Cummins ends year with strong ratings on sustainability

The new rankings follow Cummins’ return to the S&P Dow Jones 2021 World Sustainability Index and the company’s inclusion among the inaugural recipients of the Terra Carta Seal for sustainability leadership from the Prince of Wales, both announced in November.

MANAGEMENT TOP 250

Cummins, No. 150 in the most recent Fortune 500 rankings, finished in a three-way tie for No. 79 in the Management Top 250, which is prepared for The Journal by Claremont Graduate University. The ranking is based on the principles of the Institute’s founder, Peter F. Drucker (1909-2005), a management consultant, educator and author, who wrote a monthly column at the newspaper for some two decades. 

The rating, based on 34 different indicators, evaluates nearly 900 of America's largest publicly traded companies in five key areas - Customer Satisfaction, Employee Engagement and Development, Innovation, Social Responsibility, and Financial Strength - to come up with an Effectiveness score. The companies are not separated by industry.

Cummins' strongest ranking was in Social Responsibility, which was based on a variety of environmental, social and governance indicators including performance against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Cummins tied for 14th in this category.

MOST RESPONSIBLE COMPANIES

Meanwhile, Cummins ranked No. 77 in Newsweek’s Most Responsible Companies list, behind only General Motors (No. 36) in the Automotive & Components category.

The survey, the product of a partnership between the magazine and the global research and data firm Statista, started with a pool of the 2,000 of the largest public companies, then was narrowed to those with some form of sustainability report. It then analyzed those companies based on publicly available data, developing scores on environmental, social and governance performance.

Statista also conducted a poll of public perceptions related to corporate social responsibility as part of the review. Cummins' strongest score was on the environment, followed closely by governance and then social. 

While Cummins made the top 100 in both rankings, its total score was lower than last year. The company finished No. 64 in last year's Journal-Drucker Institute ranking and No. 24 in the last Newsweek-Statista rating. 

OTHER RANKINGS

The company has done well in a number of sustainability-related rankings over the past year, including:

•    A Silver Medal for sustainability achievement from Ecovadis, which has provided sustainability business ratings since 2007.
•    An ESG (environment, social and governance) Low Risk Rating from Sustainalytics, an environmental, social, and governance research and data company.
•    ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services) QualityScore ratings of Environment – 1, Social – 1, and Governance – 3 on a 10-point scale (where 1 is the highest rating). 
•    A No. 49 ranking on 3BL Media’s 2021 Best Corporate Citizens List, which evaluates public companies on their performance on environmental, financial, governance and human rights matters.