Severn Trent is the best performing company in the FTSE 350
in terms of environmental management and performance, according to the
UK’s leading index of corporate environmental activity. The four next
best performers are British Telecommunications, (BT) Cable &
Wireless, Woolwich and Thames Water, in descending order.
These findings are drawn from Business in the Environment’s (BiE)
fourth Corporate Environmental Engagement Index, which has been ranking
companies according to a range of environmental engagement measures
since 1996.
Last year BiE measured companies against ten
aspects of environmental management, such as energy consumption, waste,
water pollution, transport and ‘supplier/customer impacts’. This year
it has also taken into account companies’ efforts in assessing their
impact on the environment.
Companies listed in the FTSE
350, the 25 biggest UK businesses by turnover and sector leaders in the
Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index (DJSGI) were invited to be part of
the survey.
A total of 151 chose to do so, 40 of them
for the first time this year. Of these, over half were from the FTSE
250. The five outshone their peers because they scored well both in
terms of their environmental performance and their environmental
management. Severn Trent achieved the highest management score, along
with British Energy.
The water company also had the
highest overall score for environmental performance, along with
AstraZeneca and Cable & Wireless.
The environmental
performance of Woolwich, ranked fourth best performer overall, had
shown ‘rapid improvement’ since last year, according to BiE.
Environmental management at Lasmo was the most improved of any FTSE 350 company.
BT was the top environmental performer in the FTSE 100.
According to BiE, a business-led campaign seeking to promote
sustainable development as a goal among companies, the top five
companies enjoyed a better environmental performance than any of the
DJSGI sector leaders which participated. The DJSGI identifies 200
companies worldwide that it believes are leaders in sustainability.
In terms of sectors, information technology had the best score for
environmental management, closely followed by utility companies.
However, information technology had one of the lowest participation
rates. Utility companies were the most engaged sector, with 100 per
cent of companies participating.
Only one FTSE 350 company
was aiming to meet the Kyoto target to reduce global warming emissions
levels to five per cent below their 1990 levels by 2010.
Environment minister Michael Meacher recently warned that he would name
large companies if they failed to improve their environmental
performance.
