CRO's New CSR Ranking

It's already time for an update to my CSR rankings post from last week.  In my last post in this series, I compared the new RiskMetrics Group 2010 Global ESG 100 ranking with the Corporate Knights 2010 Global 100, the Ethisphere Institute's 2009 Most Ethical Companies, Newsweek's 2009 Green Rankings, and the CRO's 2009 Best Corporate Citizens.  I demonstrated that there is no universal consensus between the five rankings--- not surprising given that each group uses its own methodology to distinguish itself from its competitors.

On March 2nd, CRO (now renamed Corporate Responsibility Magazine) came out with its annual update to its Best Corporate Citizens rankings.  Results are posted in the table below, and include a comparison between CRO rankings for this year and last as well information on which of the four other groups I've been following include each company in their top 100s.

I have also added a final column titled "Consensus Level", illustrating the number of other ratings groups which agree with CRO's evaluation of a company as deserving of top 100 recognition.  These figures are interesting--- scan the list from top to bottom and you will see that there is significantly more consensus in the top quartile than in the bottom quartile.  In fact, one quarter of the CRO's 2010 ranking did not appear on ANY of the five CSR rankings I have cross-referenced in previous posts.  Companies like Campbell Soup, McKesson, Pepsi Bottling Company, Ford Motor Company, and DuPont are no doubt celebrating their newfound acclaim as CSR leaders.

Naturally, adding companies to the list means dropping others.  In fact, 44 companies from CRO's 2009 ranking have disappeared from this year's edition, including CSR darlings Agilent (recognized by RiskMetrics Group's 2010 Global ESG 100, Newsweek's 2009 Green Rankings, and Corporate Knights' Global 100) and General Electric (recognized in the most recent editions of the 2009 Most Ethical Companies, 2009 Newsweek Green Rankings, and 2010 Corporate Knights Global 100).  Other popular kids who lost out in this year's CRO are healthcare device manufacturer Becton Dickinson, discount electronics retailer Best Buy, and media company Time Warner.

Once again, there is no complete consensus between the most recent editions of CSR rankings about who deserves top 100 recognition.  But, like last time, a bunch of company made the grade for four of the five.  Because this post is getting long, I will stop here, and will leave it to you for the moment to share your observations and views on the latest CSR ranking.