By PAM GRAHAM
Fonterra, New Zealand's largest company, gets just a C plus for social responsibility and The Warehouse gets an AA minus.
Fonterra is one of 12 New Zealand companies surveyed by RepuTex that failed to get a satisfactory rating for their behaviour towards society. The Australian-based ratings firm surveyed 20
New Zealand companies and 100 Australian companies.
Only Westpac in Australia got an AAA.
RepuTex boss Graeme Lee said New Zealand companies rated behind their Australian counterparts on measures of social responsibility, except on environment measures.
That probably reflected tighter environmental regulations in New Zealand.
The survey released yesterday was the firm's first of New Zealand, although it has rated NZ companies in Australia before.
Lee said there was a growing demand for measuring companies' social responsibility. Investors were becoming more interested in how companies executed social responsibilities and companies were interested in how they rated against their peers.
Fifty-one per cent of Australia's top 100 companies rate A or above, while only 35 per cent of New Zealand's top 20 achieved that grade.
