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New Index Ranks Europe's Greenest Firms

Global market index maker Dow Jones and two partners have launched an index of Europe's most sustainable firms. Read More

Global market index maker Dow Jones and two partners have launched an index of Europe’s most sustainable firms.

Dow Jones, Stoxx Limited, and sustainability assessment specialist SAM Group have released the “Dow Jones Stoxx Sustainability Indexes” family, which includes the leading 20% of companies in a general index of 600 top European firms, also produced by Dow Jones and Stoxx.

The initiative is the first regional sustainability index, and is based on assessment criteria Dow Jones and Sam developed in 1999 to launch a global sustainability index.

According to Dow Jones, the new index covers the leading 10% in the Dow Jones global index of 2,500 companies. It will track the financial performance of the leading companies in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria in Europe, and takes into account environmental, social and financial criteria, including environmental reporting, product design and human rights and corruption policies.

Overall, it is supposed to identify “future oriented and innovative companies.”

In addition to the main European index, the initiative includes a second index focused on the euro-zone. There are also sustainability plus ethical indices for each region, which exclude businesses involved in alcohol, gambling, tobacco, armaments or firearms.

According to published reports, an official from Sam said the European indices had been prompted by increasing interest from European investors looking to invest in sustainable companies.

The official added that firms in the sustainability index had slightly outperformed the full European index over the last two and a half years.

Firms based in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have the greatest share of presence on the index.

Leaders among the 120 listed firms include Volkswagen (Germany) among car makers, Henkel (Germany) in chemicals, Boots (UK) in the retail sector, and ING (Netherlands) in the financial sector.

Royal Dutch Shell is ahead in energy, and Swiss Reinsurance comes out best in the insurance sector.

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