While the new year is a good time to plan for the future, it also provides an opportunity to look back at the accomplishments of the past year. At the end of 2016, Just Capital and Forbes released their inaugural “Just 100 List,” which ranks publicly traded companies in the United States that best perform the priorities of American consumers.
The list ranks companies by their attitudes toward corporate behavior based on a survey of 50,000 Americans, which was conducted in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago. Just Capital then evaluated the performance of more than 890 publicly traded companies against the priorities that emerged in the survey and created a ranking model.
According to Just Capital, the survey revealed six issues that are highly ranked by the public. The issues, in order of importance, are providing fair pay for industry and job level; non-discrimination in hiring, firing and promotion practices; providing a safe workplace; following laws and regulations; respecting workers; and creating jobs in the United States.
Ranked against their peers within 32 major industries, PepsiCo Inc. was ranked as “the most just” company among the food, beverage and tobacco industries. In October 2016, the company committed itself to several of these issues in its 2025 Sustainability Agenda report.
As part of the agenda, PepsiCo announced the broadening of its focus on respecting human rights across its supply chain while pursuing new initiatives to promote diversity in its global workforce, support the advancement of women, and spur social and economic development in communities around the world, it says.
In future years, Forbes and Just Capital will rank companies across industries, they say. It will be interesting to see which beverage companies make the list in 2017.