The JUST Report

This week, we saw some powerful numbers that support the investment case for just business leadership. 

“America’s political class was in the final stages of self-righteous detachment from the economic and social conditions of the nation it ruled.” So writes Oren Cass, Chief Economist at American Compass, in a NYT op-ed this week.

Americans’ chief priorities remain firmly centered on pay, jobs, and economic security. The debates and discussions around corporations’ role in society continue, but have become markedly less heated and divisive, and more private, measured and–dare I say–meaningful

According to researchers, “under current climate conditions, lost labor productivity due to heat in the U.S. could reach $100 billion a year [and] that loss could reach $200 billion by 2030 and $500 billion by 2050.”  

This week’s call by the U.S. Surgeon General for tobacco-style warning labels on social media products is the latest chapter in one of the defining corporate justness narratives of our time: the impact of social media on the mental health of children and teens. 

June can be a tricky month for corporate leaders. Between Pride, Juneteenth and Father’s Day, there’s a lot for companies to stake out a position on, support, or – in an era of backlash – potentially stay silent on.

Hi – it’s Alison Omens, President of JUST Capital, filling in for Martin with a dispatch this week from Washington D.C., where JUST Capital’s media partner, CNBC, hosted their second annual CEO Council Summit. Given our location and the upcoming election, much of the conversation centered on how CEOs can navigate the political environment to lead in transitional and turbulent times.

We often dwell on the possible negative societal impacts of AI when we contemplate its future – instinctive fear of the unknown perhaps – but there are also some clear and very immediate positive applications. 

Many companies are also doing more to explicitly accelerate progress for women within their workplaces – here are the leaders.

Amidst all the backlash on ESG and DEI, it’s been interesting to track what’s actually going on behind the scenes at the corporations we track – and why.

As of March 29, 2024, our flagship index – the JUST U.S. Large Cap Diversified Index (JULCD)  – has outperformed the Russell 1000 (Cap-Weighted) benchmark by 0.346% year-to-date and by 10.7% since inception.

Monday is the 54th annual Earth Day, so in honor of that I thought we’d highlight a few companies that are showing extraordinary leadership on environmental matters. 

Fortune published their 2024 100 Best Places to Work list recently. It’s highly regarded by major employers and obviously reflects a theme we know to be a top priority for the public, so we thought it’d be fun to compare and contrast against our own JUST Jobs Scorecard, which we released last week. 

Investing in human capital is one of the essential elements of business leadership today. But without a comprehensive set of metrics and a clear definition of what good actually looks like, it’s very difficult to know where to invest in order to improve.

Helping workers prepare for their financial futures is a major JUST issue. And it’s not only a problem for older working Americans. Indeed many Gen X and Millennial adults in the workforce today worry about the costs associated with both caring for their parents as well as their children. 

In the early 2000s, I was fortunate enough to be involved in some of the initial groundbreaking work that brought climate risks forward to the global investor community as a matter of significant financial relevance. This feels similar, but even more urgent.

With the price of everything from gas to food remaining stubbornly high – February’s Consumer Price Index numbers released earlier this week showed inflation actually speeding up slightly – workers struggling to make ends meet seem set for further economic pain. 

The business case for investing in workers is surely watertight at this point. Let’s discuss some of the companies showing why:

With the pushback on ESG and ‘woke’ companies now maturing, there is room in America today for a more objective, data-driven framework that supports values-led business leadership.

With the rapid growth and deployment of generative AI, the consumer component of our stakeholder model – particularly in areas like data privacy, product benefit and harm, and customer treatment – is only going to grow in importance in the future. Here’s why.

Can corporate justness can align with local and state social, economic, environmental and political goals? 

“One of the sayings we have at the company is ‘you have to win the right way.'”

With confidence in the economy still feeling elusive for many people and layoffs dominating the headlines – particularly in the tech and banking sectors – it was a nice surprise to see prominent workforce investments by multiple large employers this week. 

“Rebuilding Trust” is the official theme of this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos. Trust in what?

“If the business community isn’t out there telling the real story — the American story — of opportunity and progress in this country, then no one should be surprised when people believe it’s as bad as the headlines and the political ads say it is.”