Microsoft, JLL among world's most ethical companies

Businesses across the globe are increasingly mindful these days of the environmental impact their operations are having and the importance of upholding strong moral standards.

And now, IG has attempted to assess which organisations are succeeding in this space by compiling a list of the most ethical companies in the world. 

In producing its Ethical Performance Index (EPI), researchers from IG examined various data and ranked global companies based on three factors:

• Ethics: The number of times they have appeared on Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical Companies list since its inception
• Sustainability: The score they received according to Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Ratings, where lower scores are better
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): The score they received according to CSRHub’s CSR ratings, where higher scores are better

Finishing top of the pile is US multinational ManpowerGroup, which scored 2.61 out of a possible 3. The Fortune 500 regular has appeared in Ethisphere’s ethical business list 13 times, received an ESG risk rating of 10 from Sustainalytics and a CSR score of 98 from CSRHub.

The recruitment agency saw off competition from another professional services firm, Accenture, which accumulated an EPI score of 2.55 on the back of 15 ethical business list appearances, an ESG risk rating of 9.6 and a CSR score of 95.

The leading pair were closely followed by Johnson Controls (2.42), JLL (2.38) and Kao (2.37). 

Other businesses to make the top 10 were:

• Aptiv – 2.25
• Capgemini – 2.23
• Schneider Electric – 2.21
• Microsoft – 2.2
• Cummins – 2.19

Women more likely to consider ESG when investing

IG produced its EPI in conjunction with an investor sentiment survey of 4,500 clients based around the world. 

It found that female clients (23%) were more likely to consider the importance of ESG when making investment decisions compared to men (9%).

Despite these relatively low figures, it appears sustainability is becoming an increasingly essential part of investing. Citing data from the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA), the Financial Times previously reported that sustainable investments grew by 15% from 2020 to 2022, accounting for 36% of professionally managed assets across Europe, the US, Canada, Japan and Australasia. 

Leading the way in terms of LGBTQ+ friendly investing is US tech giant Apple. The company has an internal resource group and platform for its employees named pride@Apple. 

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