The Best Corporate Citizens by Individual Category

Transcription

1 The Best Corporate Citizens by Individual Category The 12 highest-ranked companies in each of our measurement categories By The Editors Each year, Corporate Responsibility Magazine engages its research partners in an in-depth process to rank each Russell 1000 company according to its performance on 303 data points related to CR. These data points are gathered from publicly available information, and thus our lists 100 Best Corporate Citizens and 100 Best Corporate Citizens by Industry Sector: Sustainable Buyer s Guide measure transparency, accountability, and business success. We also run another list to recognize those companies that are improving the fastest as compared to their peers the Most Improved Corporate Citizens. And now we announce a new list: the category winners. The 303 data points we measure are arranged according to seven categories of business performance: corporate governance philanthropy human rights employee relations climate change environmental performance, and financial performance. We are announcing six category winners, each category but financial performance. We have excluded finance from these winners for several reasons, but mostly because CR Magazine measures financial performance within the context of corporate responsibility practices. Essentially, almost anyone can invest heavily in and run effective CR practices, but the key is to do so while running a successful business. A financial-measurementonly list moves the focus off CR practices, and thus would be outside our publication s mission. The remaining six category lists are well within our mission and central to it. We have selected the best dozen companies in each category. In some cases, they are companies high up on our 100 Best Corporate Citizens list. In others, we have companies that have proven to excel in one or more categories and thus should receive recognition for those individual achievements. Red Cards/Yellow Cards As with our other lists, we have issued red cards and yellow cards. Red cards and yellow cards are issued to companies that make the 100 Best and Category Winner lists despite some self-caused reputational damage, which usually appear as a pending or completed administrative or official legal sanction. A yellow card is usually for a pending action and the company is merely flagged; a red card is a completed sanction and rises to such a serious level that the company is expelled for one year. This year, the red-carded companies were the following: Hewlett-Packard, which would have been No. 7 on the Employee Relations list and No. 6 on the Corporate Governance list; and the following, all on the Corporate Governance list: Avon Products (No. 1), MasterCard (No. 3), Bank of America (No. 4), Citigroup (No. 5) and Duke Energy (No. 11). Hewlett-Packard and Avon Products ran afoul of anti-corruption practices laws in their overseas operations. The three banks all received sanctions related to the financial crisis; as the sanctions came down this year and became completed actions, they are [20] CR MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2015

2 expelled this year. Duke Energy had some environmental spills in The yellow cards were the following: Sprint, Inc. and General Motors. Sprint faces a lawsuit from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for an alleged practice known as cramming, illegally allowing third parties to bill mobile customers. GM was given a yellow card related to the ongoing investigations of its use of defective ignition switches. For details on how we measure the 100 Best, please visit and click on the 100 Best Corporate Citizens tab on the left menu. Best Corporate Citizens: The Environment The largest number of data points we measure fall in the environmental category. We measure 116 data points, 60 are disclosures, 50 are policies and six are performance measures. Public disclosures include: energy conserved through energy conservation programs investment in energy conservation programs consecutive years of disclosure, and water conservation programs. Performance measurements include items such as: total discharges of wastewater reported spills regulatory fines, and disclosed total energy and water use. Policies include: promoting mass transit use for employees incentives for employees to meet company conservation goals, and disclosure policies. These 116 data points add up to companies that have an in-depth and ongoing commitment to protecting the environment as part of their business operations. Company Name Symbol Best 100 Rank Environmental Rank Johnson Controls Inc JCI 14 1 Microsoft Corporation MSFT 1 2 Lexmark International, Inc. LXK 23 3 International Business Machines Corp. IBM 31 4 Sigma-Aldrich Corp. SIAL 5 5 Xerox Corp XRX 4 6 Johnson & Johnson JNJ 3 7 Sprint Corp. S Mosaic Company MOS 40 9 Ecolab, Inc. ECL 9 10 United Parcel Service, Inc. UPS Hasbro, Inc. HAS 2 12 MAY/JUNE [21]

3 Best Corporate Citizens: Climate Change Climate change has been an increasing concern for at least 25 years; the cause has built tremendous momentum for action. Many companies have long stopped waiting for politicians to hash out agreements, and have acted on their own. Each year, more and more companies are seeking to increasingly: create policies designed to uncover their carbon footprint and those of their suppliers disclose emissions of greenhouse gases, and make progress in limiting their carbon footprint, as well as those of their suppliers. Our methodology focuses on public disclosures, policies, and performance measures. There are 58 elements in total: 28 for disclosure, 27 for policies, and three performance measures. Policies include: disclosing use of carbon offsets, purchase of carbon credits, mission/values statements, commitments to public reporting and public auditing, commitment to quantifiable goals, and membership in the Carbon Mitigation Initiative and U.S. Climate Action Partnership. Disclosures include: disclosing total direct and indirect CO2 emissions, its total direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and disclosing sale of carbon credits. Performance measures include the actual reported emissions of greenhouse gases and CO2. The companies on this category list have made a substantial commitment to reducing their carbon footprint. Company Name Symbol Best 100 Rank Climate Change Rank International Business Machines Corp. IBM 31 1 Lexmark International, Inc. LXK 23 2 Monsanto Co. MON 41 3 United Parcel Service, Inc. UPS 28 4 Abbott Laboratories ABT 11 5 Johnson & Johnson JNJ 3 6 Ecolab, Inc. ECL 9 7 Microsoft Corporation MSFT 1 8 Johnson Controls Inc JCI 14 9 AT&T, Inc. T Praxair, Inc. PX General Mills, Inc. GIS [22] CR MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2015

4 Best Corporate Citizens: Human Rights Corporate operations, especially global ones, sometimes attract unsavory individuals and groups who do not share fair-minded views on the inherent dignity and liberty of the individual and/or people who are not like them. Companies may also operate in locales where it is hard to get information, and where suppliers may be less than forthcoming. That s why the 22 data points we measure all cover disclosures. The more light cast on operations and the supply chain, the fewer places for someone to hide exploitation. These disclosures include policies that commit the company to conformity with the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, applying human rights policies to all company operations, to having policies that address business partners and joint ventures, and applying human rights policies to direct supply chain and contracted sub-contractors. The idea is to dig as deeply as possible into the supply chain, so companies will know as much as possible about who is supplying their companies and how they are treating their people. Company Name Symbol Best 100 Rank Human Rights Microsoft Corporation MSFT 1 1 Hasbro, Inc. HAS 2 2 Coca-Cola Co KO 15 2 Lexmark International, Inc. LXK 23 2 International Business Machines Corp. IBM 31 2 Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO 33 2 General Electric Co. GE 49 2 PVH Corp PVH 77 2 Johnson & Johnson JNJ 3 9 Intel Corp. INTC 7 9 AT&T, Inc. T 16 9 The Gap Inc. GPS 24 9 Monsanto Co. MON 41 9 Hormel Foods Corp. HRL 44 9 Pepsico Inc. PEP 55 9 Northern Trust Corp. NTRS 60 9 MAY/JUNE [23]

5 Best Corporate Citizens: Employee Relations Good corporate citizens are committed to including members of its larger community and to treating their employees well. Our 65 data points break down as follows: 15 involve diversity and inclusion disclosures; five involve diversity and inclusion commitments; and 45 involve disclosure of employee benefits. Diversity and inclusion disclosures include: tracking new hires, management, and total workforce that are women and members of minority demographic groups, as well as composition of workforce by location. Benefits disclosures include vacation/pto/sick time, healthcare, flexible spending accounts, childcare and elder care onsite and subsidy, flex time/telecommuting, and retirement/profit-sharing plans. There are also two data points on policies mission/values statements concerning the company s approach to workforce development and management, and having an enterprise-level workforce policy. Company Name Symbol Best 100 Rank Employee Relations Xerox Corp XRX 4 1 Consolidated Edison, Inc. ED 93 2 Johnson & Johnson JNJ 3 3 The Gap Inc. GPS 24 4 Campbell Soup Co. CPB 8 5 Merck & Co Inc MRK 27 6 Walt Disney Co. DIS 32 7 Clorox Co. CLX 37 8 Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO 33 9 Conagra Foods, Inc. CAG Hasbro, Inc. HAS 2 11 Coca-Cola Co KO [24] CR MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2015

6 Best Corporate Citizens: Corporate Governance This year, we have nearly doubled the number of corporate governance data points, from eight in previous years to 15 this year. The new data points include CEO s total compensation; percentage of board members that are independent; female membership on board; and regular disclosure of amount of corporate contributions it has undertaken. Company Name Symbol Best 100 Rank Corporate Governance Campbell Soup Co. CPB 8 1 Symantec Corp. SYMC 34 2 PNC Financial Services Group PNC General Motors Co. GM Autodesk Inc. ADSK 87 5 Dun & Bradstreet Corp DNB Newmont Mining Corp. NEM Weyerhaeuser Co. WY 12 8 Adobe Systems Inc. ADBE 71 9 Tenet Healthcare Corp. THC Nasdaq Omx Group Inc NDAQ Illinois Tool Works, Inc. ITW Best Corporate Citizens: Philanthropy & Community When many companies think corporate citizenship, they often think of philanthropy and voluntarism. This is thus arguably the oldest and most established category of corporate responsibility the idea of giving back. Yet even this each year gets more strategic, and we have added seven data points, to bring the total to 16: 15 disclosure points and one that measures total annual giving. New data points include creating support for disaster response and humanitarian relief; matching gift programs; and strategic community partnerships. Company Name Symbol Best 100 Rank Philanthropy & Community Microsoft Corporation MSFT 1 1 International Business Machines Corp. IBM 31 2 Albemarle Corp. ALB Lexmark International, Inc. LXK 23 4 Hasbro, Inc. HAS 2 5 PG&E Corp. PCG 58 6 Intel Corp. INTC 7 7 Air Products & Chemicals Inc. APD 59 8 Ecolab, Inc. ECL 9 9 DIRECTV DTV Eli Lilly & Co LLY General Mills, Inc. GIS MAY/JUNE [25]