This Master thesis is about benchmarking sustainability, using as example the food sector. The aim of the project is to create a feasible and practical methodology for companies.
To do so, firstly, an overviewed on six different tools is provided in order to show how they are not able to provide a feasible, comprehensive, and easy-to-use tool. The analysed tools are: the Dow Jones Sustainable Indexes, the Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies, and others developed by Graafland et al., Yakovieva et al., the Green Research, and the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence. Then, after that the critical view on those benchmark tools has been presented, the new methodology for benchmarking is introduced – trying to cover those lacks. Such methodology is characterized by the adoption of Global Reporting Initiative’s KPIs, which facilitate the data collection process, and make enable it to be comprehensive and simple to use, and finally, together with the initiatives within sustainability, also the commitments and goals are taken into consideration.