Business Ethics Magazine has released its annual survey of the “100 Best Corporate Citizens."

The closely-watched annual survey focuses on the corporate social responsibility performance of major U.S. companies.  

This year’s “100 Best” list is led by Cummins, Inc., a Columbus, Indiana-based engine manufacturer cited as a world leader in emissions reductions. Cummins has made the “100 Best” list every year since its inception six years ago.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters of Waterbury, Vermont was the #2 rated company, hailed as “a pioneer in helping struggling coffee growers by paying them fair trade prices.”

St. Paul Travelers Companies received the third-best rating, cited for community service.

Five of the top ten companies listed – Cummins, St. Paul Travelers, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Procter & Gamble – have made the “100 Best” list every year since its inception six years ago. Two of those companies, Hewlett-Packard and Procter & Gamble, have made the top ten list six years in a row, while St. Paul Travelers has made it for the last five years.

Rounding out the top ten this year are Nuveen Investments, Wells Fargo & Co., Novell, Inc. and Xerox.

Changes of note since last year’s survey include last year’s No. 1 finisher, Fannie Mae, the government-chartered home mortgage lender that was removed from this year’s list due to investigations surrounding accounting irregularities.

Returning to the “100 Best” list after several years’ absence is Xerox, having recovered from accounting scandals that led to a fine and settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, to be cited once again for excellence in areas such as community and diversity.

“What distinguishes the 100 Best Corporate Citizens from their peers is a commitment to higher standards,” said Marjorie Kelly, Editor of Business Ethics Magazine. “The list represents the top ten percent of Russell 1000 firms when it comes to corporate social responsibility – those that perform to a higher standard in serving a variety of stakeholders with excellence and integrity.”

The growing interest in Business Ethics’ “100 Best Corporate Citizens” issue is driven by several factors, including increased government regulation (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley Act) in the wake of ethics scandals; a growing sense in the corporate community that ethical behavior has become a prerequisite to effective stakeholder relations; and new evidence that responsible companies often carry lower risk and are better positioned for long-term performance than less enlightened peers.

The 100 Best Corporate Citizens survey is based on a database maintained by KLD Research & Analytics, a Boston-based social research firm. All companies listed on the Russell 1000 Index – the 1000 largest publicly-traded companies in the United States – are considered. The KLD data is then statistically analyzed by Boston College's Sandra Waddock and Samuel Graves, and companies receive rankings in eight different categories: total return to stockholders, community, governance, diversity, employees, environment, human rights and product.

Each company then receives an overall score based on their scores in the eight different issue areas.

More details regarding the 100 Best Corporate Citizens list are available at http://www.business-ethics.com/100best.htm.