Environmental Leader

CRO magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens list is led, for the second year in a row, by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Green Mountain has been among the top 10 companies on the list for five years running.

The list identifies companies that excel at serving a variety of stakeholders well. The list is drawn from more than 1,100 of the largest U.S. publicly traded companies and is largely based on the environmental, social, and governance research of KLD Research & Analytics.

Rounding out this year’s top ten are Advanced Micro Devices, Nike, Motorola, Intel, IBM, Agilent Technologies, The Timberland Company, Starbucks Coffee Company and General Mills.

Not surprisingly, the environment was front and center for many of this year’s 100 Best, with an increasing corporate focus on using sustainable materials and on tackling climate change. Among the top 10 companies, eight are members of the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership. These are businesses with a commitment to use green power for at least some portion of their electricity needs. Four of the top 10 are EPA Climate Leaders, who work with the government devising strategies to address global warming.

This year’s list included 24 newcomers, with the highest-ranked being office furnishings company Steelcase Inc. (No. 17).

Demonstrating a long-term commitment to corporate responsibility practice are the 11 companies on the list since it was started eight years ago: Intel, Timberland, Starbucks, Herman Miller, Cisco, Pitney Bowes, Southwest Airlines, Cummins, Ecolab, Brady Corp. and St. Paul Travelers.