Romanian companies not open to ESG, Global ESG Monitor says

Romanian corporations significantly trail their global peers when it comes to the reporting of non-financial ESG data, according to Global ESG Monitor (GEM), a research project dedicated to investigating transparency in non-financial reporting.

“Unfortunately for stakeholders, investors, and the world at large, transparency in sustainability reporting was not a high priority in Romania,” GEM says in a press release.

The project covered the 20 companies included in the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BET) index as part of the 350-company global universe (which results in an encouraging share of 5.7% for Romania).

Romania’s index scored last in the GEM rankings globally, achieving an average of just 41 points out of a possible 100 and trailing leading indexes in the United States, Asia, Australia, and other parts of Europe.

The ESG reports issued by Sustainalytics on the BVB companies are somehow more encouraging, with TeraPlast, for instance, seen among the 25% best ESG scores for the companies in the sector, covered by Sustainalytics – compared to a modest 29/100 score given by GEM.

BVB launched its first ESG guidelines last November with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the ESG hubis already available with reports for each company. However, some major BVB companies (including Fondul Proprietatea or MedLife) have carried out such reports.

The ESG Research Reports are independently prepared by Sustainalytics, one of the leading global providers of ESG Ratings and Research, based on a collaboration with Bucharest Stock Exchange, initiated in 2020. The scores are calculated using publicly available disclosures and reports.

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