The result is the SD400 guide that ranks the 400 top leaders in 12 key categories.

The research was led by ACBI director Henk Volberda. Over 2,700 corporate decision-makers in the Netherlands were surveyed, asking them to evaluate other businesses on their sustainability efforts. This assessment focused on environmental and social sustainability as well as good corporate governance. Among the winners in various categories are companies such as Blauwhoed Real Estate (Construction and Real Estate), Triodos Bank (Financial Services), and Fairphone (ICT).

The ranking is cause for optimism for Volberda. ‘These companies understand that their mission is more than just turning a profit’, explains the UvA professor. He also notes that contentious industries such as the airline KLM and Shell were not judged as harshly by their peers as they would have been by the general public. ‘Companies in similar sectors understand that transitions for these kinds of companies represent an enormous challenge.’

Volberda also states that more needs to be done to meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals. Some companies are scaling back their sustainability efforts and there’s even an anti-ESG (Environment, Sustainability and Governance) movement emerging in the United States. ‘Many organisations set ambitious targets for 2025 and 2030. But as these deadlines get closer, they are realising that the achieving these goals was a bigger challenge than they first thought’, says Volberda.