Leading ICT company and long-term Cority (formerly Greenstone) customer, Fujitsu Ltd, has topped the industry rankings for the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) this year. Fujitsu achieved the highest scores awarded in the software and services industry for its environmental policy and environmental management system. They also recognized the company’s achievements in operational eco-efficiency, and investment in human capital development.
Fujitsu’s approach has been to successfully target its own environmental impact, and address global environmental challenges through technology, working in partnership with its customers.
The index scored the company across economic, environment and social dimensions, giving it a total score out of 100 and ranking it against its industry peers. Fujitsu well outperformed the average scores in its industry across each dimension, attaining the highest scores in its industry for the environment.
DJSI scores for Fujitsu across economic, environmental and social dimensions1
What is the Dow Jones Sustainability Index?
The DJSI forms a broad family of global, regional and country benchmarks. The index was launched in 1999 and was the first global index tracking the financial performance of leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide.
The indices serve as benchmarks for investors who integrate sustainability considerations into their portfolios. They also provide an effective engagement platform for companies who want to adopt sustainable best practices.
How does the corporate sustainability assessment work?
The questionnaire
The assessment starts with an industry specific 80-120 question survey on financially relevant economic, environmental and social dimensions. Many questions are relevant across all industries. However, the DJSI responds to the increasing demand for industry relevant risks and opportunities coverage with over 50% of the questions tailored for particular sectors. The focus on industry specific criteria means that for manufacturing organizations focus on mitigating climate change risk is towards their efforts to manage carbon emissions. Whereas for the financial services industry this focus is more towards how companies address climate change through their financial products.
The questions within each criteria are structured towards capturing the following information:
– Materiality of sustainability factors
– Implementation of strategies to manage sustainability risks or capitalize on related opportunities
– Measure the results in relation to stated KPIs so as to measure their effectiveness
– Validation or audit of stated results
– Transparent communication of sustainability strategies and the extent to which targets have been met
Scoring
Questions receive a number of points between 1-100, say for example a company receives 50 points. This is then given a question weight, for example 50%. This is then given a criterion weighting, say 3/100, meaning the total score is 0.75 of the total sustainability score.
Example calculation of sustainability score for DJSI3
Another key component to the assessment is a media and stakeholder analysis (MSA). The MSA monitors media and stakeholder commentary to identify any sustainability situations which could damage the company’s reputation and core business. Finally, information given by companies is cross checked with any supporting or publicly available information. Companies scoring in the top 10% within their industry make it onto the index.
Is the assessment verified?
Corporate sustainability assessment plays an important role for organizations in understanding where they sit within their sector on CSR. In addition to being encouraged to collect, manage and use sustainability data in a way which is closely linked with overall corporate business goals.
In light of the recent Volkswagen emissions scandal, of course these assessment frameworks do not verify the information provided. This type of comprehensive verification is impossible given the volume of companies who respond to the questionnaire. They provide a useful insight for both the organizations and investors. However, their meaning should not be overinflated in the way many recent blog articles have done recently in ridiculing Volkswagen’s inclusion (and swift exclusion) from the rankings.
Fujitsu and Cority
Fujitsu is a leading provider of IT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 159,000 employees across 100 countries, Fujitsu is one of the world’s largest IT service providers.
In 2008, Fujitsu announced an ambition to reduce CO2 emissions by 30 million tons by 2020 through environmental innovation. In addition, the company has committed to becoming an industry leader in sustainable IT solutions.
Since 2008, Cority’s Sustainability Cloud software solutions and supporting services have enabled Fujitsu to streamline its environmental data globally. We’ve also helped making its carbon management processes consistent across the organization and provide the opportunity for both detailed analysis and high level management reporting.
