Bridgestone Corp., Hankook Tire, Nokian Tire, and Pirelli were recognized for their sustainability efforts by RobecoSAM.

Of the four, Pirelli received the highest honour, a gold class rating — one of just 73 companies to earn the top rating — while Nokian received a bronze class rating. Bridgestone and Hankook were listed as “Sustainability Yearbook Members.”

Zurich-based RobecoSAM, an investment specialist focused on sustainable investing, takes into account companies’ economic, environmental and social strategies in its evaluation. The company also compares each candidate company with its industry peers. The top 15 percent are included in the yearbook.

RobecoSAM has analyzed the corporate sustainability performance of the world’s largest listed companies every year since 1999. The assessment for the 2018 Yearbook looked at 60 industries from 43 different countries — close to 150,000 documents were examined and more than 2.2 million data points collected on financially relevant ESG criteria.

“We have entered a period of change where investors, governments, institutions, and companies are rising to face global challenges head-on,” said RobecoSAM CEO Aris Prepoudis.

“As the interest in generating positive impact grows and the ambition to achieve the UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) becomes more widespread, sustainability thinking is not only becoming more sophisticated but also critical for companies to consider. In the automotive category, achieving sustainability calls for radical solutions to environmental, social and economic challenges,” saidPrepoudis.

Auto component suppliers play a key role in improving fuel efficiency as well as in lowering emissions generated by vehicles.