Revealed: The aerospace and defense companies leading the way in ESG

Northrop Grumman and GE are among the companies best positioned to benefit from future ESG disruptions in the aerospace and defense industry, our analysis shows.

The rating comes from GlobalData’s thematic research ecosystem, which ranks companies on a scale of one to five based on their likelihood to address ESG challenges and emerge as long-term winners in the aerospace and defense sector.

According to our analysis, Northrop Grumman, GE, Rolls-Royce, Jacobs and Bechtel are the companies best positioned to benefit from ESG investments, all scoring five out of five on GlobalData’s Defense Thematic Map.

The table below shows how GlobalData analysts rate the largest companies in the aerospace and defense industry in terms of their ESG performance, as well as the number of new ESG jobs, deals and patents by the companies as of August 2021.

The last column in the table represents the overall score given to that company when it comes to their current ESG position relative to their peers. A score of five indicates that a company is a dominant player in that space, while companies scoring less than three are vulnerable to being left behind. They can be read quite clearly.

Other data points in the table are more nuanced, showing recent ESG investments in a number of areas over the past year. These metrics, when available, give an indication of whether ESG is top of mind for executives now, but highs in these areas are just as likely to represent desperate attempts to catch up as they are ESG’s real strength.

For example, a large number of deals can either indicate that a company is dominating the market or that it is using mergers and acquisitions to fill gaps in its offering.

This article is based on GlobalData survey data as of August 26, 2022. For more current data, check the GlobalData website.