Luxury apparel and accessories company Kering has been named the world’s second most sustainable company across all industries by the Corporate Knights’ Global 100 Index, published by the business and society magazine of the same name.
Kering, based in France, is one of only three apparel and accessory companies on the 2019 index. Industria de Diseno Textil, a Spanish company, was named 54th globally; Adidas AG, in Germany, was 84th.
Kering retained its rank as the top corporation in the apparel sector of the Corporate Knights’ index due in part to its proprietary Environmental Profit & Loss accounting tool and rigorous reporting guidelines.
To create the index, companies are assessed against 21 key performance indicators, investigating resource management, clean revenue, supplier performance and other factors.
According to Corporate Knights, the 2019 index refined “peer group” definitions to score companies, which not only made the rankings more precise, it also made it easier for the publication to compare similar companies.
“[The ranking] reflects our dedication and perseverance to embed sustainability best practices across our business activities,” Marie-Claire Daveu, chief sustainability officer and head of international institutional affairs at Kering, said in a statement. “It also acts as a ‘proof of concept’ that a business can achieve financial success while delivering positive social and environmental outcomes.”
This year’s index is the 15th annual list released by Corporate Knights. The list is selected through analysis of around 7,500 companies with $1 billion or more in revenues.
Additionally, comparative financial performance and corporate longevity analysis of the Global 100 companies against the MSCI All Country World Index supports the notion that sustainable corporate practices correlate with equal or better returns for investors and greater corporate longevity, according to Corporate Knights. The average age of a Global 100 company is 87 years, while the average age of a company in the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) is 63 years.
“The Global 100 companies show that doing what is good for the world can also be good for financial performance,” said Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights.