An extensive survey that aims to reveal perceived global leaders in corporate sustainability has revealed that Unilever, Patagonia, Interface and M&S currently rank most highly. The survey was delivered across 87 countries and has measured the opinions of expert stakeholders from business, government, NGOs, and academia.

Unilever comes top of the leader board for the fourth year running, and by the largest margin yet, revealing that it is regarded as the number one corporate sustainability leader. The survey measures companies who incorporate sustainability into their business structure. The sustainability industry is dynamic, and current top players are largely retailers in the food industry and those delivering consumer products, since these sectors have the most control over the global supply chain.

The Sustainability Leaders Report tracks the 20 year evolution of the sustainability agenda, and of the institutions driving it forward. Perceived corporate leaders have been tracked since 1997 with Dow, BP, Shell, Interface, Walmart and Unilever respectively coming top of the leader board.

Eric Whan, director of sustainability at GlobeScan, reflects on the evolution of corporate sustainability, “Comparing the current crop of recognized leaders with those from a decade ago, we see that we have moved from an era of ‘do no harm’ leadership where risk management was the dominant framework to one where early stages of transformation are emerging.”