S&P Dow Jones Indices and RobecoSAM, the investment specialist focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing, announced the results of the annual Dow Jones Sustainability Indices review. This year marks the 15 year anniversary of the DJSI.
Launched in 1999, the DJSI World is the first global index to track the financial performance of the leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide based on an analysis of financially material economic, environmental, and social factors. The three largest additions (by free-float market capitalization) to the DJSI World this year include Amgen Inc, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and GlaxoSmithKline PLC and deletions include Bank of America Corp, General Electric Co and Schlumberger Ltd.
Guido Giese, Head of Indices, RobecoSAM: “We are proud to celebrate 15 years of providing investors with sophisticated benchmarks for corporate sustainability. Since 1999, we have helped investors realize the financial materiality of sustainability and companies continue to tell us that the DJSI provides an excellent tool to measure the effectiveness of their sustainability strategies. In 15 years, the total number of companies we assess has more than quadrupled. We have also developed new sustainability benchmarks for investors such as country and regional indices.”
David Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the S&P Dow Jones Index Committee: “Both the importance and the understanding of sustainability has grown dramatically over the past decade and a half. During that time the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices have been established as the leading benchmark in the field. S&P Dow Jones Indices is pleased to work with RobecoSAM in combining S&P DJI’s experience with indices and RobecoSAM’s expertise in assessing corporate sustainability programs.”
RobecoSAM recognizes the following companies for being in the DJSI World all 15 years:
The DJSI follow a best-in-class approach, including companies across all industries that outperform their peers in numerous sustainability metrics. Each year over 3,000 companies, including 800 companies from emerging markets, are invited to participate in RobecoSAM’s Corporate Sustainability Assessment, which provides an in-depth analysis of financially material economic, environmental, and social practices.
Following this assessment, RobecoSAM identifies the top company in each of the 24 industry groups (according to GICS):
The following changes affect the DJSI Family, effective on September 22, 2014:
