Three Canadian banks and an insurance company have been recognized for their environmental, social and governance leadership.
RBC, Sun Life Financial, TD Bank and Bank of Montreal have all placed in the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, a ranking maintained by Corporate Knights, a Toronto-based media and investment advisory company. RBC placed 37th, Sun Life placed 45th, TD 58th and BMO 61st.
Two other Canadian companies were featured on the list: Enbridge, at 39th, and Cameco, at 71st.
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German industrial conglomerate Siemens took the top spot, thanks to its growing renewable energy operations and plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
The Global 100 is in its 13th year. From Feb. 1, 2005 to Dec. 31, 2016, the list’s constituents saw a cumulative return of 131.6%, compared to the MSCI All-Country World Index’s return of 107.9% over the same period. Annualized return was 7.3% for the Global 100, compared to 6.3% for the MSCI ACWI. These returns were achieved with a slightly higher Sharpe ratio than the benchmark (0.45 versus 0.40, annualized) and slightly higher standard deviation (16.1% versus 15.9%, annualized).
From 2016 to 2017, the list’s turnover rate increased from 25% to 34%, “likely due to several changes to the methodology,” says Corporate Knights. The ranking had employed 12 metrics in previous years, but for the 2017 list, the firm added two metrics: the supplier score and the clean air productivity score. See the full ranking here.