Fast Retailing joined the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices Monday as Adidas fell off the list after a 20-year streak. Fellow footwear giant Nike also dropped off the index.
S&P Dow Jones Indices said it saw a record 19 percent increase in the number of companies actively completing the Corporate Sustainability Assessment—a questionnaire assessing both public and non-public data submitted by participants—this year.
According to a Nike spokesperson, the company decided to not actively participate in the assessment this year.
“Nike receives a number of requests to participate in surveys, ratings and rankings annually,” Nike said. “As part of Nike’s corporate responsibility and purpose work, we evaluate each request based a number of criteria including, alignment with our purpose strategies, usefulness to our stakeholders, resources required to complete each request and credibility. A recommendation is developed and reviewed with Nike’s Purpose Subcommittee to determine if participation should be prioritized.”
Adidas’ score in the DJSI was consistent with that of the previous year, according to a company spokesperson.
“We will now thoroughly analyze the results and will do our utmost to increase our score to be included in the index again next year,” Adidas said. “Sustainability is a priority for us in all areas. This is reflected in the latest ‘Corporate Human Rights Benchmark,’ which ranks Adidas as the world’s best apparel company in terms of ensuring human and labor rights in the supply chain.”
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On the DJSI World list, consumer durables and apparel saw no new additions. Burberry Group, Hugo Boss, Kering and Moncler all remained on the list. Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo, represented the only apparel-related addition in the retailing group. Continuing listees included eBay, H&M, The Gap, Chilean department store Falabella, Spanish multinational clothing company Industria de Diseño Textil, Brazilian department store Lojas Renner and Japanese retailer Marui.
Gildan Activewear and Kohl’s held on to spots on the North America index, as well as Asics in Asia Pacific.
“The DJSI’s continued recognition of Kohl’s serves as a reliable indicator of the strength of our ESG stewardship initiatives,” Steve Thomas, chief risk and compliance officer for Kohl’s, said in a statement. “We believe that incorporating sustainable solutions into the way Kohl’s conducts business will help to build better futures for our customers, our associates, and their families and we are pleased to be acknowledged for these efforts.”
S&P Dow Jones Indices described the DJSI, originally launched in 1999, as “float-adjusted market capitalization weighted indices that measure the performance of companies selected with environmental, social and governance criteria.” The index looks at 20 financially relevant sustainability criteria across economic, environmental and social dimensions.