Corporate Responsibility Magazine to Announce 11th Annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) New York, NY - February 26, 2010 - Corporate Responsibility Magazine (the new name of CRO Magazine) will hold a press conference March 2 at 9:30am EST at the Cornell Club in New York City to announce its 11^th annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, recognized by PR Week as one of America’s top three most-important business rankings .

The 100 Best Corporate Citizens List is based on over 360 data points of publicly-available information in seven categories. The seven categories include: Environment, Climate Change, Human Rights, Philanthropy, Employee Relations, Financial Performance, and Governance. The 100 Best Corporations are selected from among the large-cap Russell 1000 companies. The 100 Best List’s open and transparent methodology is governed by a Methodology Committee of the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association (CROA).  The 100 Best List methodology is published in Corporate Responsibility Magazine and is found online at www.thecro.com.     “This year could best be described as ‘The Corporate Transparency Arms Race’,” said Corporate Responsibility Magazine publisher Jay Whitehead. “Companies increasingly recognize that a high 100 Best Corporate Citizens List ranking is worth millions or even billions in increased shareholder and brand value. We are seeing companies investing more and more to improve their public reporting and performance, particularly in the areas of climate change, environment, employee relations, and human rights. Between 2009 and 2010, for instance, the top company’s score improved by 66 percent, and the average score of all 100 companies climbed by 19 percent.”   In 2010 the 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, which features large-cap Russell 1000 companies includes 88 companies listed on the NYSE Euronext exchange. “The strong representation of companies listed on NYSE Euronext markets on the 100 Best Corporate Citizens List underscores the commitment to corporate responsibility, ethics and integrity among the world’s leading corporations,” said Duncan L. Niederauer, Chief Executive Officer, NYSE Euronext. “This also speaks to the inherent quality of our global marketplace as well as the high standards and best practices that NYSE Euronext and our listed companies observe and advocate.   On behalf of my colleagues at NYSE Euronext, I extend my congratulations to the 2010 Best Corporate Citizens and thank Corporate Responsibility Magazine for undertaking this important initiative.”   The complete 11^th annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List will be available to the media March 2 at 9:30am EST. All RSVPs to the press conference and requests for the List should be made by email to whitney.pettyjohn@mslworldwide.com or burke.jensen@mslworldwide.com.   The press conference will be held in the Library at the Cornell Club, 6 East 44^th Street, New York, NY, and will start promptly at 9:30am EST. Continental breakfast is served for in-person attendees. For media wishing to attend via phone conference, the conference call-in number is 712-451-6100 code 699400#.   “The higher scores reveal a quantum leap in performance, which we attribute to the competitive dynamic of firms who understand the importance of stakeholder support from investors, customers, employees, regulators, and suppliers,” said Corporate Responsibility Magazine editor Dirk Olin. “It’s axiomatic that sunlight is the best disinfectant, and this year’s 100 Best List improvements is proof of sunlight’s power.”    The 100 Best Corporate Citizens “List Effect” will be the focus of Corporate Responsibility (CR) Magazine’s next issue, due to be mailed to 25,000 subscribers on March 9, 2010. The 100 Best List was first published in 1999 in Business Ethics Magazine, and has been managed by CRO and Corporate Responsibility Magazine since 2007.    About Corporate Responsibility Magazine, CRO Association and CRO Summits 20,000-subscriber Corporate Responsibility Magazine (www.crmagazine.com) is publisher of the 11^th annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, among America’s three most-important business rankings according to PR Week. Over 200 large capitalization corporations and institutions are members of the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association (www.CROAssociation.org), representing 1,200+ individuals dedicated to increasing professionalization of corporate responsibility standards and practices. CROA has a formal partnership with NYSE Euronext. Corporate Responsibility Officer Summits (www.crosummit.com) are recognized worldwide as the leading events for corporate responsibility practitioners. CR Magazine, CROA and CRO Summits are managed by SharedXpertise Media LLC, with offices in Edison NJ, Cambridge UK, Brussels BE, and Singapore.   Media contacts:  Burke Jensen, MS&L Worldwide, burke.jensen@mslworldwide.com, +1 202 261 2892   Whitney Pettyjohn, MS&L Worldwide, whitney.pettyjohn@mslworldwide.com, +1 212 468 4200   Anne-Sophie Ribault, Chief Marketing Officer, SharedXpertise Media, anne-sophie.ribault@sharedxpertise.com, +1 973 698 4861.