Overview

The Social Benchmark series, initiated in 2024, evaluates the world’s most influential companies on their alignment with societal expectations relating to human rights, decent work and ethical conduct. It forms part of the World Benchmarking Alliance’s broader effort to assess corporate contributions to sustainable development.

Purpose of the series

The series aims to provide a consistent, comparable view of corporate social performance. It enables stakeholders to understand how major companies integrate social responsibility into their operations and governance, and where progress is needed to support inclusive and sustainable economic systems.

Methodology

The benchmark uses a framework comprising high-level societal expectations across three areas: respect for human rights, provision and promotion of decent work, and ethical conduct. Companies are assessed against publicly available disclosures, using indicators grounded in international standards such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and ILO frameworks. Assessments are applied across the SDG2000—the 2,000 most influential global companies.

Use for finance professionals

Finance professionals can use the benchmark to compare social performance across companies and sectors, support stewardship and engagement activities, and integrate social factors into risk assessment and decision-making processes. The dataset also supports portfolio-level analysis of exposure to social practices and alignment with responsible investment expectations.