Pacific sustainability Index - you gotta love it !

Today i came accross something i love... sustainability report rankings. I guess there can't be too many people for whom report rankings just does it ... but for me, they just jump off of my screen and make me stop and take notice.

So i came accross the Pacific Sustainability Index which is run by the Roberts Evironmental Center. The center ranks companies based on their online sustainability reporting information. They have a defined methodology focusing on social, environmental and human rights reporting. And they produce sector reports on a frequent frequency, frequently. Focus on fortune 500 companies. The rankings cover intent, performance and reporting in each section.

The latest batch includes the Electronics, SemiConductor and Peripherals Sectors. 62 pages of really interesting analysis. Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony and Royal Philips Eletronics come in 1,2,3 4 ... yes in that order. Interestingly Panasonic scores very highy on environmental issues but much less so on social issues. But overall is ranked winner.

By now you will have realised that i like to get things first hand - so i took a quick trip to CorporateRegister.com and located the Panasonic 2007 Sustainability report on which most of the PSI analysis was based. On the cover of the report is Panasonic's wearable robotic suit with rubber man-made muscles to help people recover from limb paralysis. What a great thing! Looks quite futuristic. And the eco-friendly washer dryer. They put their "hearts and soul"into developing the heat pump. Soul in a heat pump ? But flippancy aside, this is a really great report. Its packed. The graphics are super with lots of pleasant and informative diagrams. Stakeholders pop up throughout the report, intrude with a question, or criticsm, and receive a reply on the same page. Nice touch. And to top it all, assurance by no other than the impresive Johnathon Porritt.

I think i am going to be a PSI fan. Hope it's not addictive.