The Ireland RepTrak Sustainability Index 2023, carried out by The Reputations Agency, revealed today that increased public scrutiny of sustainability credentials is having a negative impact on the reputation of organisations, with significant declines witnessed in the sustainability ranking of 100 of Ireland’s most recognisable organisations.

Bord Bia have topped the Ireland RepTrak Sustainability Index 2023 with An Post taking second place and the Credit Unions taking third place. The Ireland RepTrak Sustainability Index 2023 ranks 100 of the largest, most familiar, and most important organisations in Ireland by the public’s perceptions of their performance across four sustainability drivers - Social Performance, Conduct, Workplace, and Environmental Impact - which are then broken into a further 16 sustainability factors.

Bord Bia jumped nine places in the overall rankings from tenth in 2022 to first in 2023. The other big movers in the top ten include Kerry Group from 34th to seventh and Toyota from 25th to ninth. Three of the big media players in the Irish market saw significant improvements to their ranking within the top 100. Bauer Media Group jumped from 65th to 23rd, the Irish Times moved from 64th to 32nd and Mediahuis climbed from 91st to 45th. All three recorded average sustainability reputation scores and although RTÉ did improve its ranking from 92nd to 88th it produced a weak sustainability score.

Sustainability is increasing in importance in the eyes of consumers with 53% of a company’s reputation being driven by sustainability factors up from 51% in 2022, and an increase of almost 10 percentage points in the past decade, from 44% in 2013.

In 2022, 43 companies achieved a Strong score (70-79 rating) on the Index, with one company achieving an Excellent score (80+ rating), but in 2023 just 16 companies achieved a Strong score and none of the top 100 achieved an Excellent score. The number of companies with Weak scores increased from nine in 2022 to 14 in 2023 while one company received a Poor score (0-39,) whereas no company had received a Poor score in 2022. Scores decreased in part as uncertainty and financial burdens amongst the public drove reputation scores down, but also due to a more rigorous sustainability research methodology put in place in 2023.

Launching the results of the Ireland RepTrak Sustainability Index 2023, Niamh Boyle, Chief Executive, The Reputations Agency said, “In 2023 scores decreased in part due to concerns about war in Ukraine, international food supplies, the energy crisis, inflation, interest rate hikes and early year shocks to the global banking sector. Scores also declined due to a more rigorous research methodology that we put in place in 2023. Important elements of the new EU CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards) were included in this year's study, increasing the number of Sustainability factors that we measured from nine to 16 in 2023.

"Of the 16 sustainability factors that we studied, we found that the four most important elements driving corporate reputation amongst the public are ‘improving the lives of people and their communities’, ‘having a positive influence on society’, ‘being fair in the way they do business’ and ‘behaving ethically’.”

Dr Jennifer Scott, Managing Director, The Reputations Agency, said, “Consumers are not currently prioritising Environmental factors as being major drivers of a company’s reputation – such as being environmentally responsible, preventing pollution or using renewable energy sources. However, this does not mean enterprises can deprioritise their efforts in this area.

"The public currently rates company performance on these factors as Weak or Average, and we believe that, as the consequences of environmental degradation begin to impact more people personally through things like floods, wildfires or food shortages, they will increasingly perceive these as more immediate Social Performance and Conduct issues and therefore raise their expectations for enterprises to address them.

Deirdre Ryan, Director of Sustainability & Quality Assurance, Origin Green at Bord Bia, said, “At Bord Bia we’re proud to be recognised for our work in sustainability, environmental impact and social performance in this year’s Ireland RepTrak Sustainability Index – particularly given the impressive and important work that is being undertaken by our peers, industry partners and other leading Irish brands, many of whom are here today.

"Enabling the sustainable growth of our sector is central to Bord Bia’s mission to bring Ireland’s outstanding food, drink and horticulture produce to the world, and we endeavour to place sustainability, in all its forms, at the heart of all we do. This is an ongoing, challenging and ever-evolving journey.”