In August 2019, Ethical Consumer viewed CK Hutchison's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report in its Annual report 2018. As of February 2020, this still appeared to be the company's most recent report.
The report stated that the company was "committed to integrating ESG considerations in its daily operations, both at the Group and business levels." The company had an ESG Committee chaired by an executive director which "set an overtone from a corporate perspective and upholds the Group’s ESG philosophy when key business decisions are made."
Although specific ESG initiatives were said to be driven by individual businesses within the group, due to the existence at the Ultimate Holding Company level of an ESG Committee which set the tone for businesses within the group, the company's main environmental reporting was considered to take place at this level rather than with subsidiaries.
The Annual report contained general discussions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, renewable energy, waste and pollutants, water, packing materials and electronic waste. This was augmented with selected examples from across the company's operations, such as 3 Austria being CO2 neutral and Husky Energy's Fugitive Emissions Management Program to reduct its GHG emissions.
The topics in the report were too selective and the examples too specific for CK Hutchison to demonstrate a reasonable understanding of its main impacts across all of its areas of business (ports, retail, electronics, infrastructure, energy, telecommunications).
The report did not contain any group-wide, quantified, future environmental targets and the environmental data was not covered by the independent auditors report.
CK Hutchison therefore received Ethical Consumer's worst rating for Environmental Reporting.
Reference:
AR (2018)