The businesses in the Tel Aviv 100 Index of the Israeli Stock Exchange were
deemed only 35 percent transparent in their socio-environmental policies for
2011, a corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting firm
announced on Sunday.
The firm, Ramat Gan-based Beyond Business Ltd.,
conducted its third such annual report this year, scrutinizing company websites
to determine how much information was made public regarding sustainability.
While the results have slightly improved since the first year, the study
initiators were far from happy with the companies’ achievements – as the average
score in 2010 was 33%, and in 2009 was 31%, according to a
statement.
Meanwhile, only 10% of the companies analyzed reached a
transparency level of over 50% – which while twice the number of semitransparent
companies in 2009 – represents no change since 2010.
“Responsible
business practices demand transparency. You cannot have one without the
other,” said Elaine Cohen, who is joint CEO of Beyond Business with Liad Ortar.
“We hope that our focus in publishing the Transparency Index will assist
companies in becoming more open about their sustainability efforts.”
The
leading company – for the second year in a row – was Bank Hapoalim, earning a
score of 99%, with Bank Leumi following at 95%, Strauss Group at 88%, Makhteshim
Agan Group at 78%, Partner Communications at 74% and Discount Bank at
71%.
Of the remaining top 10, Cellcom took the lead at 61%, followed by
Teva Pharmaceuticals at 60%, ICL Group at 54% and Gazit Globe at
52%.
Companies that are new to the upper echelon group are Makhteshim,
Teva, ICL and Gazit Globe, according to Beyond Business, which also reported
three companies as leaving the top-10 this year: Alon Holdings Blue Square (11th
place), Elbit Systems (12th place) and Ness Technologies (13th
place).
The full results of the index will be analyzed in detail at the
fifth annual Conference for Sustainability Reporting, on May 17 in
Herzliya.
“There were no real surprises for us because we live and
breathe this market,” Cohen told The Jerusalem Post, but she also stressed
excitement about the new firms that climbed to the top. “It’s really encouraging
to see that new companies are starting to get on the radar in terms of
sustainability.”
The leadership of Beyond Business also noted a
correlation between the companies that scored the highest in the Transparency
Index and those who received a “platinum” ranking in another evaluation – the
2010 Maala Index of Commitment to Corporate Responsibility Principles. Of the 13
that received such platinum rankings, only one company did not fall among the
top 12 groups on the Transparency Index, which collectively achieved 62%
transparency.
Shared among the 10 leading companies were published
corporate sustainability reports from 2009 or 2010, that were readily available
on their websites. But Cohen explained that Beyond Business’s examination looks
only at the transparency – the presence of information and policies for public
view – rather than whether said policies are making positive contributions
toward the environment.
“We’re not specifically looking at particular
standards of performance – what we’re looking at is how companies reflect the
performance in a public or professional way,” Cohen told the Post.
“We
don’t look at the actual data,” she added. “Even if they did a rubbish job at
managing environmental [sustainability], if they did a good job at presenting
their data they get extra points.”
In other words, the index looks at how
the companies present data to the public about their waste, water consumption
and carbon emissions – but not the actual amount of waste produced, water
consumed or carbon emitted.
However, Cohen noted, those companies that
take the time to produce properly detailed reports tend to have more
environmentally practices.
“Transparency is a catalyst for performance,”
Cohen said. “Once a company goes public with performance data and targets how to
improve, then there is a very significant driver and motivation to do better
next time.”