ING tops sustainability league table

ING came out top of a league table rating the performances of 80 Diversified Financials in terms of their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance.

The table is produced by the highly-respected Sustainalytics, who gave ING a sustainability score of 76, a marginal improvement on our 2008 score and significantly higher than the sector average of 44.

“In the past and throughout the financial crisis, ING Group has shown strong and continued commitment to responsible investment issues,” says Martijn van Schaik, Sustainability Analyst at Sustainalytics. “We consider the company amongst the ESG leaders in its industry.”

Amongst its ESG strengths, Sustainalytics singled out ING’s policies on very specific areas such as controversial weapons, adult entertainment, gambling, fur and animal testing for cosmetic purposes.

They also feel ING has a strong in-house Responsible Investment Team, something Sustainalytics considers important if an organisation is to implement and integrate responsible investment effectively within its organisation.

On the operational side, Sustainalytics commends ING’s aim to become carbon neutral, and the fact that 63% of the company’s energy use already comes from renewable sources.

Asked for areas where ING could still improve, Sustainalytics felt the company could further integrate ESG issues corporate-wide. They pointed out, for example, that executive pay is not explicitly tied to any ESG performance targets.

They also felt proxy voting practices and reporting could improve. And finally, while ING Group has an environmental management system in place, only a small part of its activities are currently certified to international standards such as ISO 14001.

Sustainalytics is a market leader in independent research into the ESG performance of companies worldwide. The international agency focuses on helping responsible investors gain a better insight into a company’s ESG performance, and so identify investment risks and opportunities.

Sustainalytics’ customers include over 100 companies in the financial sector. Estimating the exact amount of assets under management managed using the agency’s research is hard, but the combined assets of Sustainalytics’ clients exceed EURO 5 trillion.