Mission: To serve as a benchmark for companies working to improve their ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) transparency and performance.

Background: Launched in 1999, the 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking began as a way to assess the largest publicly traded U.S. companies' performance and transparency on fundamental environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, based on publicly available information. The ranking was first published in Business Ethics Magazine and later by Corporate Responsibility Magazine from 2007 to 2019. 3BL Media, which has retained ownership of 100 Best Corporate Citizens since 2017, develops the ranking in partnership with Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ESG based on 146 ESG transparency and performance factors across eight pillars: climate change, employee relations, the environment, ESG performance, finance, corporate governance, human rights, and stakeholders and society.

With the goal of encouraging companies to address social and racial inequities while increasing efforts to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and targets laid out in the Paris Agreement, the 2021 methodology also addresses key issues exposed during the pandemic and #BlackLivesMatter movement in the wake of the ongoing public health crisis and calls for social justice.

Outstanding Web Features: 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranks companies in the Russell 1000 Index (the thousand largest U.S. companies by market capitalization) across twenty-four industry groups, based on ESG-related data, management approach, performance, policies and codes, strategy, and targets — for example, whether the company's climate change disclosure specifically addresses climate change risks and performance, or whether the company indicates it applies the same human rights policy standards to suppliers and vendors. Weighted scores for each factor are used to calculate a score for each pillar, which in turn are used to generate an overall weighted average ranking.

Visitors to the 100 Best Corporate Citizens site can view the rankings by industry or by pillar. Each company's entry gives a snapshot of its place in the rankings, its overall weighted score, and its overall rank by industry, and can be expanded to show how each company ranks among all the pillars. Clicking on any one pillar will show the entire list of company rankings for that pillar.

An FAQ page provides more detailed information about the methodology. The site also includes links to its report on the 2021 methodology, a summary of this year's findings, and rankings from previous years.