Rate the Raters: What's Next
On July 12, SustainAbility released the fourth and final phase of Rate the Raters, which put forth our vision for the future of sustainability ratings and invited raters to answer some key questions regarding their approaches and methodologies. We will compile, analyze and communicate their responses in the spring of 2012.
While phase four officially concludes Rate the Raters, we will continue to research key topics, such as the influence of ratings on stakeholder decision making. We also regularly advise clients on how to get more value from the ratings process. For example, we recently worked with a financial services company to identify which ratings they should pay most attention to, and to use the performance criteria of those ratings as a catalyst for improving their sustainability goals, metrics and reporting strategy.
Contact us to discuss how we can help your organisation get more value from ratings.
Learn more about our ratings services
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Experts react to Rate the Raters Phase Four
A series of recent guest posts on our blog – one from a member of the project's advisory panel, and two from ratings organizations – have continued to discuss findings from Rate the Raters, and where we go from here:
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Rate the Raters Phase Four: Where do we go from here? – Intel's Suzanne Fallender weighs in on the future of sustainability ratings and rankings. | Read more
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Moving Towards Investor-Friendly Ratings – SAM's Cécile Churet on how we can raise the bar for "mainstream" sustainability ratings, i.e. those that truly serve the needs of investors. | Read more
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More Demand Will Drive Greater Quality and Transparency of Ratings – Michael Sadowski in a Q&A with Wood Turner and Mike Bellamente of Climate Counts. | Read more
Join the discussion
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London Workshop: Getting greater value out of sustainability ratings
For those in the UK, we will co-host, with Guardian Sustainable Business, a workshop on getting greater value out of sustainability ratings, in London on September 8th. Rate the Raters research leader Michael Sadowski will share his perspectives on how your company can take more control of the ratings agenda and use the results to better advance its sustainability efforts.
More information | Register now
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Labels and Beyond
We see a lot of discussion this month on product certifications, labels and standards. To mark the second anniversary of the Sustainability Index, a piece in Fortune discusses some of the challenges inherent in product sustainability scoring systems and asks: is it worth the effort? Meanwhile, GreenBuzz reports
on the perils of self-certification, the business value of sustainability standards and the open-source development process of the outdoor industry's Eco Index, and Treehugger raises eyebrows at Energy Star's new "Most Efficient" category.
Our view: many standards and labels have had and will continue to have significant impact, but like any tool they have limitations. There is a fundamental tension between the need for a credible and common set of standards to drive performance on the one hand, and the need for differentiating, brand-specific attributes to create consumer pull – and value for the business – on the other. The 2011 UN Global Compact International Yearbook features an article on SustainAbility’s ongoing research, Signed, Sealed… Delivered?
, as part of a special section on standards and labels that also includes commentary from ISEAL Alliance and the new WindMade wind energy certification.
Signed, Sealed… Delivered? will be launched late this fall in London and the US. Some of our early thinking and highlights from our June discussion groups can be seen on our blog (links below). And do join us on Twitter at #beyondlabels.
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Clean As a Whistle – Mark Lee on how Method's unique approach and success underscore emerging insights on the evolution of green marketing and ecolabels. | Read more
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Trust Marks 2.0 – Early insights from our research on what the next generation of 'trust marks' must look like. | Read more
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