MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras elected leading ethical oil and gas company

Brazil's government managed oil and Petrobras was elected the leading ethical reputation multinational enterprise by Geneva-based Covalence Ethical Ranking 2008.

Covalence published last week its annual ethical ranking covering an enlarged universe of 541 multinationals and based on a renovated calculation methodology combining popularity and diversified performance. The ranking covered multinationals operating in 18 distinct sectors based on criteria such as the environmental impact the company's production has, its social responsibility, recycling, information for consumers, ecological innovation, international presence, environmental risk, labor standards, and anticorruption policy. The purpose of Covalence is to increase the density of information about sustainable development. In the global ranking, among all sectors, Petrobras appears as the best assessed Brazilian company, holding position 38. In the previous listing, the Company had ranked 65th in the general score, and 7th in the Oil & Gas sector. However it was the HSBC bank that was named the world's most ethical company out of 541 multinationals in 18 sectors by Covalence. The bank ranked above well-known names such as Intel, Unilever, Marks & Spencer, Xerox, Alcoa, Rio Tinto, General Electric, Dell Computer, and DuPont in the study – a barometer of how multinationals are perceived in the ethical field. The top twelve of the ranking are as follows: 1. HSBC Holdings; Banks; 2. Intel Corp; Technology; 3. Unilever, Food & Beverages; 4. Marks & Spencer; Retail; 5. Xerox; Technology; 6. Alcoa Inc; Basic Resources; 7. Rio Tinto, Basic Resources; 8. General Electric, Industrial Goods & Services; 9. Dell Computer, Technology; 10. DuPont de Nemours, Chemicals; 11. Sony Corp, Personal & Household Goods; 12. Procter & Gamble, Personal & Household Goods. Since January 2009 Covalence is applying a renovated calculation methodology to its Ethical Quote and Ethical Rankings. Three innovations are introduced: an ethical rate to control the effect of size; an erosion factor to control the effect of time; and the use of criteria groups to control the effect of trends. The objectives are to allow a better comparison of companies of different sizes, to offer a more dynamic measure of ethical reputation, and to favour integrated performance. The purpose of Covalence, which was founded in 2001, is to increase the availability of information about sustainable development by measuring the evolution of multinational enterprises' ethical performance. Covalence has clients and readers among multinationals, investors, governments, international organisations, NGOs and throughout the media.