O Lakes
Forest and Paper Products	Stora Enso International Paper Weyerhaeuser	Weyerhaeuser NewPage Corp. Stora Enso	Stora Enso International Paper Weyerhaeuser	Universal Forest Products Plum Creek Timber Potlatch
Industrial and Farm Equipment	ABB Cummins Black and Decker	Cummins ABB Komatsu, Ltd.	ABB Black and Decker ITT Corp.	Teleflex Inc. Nacco Industries Komatsu Ltd.
Motor Vehicle and Parts	Toyota Motor Johnson Controls General Motor Daimler AG	Volkswagen Johnson Controls Daimler AG	General Motor Ford Motor Toyota Motor	China FAW Shanghai Automotive Koc Holding
Telecommunications	France Télécom Vodafone Telecom Italia	France Télécom Telecom Italia Nippon Telegraph and Telephone	Vodafone Telefónica Telecom Italia	Softbank Carso Global Telecom KDDI

Thesis Day @ CMC

The First Claremont's Earth Day Celebration

Mark your calendar for Claremont's first community-wide Earth Day celebration on Sunday, April 26, 2009, from 12 to 5 p.m. in the Village.

Activities will include:
- Speakers and presentations on the environment, alternative transportation and sustainability
- Tips on how to "Green" your home or business and save money
- Music and entertainment
- Fun and educational activities for kids
- A bicycle "rodeo" and safety training
- Educational workshops and displays
- Exhibits by "Green" organizations

Additional lectures and workshops will be held throughout the community during Earth Week (April 19-26).

Event co-sponsors include the City of Claremont, Claremont Toyota, Pitzer College, Pomona Valley Medical Health Center, Claremont Smile Design, Hartman Baldwin, Le Pain Quotidien, Pomona College, Coates Cyclery, Friends of the Bernard Field Station, Maria J. Andrade, Mountain View Republican Club and Suntrek Solar.
Organized by Sustainable Claremont, the Claremont Interfaith Committee on Sustainability and the Claremont Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee.
For more information, call Chris Veirs, Senior planner/Sustainability Coordinator at (909) 399-5486.

View Claremont Earth Day Celebration Flier (Adobe Acrobat, 937KB)

Copy pasted from: http://www.ci.claremont.ca.us/

Power Shift 2009 Conference

1) Joe, Anna, Adam and Mark demonstrating in front of the Capital building. 

2) A group picture in front of an outdoor sculpture. 

3) A group picture in front of the Washington Monument.

12,000 people attended the Power Shift 2009 Conference http://www.powershift09.org/, the purpose of the conference is "for rebuilding our economy and reclaiming our future through bold climate and clean energy policy"  so that will would bring that knowledge back to our campuses.

Pictures and captions provided by: Ashley Scott, CMC '11