How sustainable are the world’s largest companies?

The Impaakt List: 20 companies ranked on their environmental and social impact.

With great power, comes great responsibility.

In this article, we’ve picked 20 of the largest companies in the world (based on the market value) and ranked them to show you how they impact key environmental factors, like Climate Stability as well as social factors, like our Well-being.

You’ll see their Impact Score (which shows us how positive or negative their impact on the world is on a scale from -5 to +5) and we’ve broken down this score into social and environmental scores too, so you know which areas they are performing well on and which need serious attention.

This is the Impaakt List, read on to learn about 20 companies with the most impact on the planet and the people who inhabit it.

The Impaakt List: 20 Companies with the most impact on the world.

Mastercard

Mastercard’s Impact Score is positive. The company have scored the highest on Basic Needs and Decent Work and lowest regarding Well-Being and Climate Stability.

Much of their positive impact is linked to social programs that have increased economic inclusion in developing communities and delivered job search support for individuals who found themselves unemployed due to the COVID19 pandemic.

However, Mastercard are creating a negative impact on climate change, plastic pollution, data security and privacy by emitting hundreds of thousands of tons of GHG emissions every year and distributing billions of plastic cards.

Let the Impaakt Community know what you think about Mastercard’s sustainability efforts and overall impact.

Verizon

Overall, Verizon’s impact on society and the environment is positive. The Impact Score breakdown tells us that most of Verizon’s positive impact stems from social programs that provided students with access to technology, helping to bridge the digital divide. For those that are struggling to pay bills during the COVID19 pandemic, Verizon have included 1.5 million of its subscribers in Verizon’s “ Stay Connected” repayment program — 300,000 of which are non-paying.

Regarding Climate Stability, Verizon helped their customers avoid GHG emissions through innovative telecommunications services. Nonetheless, Verizon still emits millions of tons of GHG emissions every year through their business operations. Even with their customers’ emission savings, Verizon are still contributing to the exacerbation of climate change.

Another concern for Verizon is the continued data breaches involving millions of customers, which have exposed names, addresses, account details, and PINs. Verizon are not doing enough to protect their customer’s data in an increasingly digital world.

Not only to read more, but to go ahead and have your voice heard- be sure you read and rate Verizon’s global impact here.

Microsoft

Microsoft outperforms many competitors on their social impact, with very positive scores on Basic Needs, Well-Being and Decent Work, but they face challenges when looking at how they impact the environment.

Their positive contributions to society are seen through their input on quality education with their digital skills initiative reaching 10 million learners. We also see positive impacts on gender equality in the workforce and using their innovations to develop tools like a health care bot to reduce pressure on hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

They do make efforts to limit their environmental impact by committing to becoming water positive, but still, the total water withdrew by them in 2019 was 7.9 Mn m3, equivalent to 20.6 million people’s water use for a day. They also address product waste through their recycling scheme but fail to disclose fully their total waste generation numbers.

These efforts fail to offset Microsoft’s carbon emissions which drives down their overall environmental performance.

Learn more about Microsoft and make your ratings about their impact here.

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson and Johnson have a positive Impact Score.

When looking at their performance on Basic Needs the positive impact of medicines they provide is one driver, we also note their initiatives to reduce infant mortality rates and their overarching support for universal health care. Unfortunately, their part in the opioid crisis has lowered their score in this area. Johnson and Johnson have also been involved in numerous corruption cases with them paying billions over the years for facilitating illegal bribes and kickback schemes.

Johnson and Johnson have not done enough to address their water usage with much of it coming from water-stressed areas and other negative environmental outcomes are seen through the impact of their products on landfills. However, the company did formalize the Global Aquatic Ingredient Assessment to monitor the impact of ingredients on marine life.

As one of the largest pharmaceutical companies on the planet, Johnson and Johnson have an opportunity to create real change, unfortunately, there are still some negating factors in play that hold them back from achieving a higher score.

Have your say on the impact of Johnson & Johnson by rating their impact.

JP Morgan Chase

JP Morgan Chase has a negative Impact Score as rated by the Impaakt community. The majority of their negative impact is driven through environmental factors, with a large impact on Climate Stability and Healthy Ecosystems.

They are the leading investor in fossil fuel expansion accounting for 10% of all fossil fuel investment, as well as being the top lender for oil and gas drilling in the arctic. JP Morgan Chase are thus directly contributing to climate change and water pollution through their financing.

They do perform well on social topics such as gender equality and quality education through their skills gap initiative. They also drive financial inclusion in developing countries through their microfinancing programs.

Learn more about JP Morgan Chase on the Impaakt platform.

Tencent Holdings

Tencent Holdings, the multinational tech company, perform with a marginally negative Impact Score. Their positive performing areas are Decent Work and Basic Needs with their environmental impact coming out far worse.

Tencent Holdings mobile insurance platform WeSure is used by over 25 million people, which is expanding the reach of urban healthcare information and improving access to affordable health care. Their work to fund small businesses struggling during the Covid pandemic with $282 million also facilitated economic growth and supported small businesses.

However, they have been accused of interfering with freedom of speech in China with their social platform WeChat, the same platform was also called out for data privacy abuse.

Environmental outcomes are a problem area, with their water usage, energy consumption and GHG emissions all having a large negative impact on the world. Tencent need to begin addressing their environmental impacts as a priority.

Read more about Tencent Holdings here.

Walmart

Walmart have an overall negative impact on society and the environment on almost all fronts: Social and Environmental outcomes. Positive social contributions are significantly undermined by their employees’ dismal treatment, impact on local communities, and exploitive supply chains.

Walmart pays unliveable wages that are insufficient to break the poverty loop, even after working full time. This is concerning, mainly because Walmart employs 2.3 million people. Not only are wages dangerously low, but in a couple of instances, Walmart were caught barring over 200,000 employees from taking meal and rest breaks.

When it comes to Basic Needs Walmart have played a vital role in helping address food poverty by providing food to impoverished communities through their food waste program, alongside the funding they provide to non-profit ‘Feeding America’.

While Walmart’s store presence provides customers lower prices on household goods — this does not capture the whole picture. Walmart stores in local communities create a net loss of jobs, less revenue for the community, and fewer small businesses.

On top of that, the supply chain is riddled with human rights abuses and deforestation.

Walmart makes an effort to limit their negative impact through programs like the “ Women Entrepreneurship Development Program”, but it not enough to deliver an overall positive impact. Walmart should take a more holistic approach to their business so that they not only provide value to customers but to their workers and supply chains as well.

We would like to know your thoughts about Walmart, rate them here.

Saudi Aramco

As the world’s largest Oil and Gas producer, it is no surprise that Saudi Aramco’s environmental score is negative.

Their impact on Climate Stability is significant. In their reports, they do not disclose scope 3 emissions created when a customer burns their fuels, which account for 80% of total emissions for fossil-fuel producers. Their scope 3 emissions are estimated to be 1.6 bn tCO2e, more than 4% of global emissions.

Saudi Aramco do run several initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions, including planting mangroves, and a carbon capture facility however this facility only accounted for less than 0.04% of their scope 3 emissions.

Saudi Aramco make some positive contributions to society through their training programmes and by focusing on domestic employment, but they are making slow progress on topics such as gender equality.

There is a lot of work to do on Environmental impact, particularly in addressing how sustainable their core activities of oil and gas extraction really are.

Read and rate Saudi Aramco on the Impaakt platform.

Apple

Tech giant Apple has some work to do in improving their overall sustainability, with low scores on both environmental and social outcomes.

With multiple links to child labor and Uyghur forced labor within their supply chain, they are having a very negative impact on Decent Work. Apple must also face the fact that their products contribute to screen addiction which is bad for their users Well Being.

Other major concerns arise when digging into Apple’s impact on Climate Stability. We can see that their energy consumption (with only 0.08% coming from renewable sources) has a negative impact, along with their substantial emissions caused not only by manufacturing their products but down the product lifecycle, including usage.

As the world’s most profitable digital company Apple has the opportunity to conduct more sustainable practices, it remains to be seen if any of their initiatives will have enough of an impact to improve their Impact Score.

Want to know more?

Find the full Impaakt List here

These 20 companies just scratch the surface. You can learn about the impact of hundreds of companies on the Impaakt platform. Arm yourself with the right knowledge to make a difference by joining our community of contributers.

Originally published at https://www.impaakt.com.