Two North East companies have been ranked among the world's most sustainable in a new table produced by Time magazine and data firm Statista. Software giant Sage is the UK's highest ranked company, and one of only six in the top 100. And Newcastle housebuilder Bellway comes in at 442 of top 500 companies.
The table's authors used a four-step process to determine the placings: first ruling out non-sustainable businesses such as those dealing with fossil fuels or businesses implicated in environmental catastrophes. Researchers then looked at sustainability ratings including from environmental transparency organisation CDP, adherence to the voluntary UN Global Compact commitments, alignment with the Science Based Targets initiative surrounding emissions and inclusion in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook, among other criteria. Companies were assessed as to whether they had produced an externally assessed ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) report in 2022 and the final step included looking at performance across social and environmental issues from proportion of renewable energy used to gender pay gap and employee turnover rate.
An overall sustainability score out of 100 was calculated for qualifying companies with the top 500 making the World's Most Sustainable Companies 2024 list. Sage scored 73.92 while Bellway, which last year partnered with environmental conservation charity to bring more habitats to their sites, achieved 54.
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