How does Mindful Money identify companies harming our Oceans?
The scope of our research is the impact from companies on the global health of our oceans, including deep oceans, inland seas and coastal waters. The research looks at the nature of the degradation and identifies five drivers of changing oceans, and specific global companies most responsible for causing the drivers. The companies selected are primarily those financed by publicly traded shares and debt, since these companies offer the best opportunity for accountability to investors.
Where the impacts are significant, we have also identified some private and state-owned enterprises which are major contributors to harm and issuers of public debt.
The research uses academic sources, research reports and environmental information to identify the specific and most significant drivers of ocean degradation most detrimental to the health of our oceans. We selected these drivers due to their widespread and significant impact on our oceans. Our analysis focused on five major impacts as follows:
1. Plastic pollution
2. Waste dumping and pollution
3. Physical destruction of marine habitats
4. Overfishing
5. Climate emissions
There are other causes of harm and we welcome further information and feedback for incorporation in future data updates and reports. There are complex interactions between ecosystems. The oceans are impacted by degradation of other ecosystems, such as siltation and pollution from freshwater systems and land use, and by greenhouse gas emissions. These impacts on the oceans, and the companies significantly responsible for the harm, are outlined in this report. In addition, other ecosystems will be the subject of subsequent research reports in our nature research series: forests and land use; freshwater systems including rivers and wetlands; and the atmosphere, including greenhouse gas emissions.
The framework for this research is to focus on the relationship between the health of our oceans and the flows of private sector investment. There are generally more straightforward pathways to influence investment in publicly listed companies, rather than private companies. So the focus of the research is primarily on the impacts of public companies. In addition, the most significant impacts are those of transnational corporations, rather than national companies where the impacts may be serious but confined to a local area. The main focus is therefore on global companies that are publicly listed.
Companies that contribute to the drivers were assessed on two sets of criteria: the extent of their impact on the oceans (i.e. how much degradation they directly cause through their practice); and the gravity of their impact on oceans (i.e. the seriousness of the degradation on long term ocean health). Therefore, the companies profiled are amongst the largest companies responsible for each of the drivers and include those with significant and long-lasting impacts.
While the report identifies a limited number of companies for each of the drivers, these companies account for a large proportion of the sectors they operate in. Research shows that companies operating in the oceans economy are highly concentrated - the 100 largest companies account for 60% of the revenues in the ocean economy. There are other companies causing ocean harm that will be added each data update.