Unveiling Sustainability Leaders: A Technology-driven Approach of Assessing Firm Sustainability Performance

Abstract

This study attempts to measure the sustainability performance of diverse industries and provides a robust framework for systematic evaluation and rating of the companies. It offers a novel approach to sustainability assessment by integrating qualitative and quantitative analysis. It uses published sustainability reports of companies listed in NIFTY 50 and NIFTY Next 50. It employs a structured approach, comprising hybrid content analysis and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). Keywords have been extracted from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) report using the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) algorithm. WordNetLemmatizer finalizes the indicators and identifies content demonstrating compliance with respective indicators. MCDM has been used for computing sustainability performance scores. The findings suggest that Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-16 and SDG-12 are prominent among the 15 aligned United Nations (UN) SDGs. ‘HUL’ exhibits an exceptional performance, with most sustainability market leaders belonging to the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) industry. The results indicate a slight skewness towards better performance (51.89% of companies having a positive Z-score). It is posited that integrating this framework into corporate strategy would streamline gap identification in sustainability practices, enabling companies to employ proactive measures. It would also enhance transparency in sustainability reporting and assist stakeholders in informed decision-making. This framework addresses the limitation of prior studies focusing on isolated aspects by providing a holistic assessment (SDGs-aligned), assisting organizations in tracking their contribution towards accomplishment of the SDGs.