What Are the 500 Most Responsible Corporations?

A new social enterprise, the Goodness500, has ranked the largest 500 corporations in the USA based on ‘responsibility’. The Goodness500 seeks to educate consumers about corporate social responsibility by avoiding complex jargon. Keeping things credible, it ‘grounds conversations about corporate behavior in data rather than in rumours’. Finally, it encourages the largest public-listed companies to disclose more data and to improve their behaviour by competing with their peers for a better Goodness500 ranking.

Sounds good to us!

The Goodness500 founder, Michael Mossoba, gave the CSR Digest a short interview.

CSRD: What inspired you to create the Goodness500?

MM: The idea just popped into my head. What really takes inspiration is the marathon of turning an idea into a reality. I get inspired everyday by social enterprises like Catapult Design, Acumen Fund, OLPC, TOMS Shoes, and countless others.

CSRD: Who would find the rankings of interest? Why?

MM: Most people I speak to expect the target audience for Goodness500 to be institutional investors or CSR professionals.  Our mission is to bring more diverse stakeholders into the conversation about CSR. We provide a free, accessible, user-friendly resource for consumers to educate themselves on the behaviour of some of the largest companies in the world. But we want to ground conversations about corporate behaviour in data rather than in rumours. By building a global movement of well-informed consumers, we can use our collective voice to effectively encourage corporations to behave better and compete with their peers for a better ranking.

CSRD: Why would those outside the USA find value in your the rankings?

MM: The business world is global. Whether you live in Malaysia or Maine, our economies and environments are interdependent. We owe it to future generations to work together to make companies more socially responsible. Goodness500 is just one small contribution to the larger goal.

CSRD: How long did it take you to put together the rankings?

MM: More bleary-eyed nights than I care to remember!

CSRD: How static / active will the Goodness500 rankings be? How often will you update it?

MM: Our index is a living document. As new data becomes available, we will integrate it into new iterations.

CSRD: Are the UN (whether Global Compact or GRI) involved in your methodology?

MM: We are in talks with a whole host of organizations that would make wonderful partners, and are always open to collaborating with great people and institutions like the UN. The Global Compact and GRI are doing very valuable work to advance the cause of corporate responsibility. However, the UN has not been involved in our methodology to date.

CSRD: The rankings do not appear to include breaches of human rights and acts of corruption / bribery, yet the Human Rights Campaign is included in part of your research. Are there no companies who have breached GLBT issues? What about other human rights issues?

MM: The equality policy score is sourced from the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which gives a higher score to companies that have Non-Discrimination Policies and Diversity Training/Awareness, Transgender-Inclusive Health Insurance Benefits, LGBT Employee Resource Groups and Diversity Councils, and External Engagement with the LGBT Community.

Human rights can be difficult to objectively quantify, but we would be extremely interested in any resources that your readers can recommend on the subject.

CSRD: How can people get involved?

MM: You can join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.◊