Merco has announced in an online webinar the 100 most responsible companies in ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) terms in Spain in 2022. Through this monitor, Merco offers a holistic measurement of business sustainability, incorporating corporate performance into stakeholder assessment. “Sustainability is no longer an option, it is a corporate obligation. We can differentiate in companies three levels of addressing ESG: the first, complying with the regulations; the second, betting on it to create differentiation and certain value; the third, to integrate sustainability into the business model. And in this last scenario are the leading organizations: those that promote and transform the company by being careful with the Environment, Responsible with People (employees, clients, society) and ethical in Corporate Governance”, explained José María San Segundo, CEO of Merco.

The reputational management tool for sustainable performance is published after an exhaustive and detailed analysis of more than 49,066 surveys, in which 25 sources of information and 7 perspectives have been taken as a reference.

In 2022, Grupo Social Once (1st), Mercadona (2nd) and Inditex (3rd) are the three most responsible companies in Spain under ESG criteria. The top ten is completed by Ikea (4th), Mapfre (5th), Mahou San Miguel (6th), Mutua Madrileña (7th), Caixabank (8th), Pascual (9th) and Telefónica (10th).

As a reputational management tool, Merco Responsabilidad ESG has incorporated the detailed analysis that the public make in each of the three dimensions of Sustainability: Environment (E), Society (S) and Governance (G), with Ecoalf leading the first variable ( E) and Grupo Social Once the remaining two (S and G).

Main ratings by public

Spanish Managers highlight Ethical Behavior (77.9/100) as the main strength of the most responsible companies, followed by Contribution to the Community (76.8) and Responsibility with Employees (76.1), a profile similar to that also provided by the Experts in CSR. For these, the most outstanding value of the hundred companies is in Employee Responsibility (63), followed by Transparency and Good Governance (62.4) and Ethical Behavior (61.6). Both interest groups coincide in pointing out the Commitment to the environment and climate change as the main corporate challenge.

In the CSR Experts, in a three-year retrospective, an improvement is perceived in their assessments of the set of variables, with an increase in almost all of them. Especially appreciable is the +3 point evolution of the 'Commitment to the Environment and Climate Change', which, although it continues to be the variable with the lowest value, achieves faster progress.

One of the main methodological novelties has consisted of the incorporation of a new group of experts, 'Society Journalists', those specialized in covering the ESG responsibility of companies. These have valued on a scale of 0-100 the Information Transparency of the companies, the Efficiency in Communication, Social Responsibility and Environmental Responsibility. The Effectiveness in Communication (62.9) of the companies stands out for these journalists, which seems to indicate their degree of acceptance with respect to the communication of the environmental, social and ethical performance of the most responsible companies.

For the general population, whose assessment is given based on the Merco Sociedad variables, the companies with the best ESG performance have been Grupo Social ONCE (1st), Mercadona (2nd), IKEA (3rd), Decathlon (4th) and Leroy Merlin (5th). The results show how citizens reward sectors such as Specialized Distribution, General Distribution, Food and Beverage or Automotive.

In the assessment made by workers about the responsibility of their companies, the areas of fiscal responsibility (8.92 out of 10) and with clients (8.63) stand out compared to others such as the company-employee relationship (7.75). Internally, they better value the commitment their companies make to female Talent (8.21) compared to the Talent of people with disabilities (7.23) or seniors (7.03).

(*) The monitoring of the methodology established by Merco has been subject to independent review by KPMG. For this reason, KPMG does not make its position in this ranking public.

See ranking ESG Spain 2022