Barron's 100 Most Sustainable U.S. Companies
There are significant changes in the top 10 from last year, including the entry of Voya, and Best Buy’s ascent to No. 1 from third last year. You might notice that some of the top companies are headquartered in California. That makes sense: The state is home to tough environmental regulations and governance initiatives.
To create the rankings, Calvert analyzed the 1,000 largest publicly held U.S. companies (by stock market value) and scored them on more than 200 key indicators and 28 issues. Calvert then sorted the data into five key categories: shareholders, employees, customers, planet, and community. (The shareholders category might include executive compensation, for example, and the customers category might include data security or product safety.) Each corporation received a rating from zero to 100 in each category.
Finally, Calvert produced a single rating for all of the companies, weighted according to how material each category is for their industry: Emissions are less critical for a bank’s score than they are for a trucking company’s, for example.
| 2019 Rank | Company | Ticker | 2018 Return (%) | Market Value ($B) |
| 1 | Best Buy | BBY | -20.00% | 16 |
| 2 | Cisco Systems | CSCO | 16.50% | 212.5 |
| 3 | Agilent Technologies | A | 1.60% | 24.3 |
| 4 | HP Inc. | HPQ | 0.10% | 35.4 |
| 5 | Texas Instruments | TXN | -7.00% | 98.3 |
| 6 | Voya Financial | VOYA | -18.80% | 7.3 |
| 7 | Clorox | CLX | 6.10% | 19.5 |
| 8 | W.W. Grainger | GWW | 21.80% | 16.8 |
| 9 | Motorola Solutions | MSI | 29.70% | 19.7 |
| 10 | ManpowerGroup | MAN | -47.00% | 4.9 |
| 11 | salesforce.com | CRM | 34.00% | 121.6 |
| 12 | PVH | PVH | -32.10% | 8.5 |
| 13 | Intuit | INTU | 25.80% | 58.3 |
| 14 | Cummins | CMI | -21.80% | 24.1 |
| 15 | Kellogg | K | -12.90% | 20.5 |
| 16 | Tiffany | TIF | -20.50% | 10.9 |
| 17 | Oshkosh | OSK | -31.50% | 5.3 |
| 18 | United Parcel Service | UPS | -15.10% | 92.4 |
| 19 | Colgate-Palmolive | CL | -18.90% | 56.2 |
| 20 | Lam Research | LRCX | -24.00% | 26.5 |
| 21 | Autodesk | ADSK | 22.70% | 33.4 |
| 22 | McCormick | MKC | 38.70% | 16.5 |
| 23 | American Water Works | AWK | 1.20% | 17.3 |
| 24 | Williams-Sonoma | WSM | 0.80% | 4.4 |
| 25 | Applied Materials | AMAT | -34.60% | 37.3 |
| 26 | Ecolab | ECL | 11.10% | 45.8 |
| 27 | Delta Air Lines | DAL | -8.60% | 34.7 |
| 28 | Prudential Financial | PRU | -25.90% | 38.4 |
| 29 | V.F. | VFC | -1.00% | 34 |
| 30 | Deere | DE | -2.90% | 52.5 |
| 31 | Darden Restaurants | DRI | 6.90% | 13.4 |
| 32 | Hasbro | HAS | -7.90% | 11.6 |
| 33 | CBRE Group | CBRE | -7.60% | 15.9 |
| 34 | Keysight Technologies | KEYS | 49.20% | 14.2 |
| 35 | Target | TGT | 5.10% | 38 |
| 36 | Baker Hughes | BHGE | -29.80% | 25.9 |
| 37 | Teradata | TDC | -0.30% | 5.5 |
| 38 | UniFirst | UNF | -13.00% | 2.6 |
| 39 | PNC Financial Services Group | PNC | -16.60% | 56.2 |
| 40 | Bank of Hawaii | BOH | -18.70% | 3.3 |
| 41 | People's United Financial | PBCT | -19.10% | 6.3 |
| 42 | Mettler-Toledo International | MTD | -8.70% | 16.4 |
| 43 | Microsoft | MSFT | 20.80% | 822.6 |
| 44 | DXC Technology | DXC | -34.30% | 18.1 |
| 45 | Estee Lauder | EL | 3.50% | 55.2 |
| 46 | Church & Dwight | CHD | 32.80% | 14.9 |
| 47 | KeyCorp | KEY | -23.90% | 16.7 |
| 48 | Sonoco Products | SON | 3.00% | 5.8 |
| 49 | Gap | GPS | -21.60% | 9.6 |
| 50 | CenturyLink | CTL | 3.80% | 15.8 |
| 51 | Northern Trust | NTRS | -14.40% | 19.7 |
| 52 | Deckers Outdoor | DECK | 59.40% | 4.1 |
| 53 | SVB Financial | SIVB | -18.80% | 12.4 |
| 54 | Henry Schein | HSIC | 12.40% | 12.1 |
| 55 | Nvidia | NVDA | -30.70% | 91.5 |
| 56 | Starbucks | SBUX | 14.40% | 86.2 |
| 57 | Macy's | M | 24.20% | 8 |
| 58 | International Flavors & Fragrances | IFF | -10.20% | 15.3 |
| 59 | ON Semiconductor | ON | -21.20% | 9.2 |
| 60 | Lowe's | LOW | 1.30% | 78.8 |
| 61 | Campbell Soup | CPB | -28.50% | 10.5 |
| 62 | Flowserve | FLS | -8.00% | 5.9 |
| 63 | Verizon Communications | VZ | 10.70% | 223.7 |
| 64 | Hershey | HSY | -3.10% | 21.7 |
| 65 | Vertex Pharmaceuticals | VRTX | 10.60% | 47.8 |
| 66 | PepsiCo | PEP | -4.90% | 159.4 |
| 67 | BlackRock | BLK | -21.20% | 66.2 |
| 68 | Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HPE | -5.10% | 22.2 |
| 69 | Kohl's | KSS | 26.80% | 11.3 |
| 70 | Xerox | XRX | -28.80% | 6.7 |
| 71 | Avery Dennison | AVY | -20.00% | 9.1 |
| 72 | Comerica | CMA | -18.80% | 12.7 |
| 73 | Rockwell Automation | ROK | -21.50% | 20.4 |
| 74 | RingCentral | RNG | 70.30% | 7.8 |
| 75 | Regions Financial | RF | -19.90% | 15.8 |
| 76 | Tractor Supply | TSCO | 13.20% | 10.9 |
| 77 | F5 Networks | FFIV | 23.50% | 9.7 |
| 78 | Varian Medical Systems | VAR | 1.90% | 12.1 |
| 79 | AptarGroup | ATR | 10.60% | 6.3 |
| 80 | Republic Services | RSG | 8.80% | 25.4 |
| 81 | Air Products and Chemicals | APD | 0.20% | 36.9 |
| 82 | Xilinx | XLNX | 28.40% | 28.1 |
| 83 | T. Rowe Price Group | TROW | -9.30% | 22.5 |
| 84 | State Street | STT | -33.60% | 26.9 |
| 85 | Robert Half International | RHI | 5.00% | 7.7 |
| 86 | BioMarin Pharmaceutical | BMRN | -4.50% | 17.4 |
| 87 | Cintas | CTAS | 9.10% | 20.1 |
| 88 | Alaska Air Group | ALK | -15.50% | 8 |
| 89 | First Solar | FSLR | -37.10% | 5.2 |
| 90 | Yum! Brands | YUM | 14.40% | 29.5 |
| 91 | S&P Global | SPGI | 1.50% | 48.9 |
| 92 | Coca-Cola | KO | 6.60% | 209.7 |
| 93 | BB&T | BBT | -9.70% | 37.2 |
| 94 | Medidata Solutions | MDSO | 6.40% | 4.6 |
| 95 | BorgWarner | BWA | -30.70% | 8.5 |
| 96 | Home Depot | HD | -7.20% | 210.5 |
| 97 | Avnet | AVT | -6.90% | 4.5 |
| 98 | Ingredion | INGR | -32.90% | 6.6 |
| 99 | USG | USG | 13.20% | 6 |
| 100 | AT&T | T | -21.50% | 215.8 |