HCL Technologies, (HCL), a leading global technology company, has been recognized as the leader in the Edelweiss ESG Scorecard & Ratings and received the highest overall score among India’s Top NSE 100 companies. HCL was recognized for its best practices and effective integration of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) programs throughout its operations, reflecting HCL’s continued efforts and commitment toward sustainability and ESG. The framework assessed all NSE 100 companies on 40 key metrics spread across ESG and overall, HCL received an Edelweiss ESG score of 91.9 out of 100.
The Environment metric in the Edelweiss framework covered the nature of core business, impact of business on environmental emissions, waste disposals and effluents discharge. The Social metric covered impact of the company’s product, service on society, employee relationship, diversity and equality. The Governance metric covered the track record toward minority shareholders, capital allocation track record, board related metrics, and business and accounting disclosures quality. ESG factors that influence long term perceptions and valuations have higher weights in the Edelweiss framework.
HCL’s commitment to addressing ESG concerns flows from its desire to be a good citizen and the company’s focus on ESG has helped it deliver strong value and build lasting and productive relationships with its clients, employees and stakeholders. HCL’s Sustainability and ESG strategy, aligned to the United Nation’s Global Compact (UNGC) sustainable development goals, is organized around social, environmental and economic concerns – referred to as “People, Planet, and Prosperity.”
“At HCL, we consciously work toward integrating ESG programs into our strategies and company goals to deliver value to our clients, employees, investors and the communities in which we live and work. This recognition of HCL’s best business practices is extremely gratifying, and I would like to thank Edelweiss for recognizing our work, which will certainly act as an impetus going forward,” said C Vijayakumar, President and CEO, HCL Technologies.
The Edelweiss ESG Scorecard & Ratings framework assessed companies across 15 sectors on 40 critical ESG data points and their time series. The weights are equally divided across E, S & G (broadly 33.3% each). The framework claims to have considered inherent risks and opportunities in the IT sector and the company’s efforts to mitigate the risks and benefits from opportunities. While a peer-to-peer comparison is reflected in the report, a relative assessment has also been conducted vis-à-vis NSE100 universe. Based on their performance on the above parameters, companies receive scores ranging from 0 to 100, 100 being the highest.
