ASDA improves ESG rating score

Asda has announced an improvement to its ESG rating score, following an external assessment by financial services ratings’ agency Sustainable Fitch.

For the second year in a row, Asda received an entity rating of 3 (1 = excellent, 5 = poor), with the retailer’s entity score improving to 57 from 54. The score from Sustainable Fitch takes into account “Asda’s continued efforts to mitigate material environmental and social impacts from its wide range of consumer products”.

An ESG rating is an external assessment of a company’s ESG performance and reflects how environmental and social initiatives are interwoven into the business strategy. The rating is relative to competitors and the wider industry, and a way for investors and all other interested parties to easily understand a company’s ESG profile, risks, and opportunities.

Sustainable Fitch positively rated Asda’s actions to increase volume share of healthier products, as well as improvements made to food nutrition labelling utilising Asda’s Live Better logo.

Asda’s transparent disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and continued action to reduce emissions over the past three years were also noted as positive steps.

In addition, the supermarket’s robust human and labour rights policies also contributed to the score improvement, with Sustainable Fitch also noting Asda’s balanced workforce supported its social profile, with 52% of employees being women.

Michael Gleeson, chief financial officer at Asda, said: “We’re pleased that Sustainable Fitch has recognised our ESG progress for the second year in a row. Over the last year, we’ve not only improved how we report with greater transparency, but we have continued to integrate ESG considerations into our business strategy. This score highlights to investors that we remain committed to responsible retailing and to acting on the issues that matter most to our customers.”