Dow Jones Sustainability Index Drops National Grid, SABMiller

The SAM Group has released its 2009 review of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, adding 33 companies to the global list of the world’s largest, most sustainable organizations, while eliminating 33 firms, for a total of 313 companies. The North American index included 26 new firms and eight deleted firms, for a total of 139 companies.

The largest additions to the DJSI World include Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, and Samsung Electronics, while the biggest deletions from this index are National Grid, Mitsubishi Estate, and SABMiller.

Companies added to the North American list include Safeway, Fedex, ConEd and J.C. Penney, while companies that didn’t make the list include Pfizer, Health Net and Xcel Energy.

SAM and Dow Jones base their review on corporate economic, environmental and social performance. These include corporate governance, risk management, branding, climate change mitigation, supply chain standards and labor practices as well as industry specific sustainability criteria for each of the 58 sectors.

The review also identified the top companies in 19 “supersectors,” that include food & beverage, automobiles, oil & gas, technology and utilities. Leaders include Adidas (Personal & Household Goods), Aracruz Celulose (Basic Resources), ANZ Banking Group (Banks), BMW (Automobiles), CEMIG (Utilities), DSM (Chemicals), GPT Group (Real Estate), Investimentos Itau (Financial Services), Kingfisher (Retail), Nokia (Technology), Panasonic Electric Works (Construction & Materials), Pearson (Media), Roche (Health Care), Sodexo (Travel & Leisure), Swiss Re (Insurance), Telefonica (Telecommunications), TNT (Industrial Goods & Services), Total (Oil & Gas), and Unilever (Food & Beverage).