February 24th, 2009

From Green Right Now reports

An analysis of social responsibility reporting by New York’s top corporations found that several of the largest firms–IBM, Time Warner, Alcoa, and Hess–did very good jobs of publicizing details of their socially beneficial actions and environmental management. The lowest scores went to two of the smallest firms on the list — Icahn Enterprises, a real estate developer, and NBTY, a maker and distributor of nutritional supplements — and one of the largest, Citigroup.

Titled “Analysis of Sustainability Reporting in New York Public Companies,” the report from The Roberts Environmental Center of Claremont McKenna College contains Pacific Sustainability Index scores evaluating the environmental and social reporting of the 91 New York companies on the 2008 Fortune 1000 list. The report scored companies based on the reporting, intent, and performance of environmental and social sustainability efforts.

“From our previous work on the sustainability reporting of multinationals from many industrial sectors, we were not surprised that larger companies generally performed better than smaller ones,” J. Emil Morhardt, Roberts Professor of Environmental Biology at CMC in Claremont, Calif. and director of the Roberts Environmental Center, said in a statement. “They 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.”

“In the current business climate, a demonstration of corporate social responsibility is more important than ever,” Morhardt said. “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.

Here is a scoring summary of the report:

Highest Overall Scores

• Alcoa
• Hess
• Time Warner

Highest Environmental Reporting Scores

• Alcoa
• Hess
• Estee Lauder

Highest Social Reporting Scores

• Hess
• Avon Products
• Alcoa

Lowest Overall Scores

• IAC/InterActiveCorp
• Icahn Enterprises
• NBTY
• Citigroup