Unilever and GE top the 6th Annual Social Media Sustainability Index

Unilever and GE have been named the world’s best companies at communicating their sustainability efforts on social media.

The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant and the US multinational are ranked together at number one in the 6th Annual Social Media Sustainability Index, published by Sustainly.

The Index looks at the way 475 global companies communicate sustainability – in particular how they communicate their sense of purpose – or what they actually stand for.

GE and Unilever are joined in this year’s top 10 by Patagonia, Sainsbury’s, Aetna, Philips, Microsoft, General Mills, CVS and H&M.

“GE topped our first two Indexes and returns to share the top spot thanks to a truly comprehensive series of communication and marketing initiatives,” said the Index’s editor and Sustainly founder, Matthew Yeomans.

“It has spent the last decade reinventing itself into a smart machine and information innovator and, while it doesn’t shout about sustainability from the rafters, the philosophy flows through a great deal of what GE does, be it overtly through initiatives such as ‘ecomagination’ and ‘healthymagination’ or more subtly through its campaigns

around science and connected machines.

“Unilever was top of the tree last year, and continues to impress with the way it communicates its sense of purpose through its many brands.

“Whether it’s Dove’s stance on female self-esteem, Ben & Jerry’s mobilization around climate action, Hellmann’s reduction of food waste through a newly designed bottle or Comfort’s new formula that uses less water for rinsing, Unilever is demonstrating that sustainability is about action, not words.”

Sustainly’s researchers looked at every online and social media channel used by each of the 475 companies for communication, assessing more than 2,500 corporate sites and social media channels.

The index is free to Sustainly members and can be accessed from the Sustainly website www.sustainly.com which also provides access to special reports, briefings, and 1200

downloadable case studies.