Today we announce our strong progress in five leading corporate ESG ratings in 2021, strengthening our credentials as a leader in sustainable packaging.
We were placed on the prestigious ‘A List’ for protecting water resources by global environmental not-for-profit charity CDP, who run global disclosure systems to help organisations manage their environmental impacts.
We were acknowledged as a leader on corporate environmental ambition and action through CDP’s annual environmental disclosure and scoring process, which is widely recognised as the gold standard of corporate environmental transparency. Additionally, we increased our CDP Climate Change score from ‘B’ in the previous year to ‘A-‘ this year.
Earlier this year, we gained an ‘AA’ score from MSCI (up from ‘A’), a lower risk score from Sustainalytics, a ‘Platinum’ score from EcoVadis (up from ‘Gold’) and a score of 67 points on the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (up from 51 points, with maximum scores in several categories).
We proactively engage in external assessments to review and improve our performance on environmental, social, and governance issues. In the five ESG ratings we have been identified as being most relevant to our investors and customers, as well as being recognised for achievements such as our environmental reporting, performance in sustainable procurement, and use of recycled and sustainably sourced materials.
These five ESG ratings are very important indicators for our customers, investors and other stakeholders. DS Smith has made substantial gains across all of them this year, which can only mean that we are on the right track. We will continue to focus on our sustainability targets, making our business more circular and taking ambitious climate action. Most importantly, we will help our customers do the same. — Wouter van Tol, Head of Sustainability, Community and Government Affairs at DS Smith
Over the past year we focused on increasing disclosures in our sustainability reporting to help ESG Analysts better understand our business and ensure that we are recognised for the work that we are doing to accelerate the transition to the circular economy. We continue to use the insights provided by ESG ratings to inform our strategy and reporting. — Oliver Bradley, Sustainability Reporting Manager at DS Smith
Through our Now and Next sustainability strategy, we have set ambitious targets that focus on closing the loop through better design, protecting natural resources by making the most of every fibre, reducing waste and pollution through circular solutions and equipping people to lead the transition to a circular economy. This includes achieving at least a 40% reduction in CO2e emissions per tonne of production compared to 2019, and Net Zero emissions by 2050.
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