JUST Capital and CNBC Release the 2022 Rankings of America’s Most JUST Companies

We are proud to announce the 2022 Rankings of America’s Most JUST Companies, led by the JUST 100, in collaboration with CNBC. Each year, we take our comprehensive polling of what Americans prioritize when it comes to just business behavior and see how the country’s largest corporations measure up. This year, as we continue to navigate the uncertainty of the pandemic, a tight labor market, and a rapidly evolving ESG landscape, Americans expect companies to earn the public’s trust and hold themselves accountable to their many stakeholder commitments.

Of the 954 public companies we analyzed, Alphabet is America’s Most JUST Company for the first time. Intel, Microsoft, Salesforce, Bank of America, PayPal, Apple, NVIDIA, Verizon, and Cisco Systems round out the top 10. You can explore the complete Rankings – with detailed breakdowns for each stakeholder metric – on our site, and find links to CNBC’s multimedia coverage at cnbc.com/just100, also showcased at the bottom of this report.

The Win-Win of Stakeholder Value Creation

This year’s JUST 100 companies show that taking a holistic, stakeholder-driven approach to their business results in stronger value creation. Here are some statistics that demonstrate the power of recognizing the link among all stakeholders – workers, customers, communities, shareholders, and the environment:

For this year’s Rankings, our survey research identified 20 priorities for just business behavior, or Issues. Our Issues Report on the People’s Priorities, which unpacks these findings, was based on a representative sample of 3,000 Americans, and the percentages below reflect the probability that an individual would choose a particular Issue as most important to defining a just company. These probabilities serve as the weighting for the Rankings.

We found a striking consistency across demographic breaks – race and ethnicity, political ideology, younger and older generations, low-wage workers, and active investors – in which Issues landed in their top three. “Pays a Fair, Living Wage,” came in at the number-one spot for the second year in a row, followed by “Creates Jobs in the U.S.” (up from #8 the previous year), and “Prioritizes Accountability to All Stakeholders” (up from #11).

Over the last six years, the American public has also been remarkably consistent in what matters most, and all five worker-related issues are yet again among the top 10 priorities of the public. As we’ve recently seen from the tight labor market and the “Great Reassessment,” it’s clear that the pandemic has focused Americans’ attention on what they expect from corporate America, and companies should take heed that workers are willing to vote with their feet for better wages and benefits, safe working environments, and more inclusivity, flexibility, and opportunity. Notably, PayPal, our co-founding partner of the Worker Financial Wellness Initiative, ranked sixth this year and Verizon, which joined our growing cohort of companies committed to improving worker financial health and security, ranked ninth.

Disclosures on the Rise

Another key insight from this year’s Rankings is that disclosure is increasing among Russell 1000 companies across many underlying data points, improving companies’ scores and relative ranks. For example, disclosure on board diversity by race or ethnicity increased from 20% in 2021 to 52% in 2022. Detailed workforce demographic disclosures by race and gender (e.g. EEO-1) increased from 4% to 11%. On climate commitments and disclosures, Scope 3 emissions received increased focus with Scope 3 travel disclosures catapulting from 3% to 30%, and Scope 3 product use emissions increasing from from less than 1% to 12%. We also saw a larger focus on accountability with the number of companies disclosing a connection between ESG KPIs and compensation metrics rising from 18% to 28%.

CNBC Spotlights on Stakeholder Performance

CNBC will delve into the data, highlighting company-specific results and bringing out key stakeholder performance stories about this year’s JUST 100 leaders across the network’s broadcast and digital platforms at cnbc.com/just100. Tune in to Squawk Box, Power Lunch, and Closing Bell this week and next to hear insights from CEOs of JUST 100 companies, including Accenture, Akamai, Delta, Dow Chemical, HP, IBM, Nasdaq, UPS, VMware, and more!