We see increasing recognition on the part of socially responsible investors that strong performance on sustainability issues can deliver improved financial results in the long term and provide a proxy for the overall quality of a firm's management.
We cooperate with many of the sustainability ranking organizations. Their rankings and the evaluations behind them are important for understanding our own position relative to the rest of the industry and for better understanding our strengths and weaknesses.
In 2008, we were included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America and the FTSE4Good Index, based on favorable evaluations of our sustainability programs and performance.
The UK organization Business in the Community, in its Corporate Responsibility Index, ranked Ford's performance as a "silver," with a score of 89.5 percent. We were only half a percentage point away from receiving a "gold" rating. Ford's scores were well above its peers in the categories of diversity, responsible products and marketplace management. Our principal areas of opportunity are waste and resource management, and scope of reporting. Business in the Community provided specific feedback on Ford's performance.
Ford earned "best-in-class" status for its environmental and social performance from Storebrand, a leading Scandinavian financial services company, which has approximately €25 billion in assets under management, all of which are subject to an extensive Group SRI Policy. Only those companies ranking in the top 30th percentile of Storebrand's corporate social responsibility performance analyses are considered "best in class." These companies also qualify for participation in Storebrand's investment universe.
Ford was ranked 23rd out of the Fortune 100 companies by the Accountability Rating, a tool developed to measure the extent to which companies have built responsible practices into the way they do business. This rating was developed by a leading corporate social responsibility consultancy called csrnetwork and the international think tank AccountAbility, and first applied in 2004. In a separate study by researchers at Brigham Young University and the consulting firm KD Paine and Partners, Ford was ranked sixth out of the Fortune 50 for the "transparency" of our online environmental sustainability reporting."1
Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine, in conjunction with the research and consulting firm IW Financial, ranked Ford 36th in their top 100 Corporate Citizens for 2008. This was the highest ranking of any automotive company. Within this overall ranking, Ford was ranked first out of all companies reviewed for Human Rights and 24th for Environment. This ranking system reviewed large-cap companies headquartered in the United States.
This sustainability report is an important means of providing information to investors. Our reporting has been recognized by several organizations.
We continue to maintain open communication with the investment community. We regularly host conference calls and participate in key automotive conferences during the year. In addition, our Investor Relations Web site is a good source of information for investors. It contains various Company reports, a schedule of events and investment information.
The report is available on The Measurement Standard Web site