Dow Jones Sustainability Group Indexes GmbH (DJSGI GmbH) announced the results of the Annual Review
2000 of the Dow Jones Sustainability Group Indexes (DJSGI), the worlds first global sustainability index family
tracking the performance of the leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide.
The Annual Review 2000 covered the following:
Component review based on the annual reassessment of the corporate sustainability performance of the
largest 2000 companies in the Dow Jones Global Indexes (DJGI) from 64 industry groups in 36 countries.
Effective October 6, 2000, the DJSGI will include 236 components from 61 industries in 27 countries,
representing the top 10% sustainability companies worldwide.
Free float market capitalization weighting of all the DJSGI components based on the free float portion
of the total number of shares outstanding. This ensures that the DJSGI remains fully integrated and
compatible with the DJGI, a key feature of the DJSGI.
Publication of all index components for the first time underscores full transparency. The current index
components are freely available on www.sustainability-index.com.
It has been a very successful first year for the DJSGI. Since January 1, 1999, the price, euro-denominated
DJSGI World index gained 59.2%, outperforming the MSCI World (58.4%) and slightly underperforming the DJGI
World (60.0%) indexes. After just one year, 17 licensees in 8 countries i.e. Belgium, France, Germany,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom – have issued a variety of DJSGI-based
financial products, including active and passive funds, equity baskets and index certificates.
According to David E. Moran, President, Dow Jones Indexes, Since the launch of the DJSGI in September 1999, we have seen corporate sustainability move beyond concepts to commitment, beyond principles to pragmatism, and beyond ideas to implementation. We have also seen the DJSGI used as both a corporate
sustainability indicator and incentive by industry and investors, alike. Investors are attracted to corporate
sustainability because, as a business strategy, it creates long-term shareholder value by embracing
opportunities and managing risks associated with economic, environmental and social developments.
Reto Ringger, Founder & CEO, SAM Sustainability Group, stressed that Financial product suppliers have
risen to the sustainability challenge and met the demand for increasingly sophisticated sustainability products.
The commercial success of the DJSGI and its related products confirms that the DJSGI are not only tracking
sustainability trends, they are actually setting them.
John Prestbo, Chief Editor, Dow Jones Indexes, continued that The superior performance of companies
integrating corporate sustainability in their business strategies is evidenced by some key financial parameters.
In the first half of 2000, the average ROE of companies in the DJSGI World index averaged 14.89% against
8.43% for those in the DJGI World index. Likewise, for the average ROI (DJSGI: 11.09% vs. DJGI: 7.37%) and the
average ROA (DJSGI: 5.81% vs. DJGI: 3.63%). This superior performance in 2000 is in line with the trend over the last 5 years, when the average DJSGI World indexs ROE was 14.73% against 9.87% for the DJGI World
index. During the same period the average ROI (DJSGI: 8.86% vs. DJGI: 6.97%) and the average ROA (DJSGI:
5.49% vs. DJGI: 4.77%) were also superior for sustainability-driven companies.
The DJSGI has been designed to provide investors and industry with a neutral, rigorous and transparent
measurement of sustainability performance. It not only tells them where they stand in terms of their economic,
environmental and social performance, but also how far they have come and how much further they have to go.
The DJSGI helps make sustainability matters much easier to understand, implement, measure and benefit
from, added Ivo Knoepfel, Head of Rating and Index Research, SAM Sustainability Group.
To maintain its premier market position, DJSGI GmbH keeps fully abreast of developments in the global equity markets. The move to free float weighting ensures that the DJSGI continues to provide investors with investable indexes that accurately track corporate sustainability performances and trends worldwide, concluded Alois Flatz, Head of Sustainability Research, SAM Sustainability Group.
