Puneet Varma (Editor)

Standard Ethics Aei

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Industry
  
Ratings

Services
  
Sustainability Rating

Founded
  
2001

Standard Ethics Aei

Headquarters
  
London and Brussels, Belgium, UK and Italy

Key people
  
Mrs.Blanche Ullens de Schooten (Chairman)

Products
  
Solicited Sustainability Ratings

Standard Ethics is a sustainability reporting and rating agency based in London and Brussels which aims at promoting corporate ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Socially responsible investing (SRI) and corporate governance according to the principles and guidelines of the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the European Union (EU). Standard Ethics in March 2013 becomes the first independent European Sustainability rating agency (Corporate social responsibility and Corporate Governance) following the decision to issue only rating on request ("solicited"), with a standard methodology.

Contents

Standard Ethics Rating

The Standard Ethics Rating is a Solicited Sustainability Rating (SSR). It is a rating that intends to deliver an opinion on the level of compliance by companies and sovereign nations in the field of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the basis of documents and guidelines published by the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), The European Union (EU). The methodological approach of Standard Ethics dates back to 2001, as a research department of the Agenzia Europea d’Investimenti (AEI) SpA, an Italian holding company active in the sustainable investments. It becomes a separate entity after a spin-off in 2003.

Assessment System

Since 2002, the final assessments by Standard Ethics on the level of conformity of companies and nations to the baseline ethical values are expressed with eight different Ratings: EEE; EEE-; EE+; EE; EE-; E+; E; E-.

  • "EEE" stands for ‘above average’;
  • "EE" for ‘average’;
  • "E" for ‘below average’.

    • Those nations and companies that do not comply with the values expressed by the United Nations do not receive ratings and are included amongst the "suspended" issuers. Standard Ethics uses an analyst-driven rating process, so the work to be carried out does not require applicants to fill out forms and questionnaires or draft other documentation in addition to existing information.

    Standard Ethics indices

    Publication of SERs grants access to one or more Standard Ethics indices according to company’s type and size. For Europe, Standard Ethics has created the following Indices:

  • Italian Index (With companies within the FTSE-MIB index of the Italian Stock Exchange that have been assigned a Standard Ethics Rating).
  • French Index (Composed of the largest French listed companies with a Standard Ethics Rating).
  • Belgium Index (Composed of the largest Belgium listed companies with a Standard Ethics Rating).
  • Swiss Index – Composed of the largest Swiss listed companies with a Standard Ethics Rating.
  • Italian MID Index (Composed of the Italian listed companies that have the Standard Ethics Rating and with a market cap above 250 million euro).
  • Italian SMALL Index (Composed of the Italian listed companies that have the Standard Ethics Rating and a market cap below 250 million euro).
  • European Green Bonds Index (Composed of all major Euro Green Bonds issue; Italian Banks Index. This is a governance Index with banks listed in the Italian Stock Exchange).

    • The way Standard Ethics reports on its indices is based on full disclosure.

    National Ratings

    The following 44 listings (in 2013, Standard Ethics for the first time assigns the rating to the Vatican City State):

    References

    Standard Ethics Aei Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA