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Corporate Environmental and Sustainability Reports |
925 N. Mills Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711-5916 (909) 621-8190, (909) 621-8298, FAX (909) 621-8588 J. Emil Morhardt, Ph. D., Director (emorhardt@claremontmckenna.edu) |
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Pacific Sustainability Index (PSI) |
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The Pacific Sustainability Index (PSI) scores companies on environmental and socioeconomic
comprehensiveness (transparency) and performance as expressed in their voluntary environmental
or sustainability reports. Sustainability reporting implies inclusion of socioeconomic topics.
Environmental and socioeconomic topics are analyzed and scored separately. Additionally,
scoring of report comprehensiveness is separated from scoring of performance. Companies are not
scored in areas that are irrelevant to their practices. Summary scores below are reported as a
percentage of maximum possible score. Topics that are deemed irrelevant to a company do not affect
the percentage scores. To learn more about how we come up with
these scores, click
here. |
| Category | Percent Coverage | Grade | |||||||||||||||
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| Overall PSI Score | 22.73% | C |
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What do the scores mean? The above scores are based on all relevent material found on the company's website at the date of the report. The scores are percentages of the total points possible in the Pacific Sustainability Index, described further at the end of this document. The grades given are relative to the highest score in the company's sector. To put the scores of this report into perspective with reports of other companies, visit the Roberts Environmental Center Website (http://www.roberts.cmc.edu/), where all scores we have produced are available. Because the Roberts Center staff scores new reports regularly and posts the results to the website, the average scores are continually changing. Please note that reports analyzed prior to August 2005 used a different scoring system. These reports have been converted into the new scoring system, but the conversion is imperfect and question weights do not translate exactly. |
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What is the utility of this analysis? This analysis can be used by companies to benchmark their own reports and performance against companies within and across industries. It can also be used by special interest groups, financial analysts, and the general public to evaluate the quality of environmental and sustainability reporting. Because of the complicated nature of environmental and sustainability reporting, we make available the full analysis as well as summary scores. Our hope is to encourage transparency and numerical comparison with corporate peers. |
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A Company Profile | |||
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| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 1 | 0 | Company Financials | Public reporting of company financials, most often reported in the annual report or 10-K. |
| 2 | 0 | Products, services, brands, and markets | Identification and description of major types of products, brands, and services offered. |
| 3 | 0 | Divisions, facilities, and activities | Identification and description of major divisions, subsidiaries, and facilities, along with the business activities - such as manufacturing, research, and administration - taking place in them. |
A. Accountability | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 4 | 2 | Report contact person | Discussion: identification of, and contact information for, specifically designated to answer questions about the report or sustainability issues. Investor relation contact information does not count. Initiatives or actions to facilitate such contact, i.e. providing email address or a link for feedback and questions. |
| 19 | 2 | Environmental structure or management | Discussion of the organizational structure or staffing. Initiatives or actions to provide systematic structure of environmental oversight. |
B. Vision | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 5 | 2 | Environmental visionary statement | Discussion: clear visionary statement expressing a corporate commitment to good environmental performance. Initiatives or actions to fulfill that commitment. |
| 6 | 2 | Environmental impediments and challenges | Discussion of impediments and challenges faced by the company in attempting to realize its environmental vision and commitments. Initiatives or actions to overcome them. |
| 7 | 0 | Commitment to minimize consumption | Pledge to minimize consumption of resources. May include commitments to minimize energy, water, and materials consumption, to use recycled materials, and to recycle internally. |
| 8 | 0 | Commitment to minimize environmental impacts | Pledge to minimize general environmental impacts. |
C. Policy | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 9 | 2 | Environmental policy statement | Discussion: a formal statement of the company's environmental policy or plan. Initiative(s): Check the initiative(s) box if the policy is more than cursory. |
| 10 | 2 | Climate change/global warming | Discussion of the company's position on climate change and/or global warming. Initiatives or actions by the company to work on these issues. |
| 11 | 2 | Habitat/ecosystem conservation | Discussion of the company's position on conserving natural ecosystems and habitat. Initiative(s) or intention(s) by the company to help conservation of natural ecosystems. |
| 12 | 0 | Biodiversity | Discussion of the company's position on biodiversity. Initiative(s) by to the company to foster biodiversity. |
| 13 | 0 | Green purchasing | Discussion of company's use of purchasing that places preference on products which have reduced environmental impact in any part of their life cycle (development, manufacturing, use, recycling, and disposal), or which are designated as eco-friendly by organizations that are active proponents of environmental preservation. Initiative(s) to implement green purchasing. |
| 17 | 0 | Voluntary memberships in internal or external environmental standards or rating organization | Voluntary membership and adherence to environmental standards or ratings. These are voluntary codes of conduct that do not involve certification, including Alliance for Global Sustainability, World Energy Council, Business Council for Sustainable Development, World Resources Institute Green Power Market Development, Responsible Care, etc. |
| 18 | 1 | Voluntary environmental certifications | The company's position and progress with respect to auditable industry-standard environmental certifications, such as Sustainable Forestry Initiative for Forest Products Sector of Responsible Care for Chemicals Sector. |
D. Management | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 16 | 2 | Environmental education | Discussion of efforts to promote environmental education and awareness of employees, the general public, or children. Initiatives or actions to provide such education. |
| 20 | 2 | Environmental management system | Discussion: identification of degree of adoption of ISO 14001 or other formal environmental management system. Initiatives: check the box if such systems are fully implemented or if the company is in the process of obtaining full certification. |
| 21 | 2 | Environmental accounting | Discussion of environmental expenditures including quantitative description of money saved through environmental activities. Initiatives or actions: Check the box if there is detailed accounting in the report. |
| 23 | 2 | Stakeholder consultation | Discussion of consultation and dialogue with stakeholders regarding the company's environmental impacts and aspects. Initiatives or actions to engage with the stakeholders. |
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A. Energy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 26 | 3 | Energy used/consumption | Sum of the energy used by a company in all different forms, including electricity, fuel, natural gas and others. |
| 27 | 1 | Renewable energy consumption | Energy used from renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, or other renewable sources. |
B. Water | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 29 | 3 | Water used | Sum of all water used during operations. |
C. Recycling | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 30 | 1 | Waste recycled | Sum of all waste recycled, including hazardous. |
| 32 | 0 | Office recycling rate | The recycling of paper, cardboard, metal, and plastic in an office setting. |
C. Recycling (Sector) | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 106 | 1 | Waste water recycled | Waste water that is reused in the manufacturing process or otherwise recycled. |
| 107 | 0 | Recycled packaging materials | The recycling of materials such as cardboard, plastics, or wood, used to package any goods received from a supplier or delivered to a disributor. Company should specifically refer to these materials as "packaging materials". |
D. Waste | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 34 | 0 | Waste disposed of | Includes hazardous and non-hazardous waste landfilled, incinerated, or transferred. |
| 35 | 0 | Hazardous waste produced/disposed | Sum of all hazardous materials remaining after production. |
| 37 | 0 | Hazardous waste released | The amounts of hazardous materials released into the environment, total (TRI, PRTR, and similar indices), may include mercury or lead. Depending on the nationality of the company, this is labeled differently; American companies call this "TRI" (Toxic Release Inventory), many European companies call it "substance releases". |
D. Waste (Sector) | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 110 | 0 | Waste water released | The amount of liquid waste released to natural waters. |
E.i. Emissions to air (Sector) | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 111 | 0 | Greenhouse gases, total | The sum of all greenhouse gases released, which could include CO2, CH4 (methane), N2O (nitrous oxide), SF6 (Sulphur hexafluoride), PFCs (Perfluorocarbons) and HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons). The report should label this indicator as "greenhouse gases released" or similar. |
| 112 | 0 | Carbon dioxide (CO2) | CO2 emissions resulting from all company operations. For energy and utility sector, covers exploration and production, and emissions in general. |
| 119 | 0 | Ozone depleting substances from refrigerant | Total ozone-depleting substances include CFCs (Class I); and halons, carbon tetrachloride, methyl chloroform, and HCFCs (Class II), not a CO2 emission. |
| 121 | 0 | Nitrogen oxides (NOx) | Emissions of all nitrogen oxides to air. |
| 123 | 3 | Particulate matter (dust) | "Particulate matter" usually refers to all material emitted to air smaller than 10 microns in diameter (PM10). Smaller, more toxic material such as PM 2.5, smaller than 2.5 microns, may also be called out. |
| 124 | 0 | Logistics emissions | Emissions as a result of input and output transport of materials. Some companies report their CO2 logistics emissions while some only report logistics emission in general terms. |
E.i. Emissions to air (Sector) | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 127 | 3 | Sulfur oxides (SOx) | Emissions of all sulfur oxides, including sulfur dioxide (SO2). |
E.ii. Emissions to soil (Sector) | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 128 | 0 | Emissions contaminating soil | Releases to soil (other than in designated landfills) are usually unintentional but can be highly contaminating both onsite (e.g. leaking underground storage tanks) and off (e.g. wind transport of chemical dusts, contaminants adjacent to railways), such as fuel spillage or leakage (not including landfilled waste). Permits are issued for industrial releases to air and water, but not usually for soil contamination other than landfills. |
E.iii. Emissions to water (Sector) | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 129 | 0 | Suspended solids, total (TSS) | A measure of the amount of solids in wastewater. TSS can include a wide variety of material, such as silt, decaying plant and animal matter, industrial wastes, and sewage. |
| 130 | 3 | Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) | Measure the amount of organic compounds in water. Most applications of COD determine the amount of organic pollutants found in surface water (e.g. lakes and rivers). Compare with BOD, COD is less specific since it measures total organic levels rather than simply levels of biologically active organic matter. |
F. Management and Misc. | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 38 | 0 | Environmental notices of violation | The total number of NOVs (notices of violation) or fines per year for all environmental infractions. |
| 39 | 1 | Environmental expenses and/or investments | An accounting of money spent or invested specifically to decrease environmental damage or to benefit the environment |
| 40 | 0 | Environmental fines | The amount of money charged to and/or spent by a company for government-imposed environmental fines. Check all three if stated that no fines were levied. |
F. Management and Misc. (Sector) | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 135 | 2 | Mitigation, remediation, or land reclamation | The amount of money spent in a given year on the cleanup of contaminated or otherwise damaged company sites (remediation or land reclamation), or on the restoration and/or preservation of areas separate from company operations in anticipation of future environmental damage at company sites (mitigation). |
F. Management and Misc. (Sector) | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 195 | 0 | Accidental spills | Number of accidental spills or incidental spillage to any media, water, air, soil, especially in transport, storage, exploration, and production. |
H. Materials usage (Sector) | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 148 | 0 | Packaging materials used | Materials such as cardboard, plastics, or wood, used to package any goods sold or delivered to a disributor. Should be specifically referred to as "packaging materials". |
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A. Accountability | |||
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| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 51 | 2 | Social or Health and Safety organization structure or Labour/management relations | Discussion of organizational structure or staffing. Initiatives or actions to provide systematic structure of social oversight. |
| 54 | 1 | Third party validation | Discussion of the value of third-party auditing or validation. Check both the discussion and initiative boxes if the environmental/sustainability report has been audited or validated by a qualified external third-party source. |
A. Vision | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 42 | 2 | Social visionary statement | Discussion: clear visionary statement expressing a corporate commitment good social performance. Initiatives or actions to fulfill that commitment. |
| 43 | 2 | Social impediments and challenges | Discussion of impediments and challenges faced by the company in attempting to realize its social vision and commitments. Initiatives or actions to overcome them. |
B. Policy | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 45 | 0 | Social policy statement | Discussion: a formal statement of the company's social policy or plan. Initiatives or actions: Check the box if the policy is well detailed. |
| 47 | 0 | Code of conduct or business ethics | Discussion: a formal corporate code of conduct or business ethics. Initiatives or actions: Check the box if the code is well detailed. |
| 49 | 2 | Supplier screening based on social or environmental performance/ Supplier management. | Discussion of existing procedures (or the application of such procedures) to evaluate and select major suppliers on their ability to meet the requirements of the company's social or environmental policy and principles. Initiatives or actions to implement such screening or selection. |
C. Management | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 52 | 0 | Workforce profile: Age | Discussion of age distribution of workforce. |
| 53 | 0 | Emergency preparedness program | Discussion of emergency preparedness programs to prepare employees or the public to cope with potential emergencies at the company's facilities. Initiatives or current implementation of such a program. |
| 82 | 2 | Employee training and development to enable upward mobility and to enhance performance and career development | Discussion of training, skills and learning programs appropriate to support employees' upward mobility. Initiatives or current implementation of such programs. |
D. Social Demographic | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 80 | 0 | Employment for individuals with disabilities | Discussion of appropriate actions to accommodate employees with disabilities. Initiatives or current implementation of such actions. |
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A. Human Rights | |||
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| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 58 | 0 | Anti-Corruption practices | Efforts to uphold the highest standards of business ethics and integrity. May be found under a Code of Conduct. |
| 59 | 0 | Corporal punishment of employees | Commitment to oppose any corporal/hard labor punishment, mental/physical coercion, or verbal abuse. |
| 60 | 7 | Equal opportunity, elimination of discrimination, promotion of diversity, or non-discrimination policy | Commitment not to engage in any kind of discrimination based on ethnicity, caste, religion, disability, sex, age, sexual orientation, union membership, or political affiliation in hiring practices or employee treatment. |
| 61 | 0 | Free association and collective bargaining of employees | Efforts to respect the right of employees to form and join trade unions of their choice and to bargain collectively. |
| 62 | 7 | Fair compensation of employees | Efforts to ensure that wages paid meet or exceed legal or industry minimum standard. |
| 63 | 0 | Forced labor of employees | Assurance that all employees enter employment with the company of their own free will, not by compulsion. |
| 64 | 7 | Working hours | Compliance with applicable laws and industry standards on working hours, including overtime. |
| 65 | 0 | Use of illegal child labor | Statement regarding the rejection of illegal child labor by the company or its affiliates. |
B. Qualitative Social | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 66 | 3 | Community Development | Efforts to participate in social activities that improve the quality of life of communities including that of indigenous people, where the company operates. |
| 67 | 0 | Employee Satisfaction Survey | Surveys to monitor employee satisfaction. |
| 68 | 3 | Community Education | Efforts to support education in the communities where the company is located. |
| 70 | 3 | Occupational health and safety protection | Efforts to provide a safe and healthy working environment at all sites. |
| 72 | 3 | Employee volunteerism | Efforts to promote employee volunteerism in social or environmental projects. |
C. Quantitative Social | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 74 | 3 | Recordable incident rate/ Accident indices | The total number of employee incidents or accidents, such as: “total case incident rate”, “incident rate” |
| 75 | 0 | Lost workday case rate | The total number of employee injuries or illnesses that resulted in one or more lost workdays, typically normalized per a certain number of employees or work hours. |
| 76 | 0 | Health and safety citations | The number of health and safety citations or notices of violation given by the government in a given year or total amount levied against company for health and safety violations. |
| 77 | 0 | Health and safety fines | The total amount levied against a company for health and safety violations. |
| 81 | 2 | Social community investment | The amount of money spent on community outreach, including education grants, donations, and relief effort funds. |
C. Quantitative Social (Sector) | |||
| Question Number | Score | Topic | Description |
| 158 | 0 | Fatal Injuries | The total number of injuries causing death. |
| Member? | Organization | Description |
| Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) | GRI works to build a consensus around a set of sustainability reporting guidelines with the aim of achieving worldwide acceptance, based in Netherlands, founded in 1997 , www.globalreporting.org | |
 | ISO14001 Environmental Management System | ISO is responsible for standardization in all fields except electrical and electronic engineering. ISO 14001 is an international standard designed to provide companies a structured approach for improving environmental performance, with emphasis on environmental protection and pollution prevention, based in Switzerland, founded in 1906 , www.iso.ch |
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About the Pacific Sustainability Index The Pacific Sustainability Index was developed at the Roberts Environmental Center at Claremont McKenna College in California, for the purpose of scoring corporate environmental and sustainability reports. It was introduced in 2002 in the book "Clean Green and Read All Over: Ten Rules for Effective Environmental and Sustainability Reporting," published by the American Society for Quality Press, in which it is described in some detail. Undergraduates from several of the Claremont Colleges, working in the Roberts Center, apply this Index to current corporate environmental and sustainability reports accessed in hard copy or through the world wide web, and publish the results on the Roberts Environmental Center website. We assign letter grades by dividing the maximum PSI score obtained in the sector into 12 equal parts and then rounding fractional scores up or down. This means that A+ and F are under-represented compared to the other grades. Companies with scores in the highest 4% get an A+ and any in the bottom 4% get an F. The same technique applies to the separate categories of environmental and social scores. Thus, we grade on a curve. We make the assumption that the highest score obtained in the sector and any scores near it represent the state of the art for that sector and deserve an A+. Caveat and disclaimer: There is a fair amount of subjectivity associated with scoring corporate environmental and sustainability reports using this Index, and even the most experienced analyst is often uncertain whether a particular topic deserves a score of 1 or 2. In addition to that uncertainty, many of the reports presented on the Roberts web site have been scored by undergraduates who, although trained by the Center, have varying amounts of experience in scoring. Also, in large and complicated reports, many of which exceed 100 pages, it is not difficult to overlook data which should have received points in the Index. Consequently, the scores should be thought of as approximate and subject to revision. We welcome external input on any perceived incorrect scoring and will update the online reports as warranted. All reports are dated at the bottom. The most recent one reflects our current analysis. Please address comments to J. Emil Morhardt at (909) 621-8190 or emorhardt@mckenna.edu |
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About the Roberts Environmental Center The Roberts Environmental Center is one of nine endowed research institutes at Claremont McKenna College (CMC). Its primary function is to engage undergraduates, including those from the other Claremont Colleges, in active research pertaining to current environmental issues. In keeping with its oversight of the Environment, Economics, and Politics major at Claremont McKenna and Scripps colleges, the Roberts Environmental Center chooses research subjects that include economic and political components in addition to scientific considerations. The current project on corporate environmental transparency and performance reflects that goal. |
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About Claremont McKenna College and the Claremont Colleges Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a highly selective, independent, coeducational, residential, undergraduate liberal arts college -- one with a curricular emphasis on economics, government, and public affairs. By combining the intellectual breadth of the liberal arts with the more pragmatic concerns of public affairs, CMC helps students acquire the vision, skills, and values they will need to lead society. With an on-campus enrollment of approximately 1,000 students, CMC is currently the youngest and smallest college ranked in the U. S. News & World Report top 15. Although an institution unto itself, CMC is also part of a larger community -- The Claremont Colleges. These include Pomona College, Scripps College, Pitzer College, Harvey Mudd College, The Claremont Graduate University (which houses the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management), and the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences (KGI). All except KGI are on contiguous campuses and students at any of the institutions may take courses at any of the others. There are about 5,000 undergraduates and 1000 graduate students in the consortium at any given time. |
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This Pacific Sustainability Index form is adapted with permission from Morhardt, J. Emil, 2002, Clean Green, and Read All Over: Ten Rules for Effective Environmental and Sustainability Reporting, ASQ Quality Press. 316 pages. |