Transparency in the Global 100

In January, prominent CSR blogger Elaine Cohen posted Opaque Transparency, where she questioned why the Top 10 companies in the Global 100 did not have the top 10 transparency scores. Toby Heaps, Chief Executive of Corporate Knights, responds below:

Hi Elaine,

Thank you for your thoughtful analysis. We struggled with how to deal with companies that chose not to report certain key metrics. We had three broad choices:

A. Apply a zero score (penalize harshly)
B. Apply a null score (neutral/no penalty)
C. Apply a null score and include a separate score for transparency, which is weighted in inverse proportion to the extent of ESG/CSR disclosure (ie. the less a company reports, the more the transparency score is worth).

We chose C, and it is interesting to note that 9 of the top 10 Global 100 are GRI reporters. We look forward to refining the art of presenting a new balance sheet for corporate social/environmental performance--with input from insightful observers like yourself.