Credit Unions top the Ireland RepTrak® Sustainability Index 2024, Mater Private Network in second place, and Lidl Ireland in third

The Ireland RepTrak® Sustainability Index 2024, carried out by The Reputations Agency, has revealed that organisations have improved their reputation in sustainability overall, despite global setbacks, as scores improve in Ireland this year.

The Index, now in its thirteenth year, tracks the perceptions of 5,500 members of the informed public on 100 prominent organisations in Ireland. The Index measures 16 sustainability factors across Environmental Impact, Social Performance, Workplace and Conduct. The 16 factors reflect the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) adopted by the EC in 2023.  Only those who are familiar with an organisation are invited to rate that organisation. The study took place between the 2^nd January and 11^th March 2024.

Credit Unions, who achieved first place in seven of the 16 Sustainability factors, have topped the Ireland RepTrak® Sustainability Index 2024 with the Mater Private Network taking second place and Lidl Ireland taking third place.

The Top 10 most reputed Irish organisations in the Ireland RepTrak® Sustainability Index 2024:

This year’s Ireland RepTrak® Sustainability Index 2024 shows the resilience of sustainability as a driver of organisational reputation amongst the public, despite the ebbs and flows in the world’s commitment to ESG. Sustainability drives 53% of an organisation’s reputation, emphasising the significant role sustainability measures play in driving reputation in the Irish market.

Launching the results of the Ireland RepTrak® Sustainability Index 2024, Dr Jennifer Scott, Managing Director, The Reputations Agency said, “Our 2024 findings tell us a lot about how the public wants organisations to engage with, and talk about, Sustainability. Factors that focus on the outcomes of ESG initiatives on people’s lives tend to rise to the top, whereas Factors that aren’t as personally relevant tend to be less important to the public. Another interesting insight is that many of the Sustainability exemplars this year also perform well on key Enterprise metrics – and that a special combination of excellence across both Sustainability and Enterprise measures drives the strongest Reputations.”

The best sectoral performers in 2024 were Healthcare followed by Retail Food and Semi-state Commercial; while the Communications-Media sector dropped the most in the rankings, with Public Sector Bodies also seeing a decline.

The Mater Private, Bon Secours Health System and St Vincent’s Private Hospital performed well across all pillars of sustainability, but they especially outperformed others against the Conduct pillar. These private hospitals improved their sustainable reputations due to heightened public perceptions that they have a positive influence on society, improve the lives of people and communities, and demonstrate concern for the health and well-being of their employees.

Niamh Boyle, Chief Executive of The Reputations Agency said, “This year, Conduct, measuring the degree to which the public believes an organisation is fair, ethical, open and transparent, has the biggest impact on an organisation’s reputation in sustainability. This is closely followed by Social Performance, then Workplace and finally Environmental Impact. Organisations who strive to be a sustainability exemplar need to perform strongly across all four pillars. Ultimately, it’s about making sustainability a strategic asset that drives long-term organisational success.”

This year saw a positive movement in public sentiment with scores improving by 0.9 points overall, as 23 organisations achieved a Strong Sustainability score, scoring 70-79 points out of 100, compared to just 16 companies in 2023. None of the 100 achieved an Excellent score of 80 plus.  The number of companies with Weak or Poor scores however remains similar to 2023, with 16 of the 100 listed receiving a score in these lower tiers.  

David Malone, Chief Executive of The Irish League of Credit Unions said, “Credit unions were founded to empower communities and achieve financial inclusion by offering ethical lending and access to financial products for their members. That remains core to everything credit unions do for the 3.6 million members and 400 communities they serve across Ireland. Credit unions are accessible, affordable, and not-for-profit, with dividends returned to members. They run significant donation, bursary and community fund programmes, and have contributed c. €5 million to worthy causes in 2023. Placing first in the Ireland RepTrak Sustainability Index recognises the impact on society made by the 7,000 people who work and volunteer in credit unions today.”

X (formerly Twitter) is the only organisation measured with a Poor Sustainability score this year, with RTÉ seeing the biggest decline as it dropped from 88^th to 99^th place on the list. Ryanair saw the biggest improvement as it moved from 95^th to 87^th place, with Uisce Éireann following suit as it moved five places from 94^th to 89^th.