Chevron ‘A+,’ Google ‘F’ In Sustainability Reporting Efforts

June 19, 2008

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An analysis of the social responsibility reporting efforts of California’s largest corporations finds that some, like Chevron, Hewlett-Packard and Walt Disney, publicized their sustainability on their Web sites, while others, like eBay, Google and Apple, rarely mentioned the subject, if at all.

The 132-page report, “Analysis of Sustainability Reporting of Fortune Companies in California” (PDF), produced by the Roberts Environmental Center of Claremont McKenna College, contains a compilation of Pacific Sustainability Index scores evaluating the environmental and social reporting of all California companies on the 2006 Fortune 1000 list. It scores companies based on the reporting, intent and performance of environmental and social sustainability efforts and is the center’s the first geographically based analysis of corporate reporting.

While the center’s scoring sheet contains only topics it thinks all companies should report on, not everyone agrees with the results, writes the center’s director J. Emil Morhardt.

. . . Sarah Bulgatz, Director, Corporate Public Relations, The Charles Schwab Corporation, took strong exception to our comparison of her company with manufacturers and refiners. We have printed her comments (with her permission) as a guest editorial on page 43, along with details of why we gave her company a grade of D+ for environmental and social reporting.

Morhardt says the center wants to encourage socially responsible companies to be more vocal about their efforts, and encourage those that have not addressed sustainability issues to do so.

From the report:

Highest overall scores:

Chevron
Cisco Systems
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Highest environmental reporting scores:

Applied Materials, Inc.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Walt Disney

Highest social reporting scores:

Chevron
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Cisco Systems
Intel

Lowest overall scores:

Google
VeriSign
Intuit
Pacer International
Ross Stores Inc.

Alex Hausman, CSR reporting manager at Timberland, writes that “CSR reporting is an important component of an overall strategic focus on sustainability. Once the right pieces are in place – strategic alignment, trend data, collaboration, sustained effort – we can start to see progress against some of the most significant challenges our society faces.”

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Reader Comments

It’s sort of comparing apples and oranges isn’t it to compare companies like Chevron and Applied Materials to companies like Verisign and Google. The first two have huge environmental issues while the latter two do not. How do you come to conclusions like this?

Glennis | June 20th, 2008

IS THIS THE SAME CHEVRON THAT SPENT MILLIONS IN 2006 TO DEFEAT THE CALIFORNIA BALLOT INITIATIVE THAT WOULD HAVE REQUIRED BIG OIL TO BUILD ALTERNATIVE FUELING STATIONS? OBVIOUSLY, THE COLLEGE STUDENTS AND FACULTY THAT COMPILED THE REPORT CONVENIENTLY FORGOT THIS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FACT AND INSTEAD BOUGHT INTO CHEVRON’S “GREEN WASHING” TACTIC.

Eco Dude | June 20th, 2008

Very interesting report, and kind of funny that Chevron (traditional old-line company) gets and A and Google (hip new company) gets and F. Too bad Dell isn’t based in California. I’d expect it to get an A simply because it has been doing this since 1998. Check out the report here: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/en/resources?c=us&l=en&s=corp&~tab=1

Jeffatdell | June 24th, 2008

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