Unlike measuring the financial performance of companies, methodology to measure how sustainable and accountable companies are is far less developed and standardised.
Using publicly available information such as annual and sustainability reports, the Accountability Rating measures companies on six "dimensions":
- Strategy: This is the company's ability to identify and incorporate social, environmental and broader economic issues into its core business strategy.
- Governance: Are the company's senior executives committed to sustainability practices at board level? This measure includes a detailed evaluation of board-level governance controls and structures to ensure accountability at the highest levels.
- Performance management: Is the company able to implement company codes and policies that ensure social, environment and economic development while meeting financial targets?
- Stakeholder engagement: Measures the company's ability to identify, engage and respond to key stakeholders who can either have an effect on, or are affected by the way the company conducts its business.
- Public disclosure: Assesses how transparent the company is through its public disclosure of information regarding its interaction with and impact on society, the environment and broader economic factors.
- Assurance: Does the company use independent, impartial assurance to verify the extent and accuracy of its public disclosure.
The relative weightings of the domains are: strategy (20%), governance (15%), performance management (15%), stakeholder engagement (20%), public disclosure (15%) and assurance (15%).
