Study: Sustainable Companies Deliver Better Returns

Another study shows that sustainable practices yield profits.

German sustainability rating company Oekom Research and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (NYSE: MWD) have recently completed a study indicating that companies with higher sustainability ratings outperform their counterparts who score lower on sustainability practices. The study, which examined the 602 companies in the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index that have received Oekom's Corporate Responsibility Ratings, found that the 186 highest-ranked companies in terms of sustainability outperformed the remaining 416 companies by 23.4 percent between January 2000 and October 2003.

Oekom and Morgan Stanley speculate that sustainable practices such as resource conservation translate to lower cost, and thus could be one reason why sustainability pays off.