The CSR Online Awards have announced the results of their second annual study of online CSR communications in the UK. BT, a new entry into the study this year, took first place, followed up by Centrica and Xstrata in second and third place respectively.

The Awards, based on research carried out by the Italy-based communications consultancy Lundquist, evaluate how the top 30 companies in the FTSE 100 communicate corporate social responsibility online according to stakeholders’ needs.

The rankings are part of the wider study carried out by Lundquist into global CSR online, in which they evaluate the 91 top members of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and produce country rankings for Austria, Italy, Germany and Switzerland.

Although the assessed UK companies outperformed several other European territories and the US, the study has revealed that most British companies are failing to keep pace with stakeholder expectations when it comes to online engagement; in particular, companies are failing to establish constructive dialogues with their stakeholders, and to provide information on topics such as socially responsible investment, ethics, and governance.

The average score of the companies evaluated in the UK was 46.4 points out of 100, a slip from 50.9 points in 2009. This seems to indicate that companies are reverting to communicating through corporate websites and scaling back other channels of online CSR communications.

Top 10 UK

1. BT (70.5 points)
2. Centrica (68.5)
3. Xstrata (65)
4= GSK (64.5)
4= Royal Dutch Shell (64.5)
6= National Grid (61.5)
6= Unilever (61.5)
8. AstraZeneca (57)
9. SABMiller (56.5)
10. Rio Tinto (56)

Best improvers
1. GSK (+9)
2. BG Group (+6)
3. Imperial Tobacco (+6)
4. Xstrata (+6)