DS Smith leaps forward in latest Sustainalytics ESG Risk Rating

We are excited to share that our latest Sustainalytics ESG Risk Rating, updated in October, has improved from 15.4 to 13.1 “Low Risk”.

This places us number 1 in our peer group (market cap: $5.7-8.9bn). 

A lower score indicates lower ESG risk, making DS Smith a better option for investors. 

This improvement places us in the 5th percentile of all companies and in the 12th percentile for Containers & Packaging. (1st percentile being the best, 100th percentile being the worst.) 

We placed at the top of our peer group for the management of risk relating to the impact of products and services, referring to input materials, and the impacts during use and recycling. 

This improvement is a result of our hard work to place the circular economy at the heart of our circular business, driven by our Now and Next Sustainability Strategy. 

"Circular economy is at the forefront of our customers’ minds and all the signs suggest that consumers will buy more and investors will invest more in organisations that make the shift to the circular economy. It is encouraging to see topics such as recycling factored into ESG ratings. A ‘negligible’ ESG risk rating for our sustainable products indicates that fibre-based packaging fit for the circular economy is a lower risk choice than other materials."

— Wouter van Tol, Head of Government Affairs, Community Affairs and Sustainability at DS Smith

"We are constantly improving our ESG reporting so that analysts have access to accurate and comprehensive data to produce analysis that is reflective of the developments we are making in our business. This latest result is particularly encouraging for all those colleagues who have been involved in embedding circularity in our business."

— Oliver Bradley, Sustainability Reporting Manager at DS Smith

Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Ratings span more than 12,000 companies and covers most major global indices. Its ratings framework is supported by 20 material ESG issues, with detailed information on 138 sub-industries. ESG Risk Ratings are categorised across five risk levels: negligible, low, medium, high, and severe. The ESG Risk Ratings are underpinned by more than 350 indicators (depending on the sub-industry) and 1,300 datapoints.