Kudos for reputation and reporting
In December 2007, Rio Tinto ranked among the top ten companies globally in 2007 for ethical reputation across all industry sectors by the Covalence ethical quotation system of Switzerland.
At the same time, two other benchmarking organisations in the US and Australia ranked Rio Tinto highly for sustainable development performance and reporting.
Rio Tinto is ranked seventh across all sectors by Covalence in the ranking for "Best EthicalQuote Score". In the mining industry Rio Tinto is first for "Best EthicalQuote Progress" and "Best Reported Performance" as well as second for "Best EthicalQuote Score". Covalence says across all sectors in 2007 "Rio Tinto, Dell and Marks & Spencer enter the top ten EthicalQuote Score replacing BP, GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol Myers Squibb".
Best EthicalQuote Score and Best EthicalQuote Progress are based on positive and negative news. Best Reported Performance is calculated by quantifying positive news only - it shows how companies report on their ethical performance without considering criticisms and demands. Some companies being highly targeted by activists have a low EthicalQuote Score while at the same time ranking high in terms of Reported Performance.
Covalence's reputation index is based on quantifying qualitative data, which are classified according to 45 criteria such as Labour standards, Waste management, Product social utility or Human rights policy. It is a barometer of how multinationals are perceived in the ethical field. The system integrates thousands of documents found among media, enterprise, NGO and other sources, to produce the EthicalQuote curves. These curves measure the historical evolution of the reputation of companies regarding ethical issues. Covalence monitors ten sectors including 200 companies that are classified as the largest market capitalisations in the Dow Jones World Index.
Separately, the Roberts Environmental Center (Claremont McKenna College in California) has released a benchmark for sustainable development reporting that places Rio Tinto fourth in a pool of 26 mining and crude oil production Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 1000 companies. Occidental Petroleum and Rio Tinto Group shared grades of B+, and BHP Billiton a B.
All materials were scored using the Center's Pacific Sustainability Index which also provides grades for six subcategories of reporting. On the environmental side A+ went to Rio Tinto and Anglo American for expressed environmental intent. In the social categories, Rio Tinto was given an A+ for social reporting and social performance. The findings were based on information available on the web sites of the companies. See
In Australia Rio Tinto has once again been selected as a member of the AuSSI (Australian SAM Sustainability Index) for 2007-2008.