Coca-Cola Co., Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard Co. and North American gas producer EnCana Corp. are among the largest companies to have been dropped from a leading index of sustainable businesses.

Critics will note the fact that EnCana is a player in the controversial shale gas business, owning fields and pipelines in British Columbia and Texas, although the fact that it recently lost a major deal with PetroChina over exploiting the former field may have more to do with its loss of status.

Meanwhile Coke's rival Pepsi is rated the top performer in its sector in terms of sustainability. Samsung comes top in technology, Australian bank Westpac in banking, and Spanish firm Repsol in the oil and gas industry.

Other household names to be dropped include FedEx, PG&E and Goldcorp.

Goldman Sachs, Hyundai and Australia's Woolworths (yes, the famous UK name is alive and well down under) will be pleased to find that they have been added to the indices.

The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices are reviewed annually by means of a fully comprehensive questionnaire by SAM, a consultancy on Sustainability Investing.

Michael Baldinger, CEO of SAM, observes that: “In spite of the current economic turmoil, it’s clear that sustainability remains a high priority on corporate and investor agendas.”

Following the 2011 review, 41 companies are being be added to, and 23 firms deleted from, the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World), leaving a total of 342 companies.

The largest additions include Medtronic Inc., Schneider Electric S.A. and Societe Generale S.A.

The index family has about $8 billion in assets under management in a variety of financial products.

The DJSI also publishes regional indices for Europe, North America, the Asia-Pacific area and Korea. Businesses are assessed against their peers in the same sector.

The UK contains no additions to the list, but Legal & General Group PLC has been dropped to be replaced by Zurich Financial Services.

The results of SAM's Corporate Sustainability Assessment yield an in-depth analysis of numerous sustainability criteria, including human rights and treatment of employees, as well as the environment. Many other criteria are specific and specially weighted for each sector.

The indices provide a guide and benchmark for investors who wish to back winners and leaders in every sector also from the point of view of market performance.

The sources of information consist of responses to the online questionnaire, submitted documentation, policies and reports, publicly available information and direct contact with companies. Information provided in the questionnaire is verified by crosschecking with documentation, the firm's track record and incidents and crisis management with media and stakeholder reports and, if necessary, direct interaction and clarification with the company.

Information is then verified by independent third parties such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte on a yearly basis.

The indices have been evaluated as the best judge of sustainable businesses by the Rate the Raters project managed by SustainAbility, a company founded in 1987 with the aim of "steering global markets towards a more sustainable future".

Sector leaders

A full list of sectors and their global leaders in terms of sustainability is as follows:

Automobiles & Parts: BMW AG
Banks: Westpac Banking Corp.
Basic Resources: Xstrata PLC
Chemicals: Koninklijke DSM N.V.
Construction & Materials: Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd.
Financial Services: Itausa-Investimentos Itau S/A
Food & Beverage: PepsiCo Inc.
Healthcare: Roche Holding AG
Industrial Goods & Services: PostNL N.V.
Insurance: Swiss Re Limited
Media: Pearson PLC
Oil & Gas: Repsol YPF S.A.
Personal & Household Goods: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
Real Estate: Stockland
Retail: Lotte Shopping Co. Ltd.
Technology: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
Telecommunications: KT Corp.
Travel & Leisure: Air France-KLM
Utilities: Enagas S.A.

Confidentiality

DJSI was not forthcoming about the specific reasons why any of the companies were added to or dropped from the lists, citing confidentiality reasons.

A spokeswoman said: "Details about the Corporate Sustainability Assessment and the respective Sustainability Score of companies are discussed and shared only with the companies.

"Towards companies we maintain a very open and transparent dialogue on a bilateral, case-by-case basis, where we answer and explain all questions that may arise. If a company decides to share that information to third parties, then they are of course free to do so - but we cannot.

"Many companies that participate in the SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment also hand in internal reports and documents, only under the precondition that we treat that information as confidential.

She added: "It is our aim to increase the number of participating companies, because we see this as a form of engagement. Giving details about the Sustainability scores to third parties would lead to a decreasing number of participating companies."