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Unilever vaulted to the top spot in a list of global corporate sustainability leaders, according to results released today of the latest SustainAbility Survey conducted by research firm GlobeScan Incorporated and SustainAbility Ltd., a think tank and strategy consultancy.
Some 559 sustainability experts from corporations, government, non-government organizations, academia and entities that provide services, such as consultancies, participated in the online survey last month that focused on perceptions of sustainability leadership.
Participants were asked to name companies they consider sustainability leaders, why they think a firm is a leader in sustainable development and what types of leaders have done the most to advance sustainability in the past year.
In addition to Unilever, the experts named General Electric, Interface, Wal-Mart and Marks & Spencer as the top five firms (in descending order) when it comes to sustainability leadership. Last year, just 5 percent of the respondents named Unilever a top sustainability leader; this year, 15 percent did so. By comparison, GE and Interface each were recognized as leading firms by 12 percent of respondents this year; Walmart, by 11 percent; and Marks & Spencer, by 8 percent.
While Unilever, like others in the upper tiers of the list, had made the roster before, it appears that the firm's striking ascent to the No. 1 spot is largely due to the company's Sustainability Living Plan -- unveiled just four months before the survey.
Under its ambitious 2020 sustainability plan, Unilever intends to improve the health of 1 billion people, buy 100 percent of its agricultural materials from sustainable sources and slash the environmental impact of its products by half -- all while doubling its revenues.
The strong alignment and deep integration of sustainability values into company operations, the articulation of those values and the synthesis of all sustainability efforts in a clear and cohesive framework resonated with the experts, according to GlobeScan Senior Vice President Chris Coulter.
"The stakes for sustainability leadership have been raised to a new level -- these are the new table stakes," said Coulter.
I am one of the people that
I am one of the people that fill in the surveys sent to me by GlobeScan. Survey participants are supposed to have been chosen from among people who do know what sustainable development or sustainability is. As evidenced by the results of the survey (with Walmart winning top ranking) many participants evidently do not know: A business that follows the concepts of sustainability will weight economic growth evenly with social concerns (e.g., human health, safety, human rights, etc.) and environmental concerns (everything from petroleum based chemical reduction to recycling; and renewable energy adoption to retail packaging reductions).
Walmart clearly makes only meager attempts to do some of these things, but publicizes their puny efforts very well, like some of the other companies that ranked high by our so-called "sustainability experts".
This survey only highlights that even people whose professions somehow touch on sustainability in some way, are indeed short of real knowledge, but totally vulnerable to Big Business's publicity campaigns.
Isa Cann
M.A. Regional Economic & Social Development,
concentration in Sustainable Development,
and host of The Long View on Sustainability on WUML 91.5 FM
www.thelongview.org
Really? Walmart is #4 on a
Really? Walmart is #4 on a list of sustainability leaders? Do you know anything about environmental sustainability?
Well it just goes to show
Well it just goes to show that if a company that flogs hundreds of duplicate and unecessary products most of which will have been unecessarily and cruelly tested on animals can top the list it isn't exactly a gold standard now is it.
Greenwash.