Use CSRHub for Stock Picks?

By Bahar Gidwani

A recent post on TriplePundit compared two companies using CSRHub.

Thanks for looking at CSRHub, as part of your investigation. As you know, we bring together hundreds of sources of sustainability information on more than 7,300 companies in 93 countries. Our goal is to create metrics that will help improve corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Our site is not designed to help you pick stocks. It is designed to help you evaluate whether or not a company is transparent about its social activities, how well it treats its employees, whether or not it has taken steps to cut its carbon and improve its supply chain, and so on.

For instance, McDonald's has reported its social performance using the Global Reporting Initiative framework--Chipotle has not. McDonald's has won awards for supporting Hispanic suppliers, for its treatment of women managers, and it has joined the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. Chipotle hasn't won these awards or joined SPC.

At the same time, McDonald's product (e.g., its food), doesn't get good ratings for its sustainability from Better World (McDonald's gets a D- compared to an A for Chipotle). Both companies get decent scores on their human rights performance from Human Rights Campaign, but McDonald's has a more balanced board structure, that probably provides stronger oversight than Chipotle receives.

From the above, you can see that if you want a more sustainable sandwich, you might choose Chipotle. If you want to eat in a place that  is friendly to Hispanics, you might choose McDonald's. We believe that improvements in sustainability will be driven by a wide range of factors--and a wide range of personal views. We try to give you the data you need to make your own decision about which company you want to buy from, sell to, or work with--based on what is important to you.

Our data probably won't tell you which stock will go up and which will go down. Stock prices--at least in the near term--are driven much more by earnings and other corporate news than by what score a company gets from a ratings source. However, we believe your personal choice of a Chipotle meal rather than a McDonald's meal--based on your understanding and knowledge of each company's corporate social responsibility performance--should eventually make a difference in how each company behaves. Our goal has been to allow you to make more informed choices. We hope we've achieved that and given you reasons to probe further and to learn more.

Bahar Gidwani is CEO and Co-founder of CSRHub. He has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA, worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. Bahar has consulted to a number of major companies and currently serves on the board of several software and Web companies. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. Bahar is a member of the SASB Advisory Board. He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York City.

CSRHub provides access to corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information on 7,300+ companies from 135 industries in 93 countries. By aggregating and normalizing the information from 230 data sources, CSRHub has created a broad, consistent rating system and a searchable database that links millions of rating elements back to their source. Managers, researchers and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices and seek ways to change the world.