Johnson & Johnson, The Walt Disney Company, Kraft Foods, Microsoft, Pepsico and Apple top the 2010 Corporate Social Responsibility Index (PDF), all earning scores above 80 (using a 100 point scale), released by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and Reputation Institute. The top 50 ranking is based on public perceptions of U.S. companies' CSR efforts.
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) earned the highest rating of perceptions for social responsibility -- Citizenship, Governance and Workplace -- with a corporate social responsibility index (CSRI) score of 82.67. Walt Disney follows closely with a CSRI score of 81.33.
Here is a list of the top 10 ranking companies:
--Johnson & Johnson
--The Walt Disney Company
--Kraft Foods Inc.
--Microsoft
--PepsiCo
--Apple
--Hershey Company
--SC Johnson
--Kellogg
The survey finds that more than a dozen companies in the top 50 show an increase of +5 points or greater compared to last year's ranking. These include Johnson & Johnson, Apple, Caterpillar, Intel, Adobe, Dell, AMD, Unilever, Goodyear, Dunkin’ Brands, Texas Instruments and Starbucks.
Of the 230 companies measured, 25 rated scores of 75 or higher to place them in the excellent category and another 115 scored 66 or more to reach the strong category.
The top 25 companies all rated at or above 75 in this year's study. To make the CSR Index 50, a company needed to rate above 72.52, an increase of over 3 points from 2009.
In comparison, only nine companies scored higher than 75 and 104 had scores higher than 66 in the 2009 index.
The report also finds that the beverage, consumer products and food manufacturing industries top the rankings with average scores exceeding 73. Report researchers say that many of the companies in these sectors successfully communicate their CSR efforts, while linking those efforts to their brands.
The CSR Index was developed by researchers at the Carroll School of Management's Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College in conjunction in partnership with Reputation Institute to understand how companies' reputations are impacted by public perceptions of performance related to citizenship (the community and the environment), governance (ethics and transparency) and workplace practices. The survey, conducted in January and February 2010, is based on the responses of 7,790 online consumers in the United States.