Recognizing Corporate ESG Leadership

The 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking began as a way to assess the largest publicly traded companies in the United States based on fundamental environmental, social and governance (ESG) transparency.

Since its launch in 1999, the ranking has become increasingly competitive as companies strengthen their ESG disclosures and elevate their performance. At the same time, 3BL has continuously modernized its ranking methodology to keep pace with stakeholder expectations and the rapidly evolving ESG landscape.

The 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking serves as a valuable benchmark for companies working to improve their ESG transparency and performance. As the global community embarks on a decisive new decade, our hope is that companies step up efforts to achieve the transformational targets laid out in the Paris Agreement and UN Sustainable Development Goals and address social and racial inequities exposed during the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement.

Methodology

3BL develops the 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking in partnership with ISS-Corporate, the data and analytics arm of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc.. Once 3BL establishes its methodology, ISS-Corporate researches relevant data and processes the ranking. All data and information considered for the ranking must be publicly available through corporate websites, financial filings, policies, reports and reputable third-party sources, including CDP, GRI and the U.S. EPA. Companies may verify data and information that was collected by ISS-Corporate at no cost.

The 2025 methodology considers 219 factors across seven pillars (Climate Change; Employees; Environment; Governance; Human Rights; Stakeholders and Society; and Overall Performance) and measures Russell 1,000 companies’ performance and transparency on key issues of corporate citizenship and sustainability.

For a list of individual factors and an explanation of year-over-year changes, please see our 2025 Methodology.

We welcome feedback on the methodology – please complete the contact form at the bottom of this website.

2025 Takeaways

HP is the top Corporate Citizen of 2025, with Ingersoll Rand, Owens Corning, Dell Technologies and Graphic Packaging Holding Company rounding out the top five. 

Even as political attitudes toward corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies and disclosures shift in the United States, the nation’s largest companies continue to increase their levels of transparency. Average scores across the 100 Best Corporate Citizens increased by 2.5% over last year’s ranking and are up nearly 4% since 2023. This means tougher competition for top placement, as the gap in overall weighted scores between the No. 1 and No. 100 ranks is more than 5% smaller than it was two years ago. 

Only four companies — HP, Ingersoll Rand, Owens Corning and Hewlett Packard Enterprise — retained their place in the top 10 year-over-year, making way for new top-10 entrants Dell Technologies, Graphic Packaging, The Hershey Company, Intel, Jones Lang LaSalle and Keysight Technologies. 

Of the 25 industries within the Russell 1,000, companies from 21 appeared in the 100 Best (see FAQs for industry details). 

VF Corp. (No. 2 in the Consumer Durables and Apparel industry and No. 65 overall) is the only company awarded a “Green Flag” bonus by our partners at InfluenceMap for using their influence and lobbying efforts in support of Paris Climate Agreement-aligned policies.

• As in 2024, Capital Goods and Materials companies are the most heavily represented in this year’s ranking, collectively making up 29% of the top 100 scorers. 
• Top performers in the Capital Goods sector include top-three ranked Ingersoll Rand and Owens Corning, along with Trane Technologies (No. 12) and Xylem (No. 21). No. 5 Graphic Packaging, along with Dow (No. 11), International Flavors & Fragrances (No. 16) and LyondellBasell Industries (No. 17) lead the Materials industry. 
• Recognition for the Technology Hardware & Equipment industry continues to increase year over year. Nine Technology Hardware companies placed in the top 100 in 2025 — including HP, which ranks No. 1 for the second consecutive year, and three others in the top 10: Dell Technologies (No. 4), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (No. 9) and Keysight Technologies (No. 10). 
• Four industries — Transportation, Energy, Consumer Discretionary Distribution and Retail, and Media and Entertainment — have no companies in the top 100 in 2025. 

Only eight companies have made the ranking each year since 2009: Accenture, Cisco Systems, Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills, Intel, Microsoft, Pepsico and Weyerhaeuser. We applaud these firms for their consistency and commitment to the transparent disclosure of sustainability data and information.