The market for green construction materials is projected to more than double to $254bn by 2020, driven by pro-green policies and consumer demand. National governments are perceived as poor leaders in sustainability, while social entrepreneurs rank highest in sustainability leadership according to the annual sustainability leaders survey. Additionally, the US leads in fiscal incentives for the green economy but drops in ranking for green tax penalties, and nearly two-thirds of large companies fail to fully disclose greenhouse gas emissions data.

1. Organisation snapshots
Eco-building set
to boom
The market for green construction
materials is set to more than double
by the end of the decade, increasing
from $116bn at present to $254bn by
2020. A report by analyst firm
Navigant Research finds the market
for environmentally friendly building
products is remarkably recession-
proof. Growth in the sector will
depend on a combination of pro-
green policies and regulations, the
expansion of voluntary certification
programmes, cost reductions for
green materias and consumer
demand. The upbeat findings echo
research by building firm McGraw-
Hill Construction, which reckons
green building will double from 28%
of its market today to 60% by 2015.
www.navigantresearch.com
Sustainability leaders
National governments are the worst at
demonstrating sustainability leadership,
with 80% of opinion leaders judging
governments’ performance as poor (ie
with a score of 1 or 2, on a scale of 1
to 5 where 5 is “excellent”). The
annual Sustainability Leaders survey,
by GlobeScan and SustainAbility ranks
social entrepreneurs in first place (with
57% giving the sector a score of 4 or 5).
Scientific leaders and NGO leaders
followed, with scores of 4 or 5 taking
44% and 42% of the votes, respectively).
The corporate sector’s leadership
Corporate responsibility cheat sheet
By Oliver Balch
All the sustainable business facts and figures you need
Cheat sheet26 Ethical Corporation • June 2013
Global Compact’s global network
The UN Global Compact now counts small and
medium-sized enterprises as its most active group of
participants. SMEs now account for 3,829 of the 10,706
participating organisations, 36% of the total, according
to the annual report of the benchmark United Nations
initiative for corporate responsibility. Larger companies
account for 30%, with the remaining 34% comprising
academic institutions, NGOs and government entities.
Of the 3,262 large companies involved in the Global
Compact, around half are from Europe (1,597
participants), one-quarter from the Americas (815
participants), one-fifth from Asia/Oceania (668 partici-
pants), and a mere 6% from Africa and the Middle East
(182 participants). Spain has the largest number of
participants with 1,377, followed by France with 863 and
the Nordic Network with 541. The initiative boasts 101
Local (ie national) Networks in total, with Burma as the
most notable addition in 2012.
Construction: reluctant retrofitters
European companies are “relatively active” in retrofitting
buildings compared with their counterparts in other
regions. A new report by The Economist Intelligence
Unit, in partnership with the World Business Council
for Sustainable Development, finds that more than
two-fifths (43%) of building sector executives in the EU
focus their emissions-cutting efforts on retrofits – more
than in the US (37%) and in China (23%), for example.
The sector’s efforts still need to double, however, if it is
to meet the EU goal of improving energy efficiency by
20% by 2020. Energy-efficient retrofits, or “deep retro-
fits” as they are known, currently account for a meagre
1% of existing building stock.
www.gbpn.org
Answers in urbanisation
Urbanisation is helping reduce poverty and improve
progress towards the Millennium Development
Goals. In south Asia, for example, 60% of urban
dwellers have access to sanitation facilities, compared
with 28% in rural areas. Meanwhile, access to safe
water in urban areas in developing countries was
almost complete by 2010, with 96% coverage,
compared with 81% of the rural population having
access. As for urban infant mortality rates, these range
from 8-9 percentage points lower than the rural rates
in Latin America and central Asia.
The findings, which are based on the World
Bank’s annual Global Monitoring Report, are not
universally positive. Slums in urban centres are
growing, for instance. The problem is particularly
acute in Asia, which is home to three-fifths of the
828 million slum dwellers. Africa and Latin
America house 25.5% and 13.4%, respectively. Cities
and towns in the developing world are expected to
attract 96% of the 1.4 billion people due to be added
the global population by 2030. According to the World
Bank, 970 million people will still be living on $1.25
or less per day by 2015. Around three-quarters of the
world’s poor (76%) currently live in rural areas.
www.worldbank.org/gmr2013
Africa on the up, but not
universally
Sub-Saharan Africa is growing quickly, but benefits
are unequally distributed, according to a new report
by UNDP. The region’s GDP grew by an average of
5.4% in 2013, making it one of the fastest-growing
regions in the world. Over the past decade, six of the
world’s 10 fastest growing countries have been
African. Consumer spending in the continent is
consequently expected to grow to $1.4tn by 2020,
$520bn more than in 2008. That said, sub-Saharan
Africa continues to struggle. Almost half of its 800
million population lives on incomes of less than $1.25
a day, while about 239 million people in the region
are currently malnourished. Life expectancy across
sub-Saharan Africa is 52.5 years, compared with
69.2 worldwide. Africa as a whole also faces stark
challenges. About 38% of the continent’s adult
population still lacks basic literacy and numeracy
skills, for instance. Low incomes also remain the
norm, with 97% of all Africans earning less than
$8 a day.
http://web.undp.org/africa
The green construction
materials market is set
to double by 2020 to
$254bn
SMEs nowaccountfor
36%
of UN Global Compactparticipants,
its mostactivegroup
ECM June 2013_Layout 1 28/05/2013 17:02 Page 26

2. scores were as follows: 5 (excellent),
2%; 4, 20%; 3, 40%, 2, 30%; 1 (poor),
7%; don’t know, 1%. The figures show
a small regional variation with respect
to the private sector. Sustainability
experts in Asia (32 votes in total) and in
Africa and the Middle East (also 32) are
fractionally more likely to judge corpo-
rate leaders as making an “excellent”
contribution to sustainability than their
peers in Europe (20), North America and
Latin America (22), and Oceania (9).
At a company level, Unilever
came top in the survey for the third
year in a row. The Anglo-Dutch
consumer goods company was
mentioned by one in four of the 1,170
qualified sustainability experts that
participated in the survey, up 8% on
last year. The other most mentioned
companies include Patagonia (14%),
Interface (11%) and Wal-Mart (8%).
Brazil’s Natura and India’s Tata were
the only companies that garnered
more than 1% of mentions from
experts in Europe and North America.
www.globescan.com
Limited scope
of GHG disclosure
Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the
world’s largest companies fail to
provide full and accurate information
about their greenhouse gas
emissions. Research by the
Environmental Investment Organi-
sation (EIO) also finds that eight in
ten (79%) of large global firms decline
to verify such data independently.
EIO’s Environmental Tracking
Carbon Rankings puts BASF in top
spot for GHG disclosure. The German
chemical company is credited for
publishing all 15 indirect (so-called
Scope 3) emissions. Its Scope 1, 2 and
3 emissions intensity measures 933
tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent
for every $1m of turnover. The foot-
print of the worst performer –
US-based First Energy – is more than
10 times the size, at an estimated
10,342 tCO2e/$m turnover.
The study, which is based on the
ET Global 800 portfolio of companies,
ranks Italy and Spain in joint first for
emissions transparency. Two-thirds
(63%) of companies in both countries
disclose complete data, with more
than half (54%) verifying their emis-
sions data externally as well.
www.eio.org.uk
US top for green
incentives
The US tops a new ranking by KPMG
on fiscal incentives for the green
economy. The KPMG Green Tax
Index singles out the world’s largest
economy for the federal-level tax
stimulus it offers investments in
energy efficiency, renewable energy
and green buildings. However, when
green tax penalties alone are consid-
ered, the US drops into 14th place –
behind the likes of China and South
Africa, among others. Second place
overall in the 20-country study goes
to Japan, which, in contrast to the
US, scores higher on green tax penal-
ties than it does on incentives. Japan
also leads the ranking for tax
measures to promote the use and
manufacture of green vehicles. The
UK is in third place, although it tops
the table for progressive tax
measures relating to carbon and
climate change. While KPMG insists
lessons can be gleaned from the fiscal
frameworks of all the countries
studied, it relegates Brazil,
Argentina, Mexico and Russia to the
bottom of the table.
www.kpmg.com
Assessing sub-suppliers
Almost one in three small and
medium-sized businesses with a
turnover of less than £25m have zero
information on their suppliers’
suppliers. In contrast, companies with
a turnover of over £1bn are more on
the ball, with around eight out of 10
having some data on their tier 2
suppliers. The findings emerge from
a poll of 131 directors, procurement
managers and buyers by logistics
consultancy firm Achilles.
400ppm carbon
in the atmosphere
The concentration of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere reached the
symbolically important 400 parts per
million in May. The findings were
recorded by the US government’s
Earth Systems Research centre in
Hawaii. CO2 atmospheric levels
registered around 280ppm at the start
of the industrial revolution, and have
increased by 84ppm over the past 55
years (since the Hawaii centre was
first established).
www.esrl.noaa.gov I
Cheat sheet 27Ethical Corporation • June 2013
Company insights
Adidas ratings rise
Adidas saw a “substantial” increase in its supplier factories’ sustainability
ratings during 2012, according to its recent Sustainability Progress Report.
The number of strategic suppliers with a 3C-rating (good) or better on the
company’s own internal ranking system now stands at 86%. More than a
third, meanwhile, have a 4C-rating or better, denoting the highest level of
performance. Among the other achievements highlighted by the sports
clothing brand are the 26,000 hours that its employees spent volunteering
on community projects in 22 countries.
www.adidas-group.com
Merck’s donations jump 49%
Pharmaceutical firm Merck increased its social investment budget by 49%
in 2012. Its expenditure on drug donations and social programmes
amounted to €11.8m, an increase of €3.9m on the previous year. One of
the significant components of its drug donation programme was the free
provision of more than 27m Praziquantel tablets to combat schistosomiasis
(a prevalent type of worm disease) in Africa. Merck was placed eighth in
the sector-based Access to Medicine Index 2012 (having previously been
17th out of 20 companies in 2010).
http://merck.online-report.eu
79%
of largeglobal firms decline
toverifygreenhousegas
emissions data
2nd place
goes to Japan in the KPMG
GreenTaxIndex
One-third
of small sized SMEs have
no information on their
suppliers’ suppliers
CO2 levels have increased by
84ppm
overthe last55 years
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