DS Smith scored 67 in the 2021 S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, reflecting an improvement of 16 points over the last year. The company achieved maximum scores for environmental reporting, product design criteria, resource efficiency benefits of products, and use of recycled and sustainably sourced materials. The result places DS Smith ahead of the average score of 38 in the Containers and Packaging industry.
DS Smith received recognition for its Circular Design Principles and Circular Design Metrics, as well as its ambitious targets to protect natural resources as part of its Now and Next sustainability strategy, reflecting the company’s commitment to place the circular economy at the heart of its business. A significant score increase was also achieved in the areas of climate strategy and water-related risks, reflecting the climate scenario analysis undertaken as part of DS Smith’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reporting.
Wouter van Tol, Head of Sustainability, Community and Government Affairs, DS Smith said, “Participation in the S&P CSA helps us understand what investors care about across a full breadth of issues and to benchmark our performance against our own criteria but also in comparison to other organisations. We are delighted to have increased our score and continue to drive ESG performance through our Now and Next sustainability strategy, applying the insights obtained from these ratings to understand where there are opportunities to achieve even more.”
Oliver Bradley, Sustainability Reporting Manager, DS Smith added, “The questions in the CSA require publicly available sustainability metrics and reflect what investors expect to see from our sustainability reporting, which is increasingly greater depth and detail. We used the 2020 CSA results as a key tool in developing our Sustainability Report 2021, leading us to publish a record amount of ESG data. This level of transparency brings clarity to help our stakeholders make better decisions and that is reflected in our improved 2021 CSA score.”
