Marks & Spencer ranked first in new human rights benchmark

London - Fashion retailers looking to improve their corporate social responsibility (CSR) should take heed of the example set by Marks & Spencer. The British high street retailer has been ranked as one of the leading companies in a new benchmark 'The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark.'

Seen as the first public ranking of corporate human rights performance, the benchmark, which is led by non-profit groups and investors, seeks to incentivise companies to strive for moral and commercial advantages linked to holding a strong human rights record. M&S Group, together with Adidas, Nestle, Unilever and BHP Billiton are among a small group of leading performers who are pushing forward corporate human rights performance. However only three companies scored more than 60 percent, as the average score for the companies came out at 28.7 percent. Companies including Costco Wholesale, Macy’s, Grupo Mexico and Yum! Brands were among those with the lowest scores.

M&S tops first public corporate human rights benchmark

"Competition is a beautiful thing when it is used to do good," commented Mark Wilson, Group Chief Executive Officer of Aviva Investors, one of the investors behind the benchmark. "For the first time we have a public measure of companies’ human rights performance which will focus attention in the boardroom on their performance versus other companies and allow investors to ask the right questions. More transparency and a desire to improve in the rankings will spark a race to the top in corporate human rights."

Over 400 companies and organisations from different sectors, including apparel, were scored on 100 indicators across six measurement themes, which ranges from practices, to transparency, governance and processes. Marks & Spencer emerged as the leading company in apparel from a group of 30 large apparel companies, securing its spot with a score of between 60 and 69 percent. Adidas was the second largest fashion company among the leading performers, with a score of between 50 and 59 percent. Swedish fashion company Hennes & Mauritz, Gap Inc and Nike all scored significantly less, between 40 and 49 percent.

"This first Benchmark is a baseline," added Vicky Dodman, Chief Executive of the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark. "In the future, we want to see companies move up as they respond to increased public scrutiny and engagement from investors. Inaction runs a high reputational risk and low scoring companies should act decisively, learn from leading practices, and rapidly improve."

Other apparel companies that scored under 30 percent include Coach, Next, Nordstrom, Prada, Hermes, Under Armour, Fast Retailing and Walmart, with Macy's and Kohl's appearing in the lowest score, between 0 to 9 percent. The report encourages these companies to look to the best practices used by the industry leaders.

Photo: By By Ninjakeg (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons