Meliá named the world’s third most sustainable company in 2018.

Meliá Hotels International has made its grand entrance into the sustainability rankings published by RobecoSAM. This sustainable investment company evaluates companies to determine which of them will feature in the highly selective Dow Jones Sustainability

Indices, a major reference point for ESG investing.

According to RobecoSAM, Meliá is ranked third internationally and second in Europe in the ‘Hotels, Resorts & Cruise Lines’ category, just behind industry giants Intercontinental and Hilton.

Every year, the participating companies respond to an extensive questionnaire regarding their corporate governance systems, climate change strategies and talent management, which ultimately determines their sustainability performance. The questions are grouped into three main dimensions: economic, environmental and social. Meliá was ranked first in the economic an environmental areas. These dimensions are, in turn, broken down into 20 criteria. Meliá obtained the highest score in two of them, and led the sector (percentile 100) including Risk & Crisis Management, Tax Strategy, Environmental Reporting and Operational Eco-Efficiency.

Launched in 1999, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) are a key international reference point for assessing corporate sustainability. They draw from a pool of the 3,500 largest companies in the world based on market capitalisation, in addition to others that take part voluntarily. The top 10 to 15% (depending on each index) of these companies are selected based on their level of sustainability, as determined by the evaluation. For the time being, Meliá is not eligible to be included in the DJSI, mainly due to its market capitalisation and free float percentage. However, its results in the RobecoSAM ranking demonstrate that the company is on par with the world’s most sustainable businesses.

This ranking must be re-assessed every year in order to confirm ongoing progress in the various aspects of sustainability. Each company ’s position has an enormous impact on its international reputation, as well as its appeal to investors, who are increasingly interested in the nonfinancial aspects of business.