Kingspan only Irish firm to achieve 'A' rating in global climate survey

Kingspan is headed up by CEO Gene Murtagh

Fearghal O'Connor

January 26 2020 07:00 AM

Just one Irish company made the top rank of a new global league table used to help big investors identify the most environmentally-friendly businesses.

Cavan-based Kingspan was ranked in the 'A' division by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), along with 178 other global companies. The league table is designed to help institutional investors to assess companies in terms of sustainability credentials. The 'A' division includes household names such as Nestle, Lego and Ford, as well as major multinationals with big operations in Ireland, including Apple, Google and Microsoft.

AIB and Ingersoll Rand, a US company with its global headquarters in Swords, Co Dublin, both received 'A minus' scores.

Industry heavy hitters CRH, Kerry and Smurfit Kappa received 'B' grades, as did FBD, C&C and Mainstream Renewable Power. State companies ESB and An Post also received 'B' grades.

Bank of Ireland, DCC, Total Produce and Greencore were given 'C' grades. Close to half of the Irish companies listed received an 'F' grade. Those companies included Ryanair, Applegreen and Paddy Power parent Flutter Entertainment, as well as housebuilders Glenveagh and Cairn.

The 'F' rating given by CDP does not indicate a fail rating. Instead, the body said that it "indicates a failure to provide sufficient information to CDP to be evaluated".

In 2019, more than 8,400 companies disclosed through CDP, a 20pc increase, representing over 50pc of global market capitalisation.

Ryanair regularly claims to be the "greenest" airline, while Applegreen said it was "committed to the area of sustainability, with many existing initiatives having been in place across the business for a number of years".