The Index of the Alliance is not a new rating product, but a practical tool which will allow business to analyze and assess effectivity of their social investments on the territories where the company operates, take managerial decisions for future, as well as to build an effective dialogue with local authorities to harmonize approaches to the most crucial areas for social investments, using the most up-to-date data. The Index is publicly available at https://города.рф/esg_index?pageType=INDEX, and will be transferred in April to a permanent platform альянс.города.рф. The service is designed for companies, their current and potential employees, municipal and regional authorities, local communities, public associations and NGOs.
The Index is focused on small and medium-sized industrial cities with population less than 100 thousand people. It is such cities that each sixth citizen of Russia lives in, and they are most dependent on big companies and implementation of their social programmes. At this stage the Index covers 120 cities in 46 regions of Russia with the total population of 6,8 mln people. The unique feature of the product is the cross-cutting methodology, designed at the request of the business and harmonized on the base of the ESG Alliance by 20 large companies from different sectors which means that each big company will be able to assess their own small and medium territories of operation with the use of this publicly available tool.
The assessment of the quality of life in the cities covered by the Index are grouped by 11 key directions. The calculations of the Index are based on four main types of indicators: statistical data, open information for the Internet, requested data from regional authorities and the results of sociological study among the employees of the Alliance companies. Based on the results of the study, a comprehensive profile for each territory was formed. The functionality of the platform also allows to cluster the cities by population size and per capita income. Within clusters, statistical indicators for cities can be compared with each other.
“The Alliance Index was developed based on the recommendations of the OECD and the methodologies of the City Life Index developed by VEB.RF. From VEB.RF we borrowed a structure covering 11 areas. Further on, on the basis of the Committee for Social Responsibility of the ESG Alliance and under the leadership of Metalloinvest, we harmonized a set of indicators taking into account the corporate practices of the business. The Alliance's Index examines small and medium-sized cities; their development is seen as a priority both for the state and for companies in these territories, which are trying, together with municipal authorities, to resolve issues related to the quality of life. Moreover, most of these issues are real problems that affect the performance of companies and their long-term financial stability, for example, the outflow of the population and youth, the shortage of personnel, and intense competition for them,” commented Andrei Sharonov, CEO of the ESG Alliance.
“The VEB.RF Index is a completely open and constantly developing database, and today, together with partners from the ESG Alliance, we are taking an important step - both in expanding the geography of the system and in solving applied problems of various stakeholders - companies, managers and ordinary families. The Quality of Life Index will continue to get smarter driven by new data, collaboration with market leaders and strengthened analytical expertise. As a result, the system provides an increasingly comprehensive assessment of the effects of investments in the economy and quality of life of citizens, and also provides an opportunity to identify and replicate companies’ best practices,” said Andrey Samokhin, Chief Managing Director of VEB.RF.
“The ESG Alliance's Index is a valuable tool for planning and assessing the effectiveness of social investments, which is necessary for both business and territories. It is important that municipalities analyze both the final result of the Index and its individual indicators in order to influence their improvement. We intend to support city administrations in this work, we will hold presentations of the Index and training seminars,” noted Yulia Mazanova, head of the ESG-Alliance Committee on Social Responsibility, Deputy General Director for Sustainable Development and Corporate Communications of Metalloinvest.
