In total, RobecoSAM awards 69 RobecoSAM Gold Class medals, 54 RobecoSAM Silver Class medals and 112 RobecoSAM Bronze Class medals to the evaluated companies. Split by region, Europe holds the highest amount of companies included in the Yearbook as well as the most RobecoSAM Gold Class medal winners. Assessed companies improved their performance most on the general criteria of Supply Chain Management, Climate Strategy and Talent Attraction & Retention, respectively within the economic, environmental and social dimension.

Reflecting and building upon trending topics

In the Yearbook, RobecoSAM celebrates its 20^th anniversary. The firm also seizes the opportunity of its annual publication to elaborate on the most prominent trends and developments in the sustainability investing landscape in the form of a number of white papers.

The first article deals with sustainability reporting and how transparency and standardization can benefit the integration of extra-financial factors into mainstream financial analysis. Second, RobecoSAM explains its approach to integrating sustainability into the financial valuation of companies. It does so by evaluating both financially material sustainability data and financial data in their model to arrive at fair value, resulting in a balanced portfolio of companies in the best position to meet the opportunities and challenges stemming from global megatrends. Both articles underline the relevance of material issues as the base for developing a common language on extra-financial factors between businesses and  investors. The final article addresses corporate tax strategy as a sustainability risk for investors. It also highlights some of the key findings of this year’s assessment, in which tax strategy was included for the first time.

The complete RobecoSAM Sustainability Yearbook 2015 can be found at yearbook.robecosam.com

Looking to improve your company’s sustainability performance?

Finch & Beak congratulates all companies included in the RobecoSAM Sustainability Yearbook 2015. Eligible companies looking to be included or improve their position next year in the Yearbook (or the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which is selected based on the same data) are advised to start preparing for the release of RobecoSAM’s Company Sustainability Assessment questionnaire on 31 March. If you are looking for guidance in the assessment process, please contact Nikkie Vinke, senior consultant, at nikkie@finchandbeak.com or call +31 6 28 02 18 80.