2Sustain

Last month, SAM, Dow Jones Indexes, and STOXX Ltd., announced the results of the 2008 annual review for the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World), the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index (DJSI North America), and the pan-European Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability Index (DJSI STOXX).

This annual review is based on an analysis of economic, environmental, and social performance and accounts for both general and industry-specific sustainability criteria. Interestingly, as a result of the review, all three indexes will be expanding this year. That’s good news because it means that:  a) overall participation is up and b) companies have made significant progress in a wide variety of indexing criteria. Specifically, DJSI World is losing 25 firms, gaining 33, and ending up with a new total of 320. DJSI STOXX will lose 21 and gain 30, for a new total of 162. And, DJSI North America will increase to 125, after 18 companies are added and nine are deleted. If you want even more detail about these changes, check out this review, which breaks down the pluses and minuses for each index by name, by size, by country, and by sector.

In addition to this housekeeping, SAM also identified a new set of “super sector” leaders for 2008/2009. This list includes:
•    adidas (Personal and Household Goods)
•    Air France-KLM (Travel and Leisure)
•    ANZ Banking Group (Banks)
•    BASF (Chemicals)
•    BMW (Automobiles)
•    BT Group (Telecommunications)
•    ENI (Oil and Gas)
•    Grupo Iberdrola (Utilities)
•    Holcim (Construction and Materials)
•    Intel (Technology)
•    Investimentos Itau (Financial Services)
•    Kingfisher (Retail)
•    Land Securities (Real Estate)
•    Novartis (Health Care)
•    Pearson (Media)
•    Swiss Re (Insurance)
•    TNT (Industrial Goods and Services)
•    Unilever (Food and Beverage)
•    Xstrata (Basic Resources)

The Dow Jones sustainability indexes were launched in 1999, and over the past nine years, they have become a key reference point for corporate sustainability performance. In a press release, John Prestbo, Editor and Executive Director, Dow Jones Indexes, predicts that in the future, even more companies will be turning to the DJSI family as a source of information as they chart their own sustainability initiatives and goals.

“Moving forward, we expect the demand for sustainability indexing to continue with accelerating speed,” he says. “Here in the U.S., as well as in Europe and Asia/Pacific, we have seen a clear shift in the debate around sustainability issues and their important role for long-term corporate performance. Several large institutional asset owners have moved into sustainability mandates, influential investment consultants have built up teams to support their clients in this field, and a growing number of market participants is integrating long-term economic, environmental and social factors into their analysis.”