General Mills, Campbell Soup, and PepsiCo earned top-15 spots on the 100 Best Corporate Citizens list for 2018. The list, compiled by Corporate Responsibility Magazine, recognizes American public companies that excel in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.
Hormel Foods, Coca-Cola, Conagra, Kellogg, and Yum! Brands also made the list, as did food processing suppliers Ecolab and Praxair and agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology company Monsanto.
The 100 Best Corporate Citizens list is the only ESG ranking that doesn’t rely on self-reporting. Corporate Responsibility Magazine ranked companies by harvesting publicly available information in seven categories: environment, climate change, employee relations, human rights, governance, finance, and philanthropy and community support. With sole reliance on public information, this ranking favors companies that prioritize transparency.
The methodology explains why some companies show up on this list and not on others (and vice versa). “Many rankings ask companies to fill out surveys and questionnaires about internal operations and ours relies on what is publically available,” says CR Magazine. “That’s because transparency and public commitments help make a company’s sustainability program stronger.“
Some companies do get recognized on both sides of the coin, though. For example, Campbell, Kellogg, General Mills, and Coca-Cola all earned spots on this year’s survey-based America’s Most Reputable Companies list.
