Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable Companies
6 min
Many companies would love a break on labor, after a year of strife when workers from Hollywood to Detroit flexed their muscle. It may be wishful thinking to expect a reprieve.
A resilient economy isn’t likely to shift leverage from workers to corporate bosses. Despite pockets of layoffs, namely in technology, the job market remains tight, with unemployment near record lows. A backlash against “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives, or DEI, is jumping from colleges to companies— Alphabet and Meta Platforms have reportedly pulled back, for instance. Throw in a virtual lockdown on immigration, combined with a spike in U.S. manufacturing, and many companies may have another rough year of labor challenges.
Some companies are navigating these issues better than others—finding ways to reward workers and meet DEI goals without taking big hits to their profits or reputations for social responsibility. Several of those faring well made it into Barron’s ranking of the 100 most sustainable companies .
To make the list, our seventh annual ranking, companies were scored on a variety of environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, measures. Barron’s worked with Calvert Research and Management, a leader in responsible investing, to rank the companies. The top 100 firms—winnowed from the largest 1,000 publicly traded U.S. companies—achieved the highest scores across 230 ESG metrics, from workplace diversity to greenhouse-gas emissions. (See below for the complete list and more about the methodology.)
Home-products company Clorox sits at the top of the leader board for the second straight year, edging out Kimberly-Clark , CBRE Group , Hasbro , and Agilent Technologies in the top five. The overall lineup spans a wide range of industries, with tech, industrials, and consumer companies all well represented.
Many of the companies delivered solid results for shareholders. The top 100 returned an average 19% in 2023, versus 26%, including dividends, for the S&P 500 index. That doesn’t look great. But the S&P 500 is weighted by market capitalisation and last year’s “Magnificent Seven”— Apple , Microsoft , Amazon.com , Nvidia , Meta Platforms, Tesla , and Alphabet—fuelled almost all the market’s gains. Strip away that influence, and the equal-weighted S&P 500 returned 14%, trailing the 100 most sustainable companies.
Several stocks delivered standout returns in 2023, led by chip maker Nvidia, ranked 41st with a 239% gain. Other tech winners included HubSpot , Intel , Applied Materials , and Lam Research . Strong performers in other industries were Trex , Lennox International , Williams-Sonoma , Insight Enterprises , and Owens Corning .
A big theme in this year’s rankings was progress on corporate governance and labor relations, says Chris Madden, a managing director at Calvert, which is owned by Morgan Stanley Investment Management. “A lot of the companies on this list have done a stellar job dealing with employees,” he says.
Strikes were big in 2023 as Hollywood screenwriters and Detroit auto workers took to the picket lines, winning concessions and pay raises. Pilots and other unionised groups fared well, breathing life back into the organised labour movement, which had been in decline since the 1950s. New technologies such as artificial intelligence and electric vehicles are upending vast industries, prompting workers to demand more protections.
Tensions between companies and employees are spilling over in more public ways, thanks in part to social media; workers are using platforms like X and TikTok to amplify their message or try to shame their employer, says Alison Taylor, clinical associate professor at NYU Stern School of Business and author of a new book, Higher Ground . One of the most interesting recent trends, she says, has been the rise of “strategic leaking, where young employees undercut sunny messaging from the top with their own lived experiences.” She cites the trend of sharing layoff experiences on TikTok as an example.
Battles are also brewing over DEI, including a political backlash by conservatives, complicating corporate efforts to meet their own DEI goals. Last year, a number of high-profile chief diversity officers exited their roles at some of the biggest U.S. companies, including Walt Disney and Netflix . This month, Zoom Video Communications fired a team focused on DEI initiatives as part of a round of layoffs.
The issue is also bubbling up in the presidential race. During a rally in Philadelphia last year, presidential hopeful Donald Trump promised to eliminate all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs “across the entire federal government.”
Many companies say they remain committed to DEI goals. According to a Conference Board survey late last year of chief human resource officers, none planned to scale back their diversity efforts, while 75% said improving the employee experience and organisational culture would be a top focus in 2024. Alphabet said in a statement that it is inaccurate to suggest it is “deprioritising our longstanding efforts for underrepresented communities.”
One company that scored well on labour and other sustainability factors was Walmart . The world’s largest retailer landed at 61 on the list. “Walmart stands out for its strong labour practices,” says Helen Mbugua-Kahuki, Calvert’s director of research. “We’ve seen Walmart do a really good job as it pertains to increasing wages for its workers.”
One of America’s largest employers, with 1.6 million U.S. workers, Walmart raised entry-level pay for store workers last year, taking its average hourly wage to $18, well above the federal minimum of $7.25. The company also increased wages for store managers to an average $128,000, plus better bonuses. A Walmart spokesperson said the retailer has been “investing in its front-line hourly associates for the past several years.”
Walmart’s other positives include education and training benefits, which the company says have saved workers nearly $500 million over the past five years. Calvert gives the company high marks for being more open to worker feedback through new digital forums . “It’s a form of open communication and provision for employees to freely express themselves,” Mbugua-Kahuki says.
Walmart still has its labour critics. The company has faced multiple lawsuits over gender discrimination. None of its roughly 4,700 U.S. stores have unionised, making it the largest U.S. employer without any unionised workers. In January, the National Labor Relations Board’s San Francisco office issued a complaint against a Walmart store in Eureka, Calif., alleging violations of labor rights. The NLRB said there are 21 other unfair labor practice cases open against Walmart.
Walmart has denied the NLRB’s allegations in a legal response . The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Other Faces of Sustainability
Calvert says Clorox, whose brands include its namesake bleach, Burt’s Bees cosmetics, and Glad trash bags, took top honours thanks to its strong governance structure and pay equity, among other factors. The firm’s board is diverse, with 50% women and 25% people of colour. In 2023, Clorox once again achieved pay equity, which means “no statistically significant differences” in pay by gender globally and race or ethnicity in the U.S., according to Clorox. “Pay equity is important because it creates a better culture,” says Madden.
Clorox’s shares underperformed the market in 2023, in part because of a cyberattack that caused wide-scale disruptions and hurt financial results. But its workers, at least, appear to be well treated, with perks including more flexible time for all. “We really intend for people to use this to refuel their tanks,” says Kirsten Marriner, chief people and corporate affairs officer.
About a fifth of this year’s list consists of newcomers. Game publisher Electronic Arts made the list for the first time, debuting at No. 32. Calvert says the company is making strides in DEI, including a push for better representation of women in its games. EA’s hugely popular Ultimate Team mode saw women football players introduced for the first time last year . Calvert also lauds the company for hiring “underrepresented talent” above the average rate in the industry for the fifth straight year and placing more minorities in executive roles. EA declined an interview but confirmed Calvert’s information.
Also making its debut this year is Trex, landing at No. 68. The company is a leading maker of “wood-alternative” home decking and railings made from a blend of recycled and reclaimed raw materials.
Some companies made a big leap up in this year’s ranking, among them Tetra Tech , which jumped from No. 56 to No. 8. Calvert singled out the consulting and engineering firm for its efforts to remediate toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, better known as “forever” chemicals. But it noted that Tetra Tech “could improve on human-capital management and offer more incentives for its employees.”
How We Ranked the Companies
To build our list of most sustainable companies, Barron’s worked with Calvert, a leader in ESG investing. Starting with the 1,000 largest publicly traded companies by market value—excluding real estate investment trusts—Calvert ranked each one by how it performed in five key constituency categories: shareholders, employees, customers, community, and the planet. Specifically, it looked at more than 230 ESG performance indicators from seven rating companies, including ISS, MSCI, and Sustainalytics, along with other data and Calvert’s internal research.
These data were organised into 28 topics that were then sorted into five categories. In the shareholder category, for example, topics included board structure, business ethics, and executive compensation. For employees, workplace diversity was a key topic. The planet category included greenhouse-gas, or GHG, emissions and related policies; biodiversity; and water stress. Calvert assigned a score of zero to 100 in each category, based on company performance. Then it created a weighted average of the categories for each company, based on how financially material the category was in its industry. To make Barron’s list, a company had to be rated above the bottom quarter in each material stakeholder category. If it performed poorly in any key category that was financially material, it was disqualified.
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From early financial mistakes to hard-earned habits, five high-performing leaders share how they spend, invest and think about wealth.
9 min
Five minutes doesn’t sound like much. But it’s enough time to tell whether someone really understands money or just talks about it. Because once the gloss is stripped away, what’s left is instinct. The early mistakes. The bad calls. The quiet pivots that no one brags about but shape everything that follows. Making money is one thing. Living with it, and not mishandling it, is another. Here, five executives talk about what they got wrong, what they’ve learned, and how they now actually spend, invest and think about wealth.
Andrew Raso: Founder, Online Marketing Gurus
Self-made millionaire Andrew Raso grew up in an ethnic household with a father in construction. Investing was not a priority, he recalls.
The co-founder and CEO of Online Marketing Gurus, a digital marketing platform that generated more than $30 million in revenue in the 204/25 financial year, admits he’s had to learn about handling money as his wealth has grown.
“If I had my time again, I would change my spending habits and would probably be a lot more wealthy as a result,” the Sydneysider tells Kanebridge Quarterly.
Raso, in his mid-30s, says that his biggest lessons have come from his losses.
Buying the wrong property and copping the losses upon sale. Feeling FOMO when buying crypto and making a purchase that lost money.
“I’ve learned a lot from the errors that I’ve made,” he says.
Raso admits that he gets more of a thrill out of working than watching money hit his bank account.
“I’ve had the cars, I’ve had the property, I’ve had the watches. Once you’ve had them, they’re not that exciting, but the process of earning money is pretty cool.”
What he won’t forget is being $45 million in property debt a few years ago.
“I’d never want to be in that position again,” he says.
“My investing strategy is a lot safer these days. I’m very cautious. I’d prefer to invest in things that don’t take as long to be realised so my family can be financially secure.
“Once you have a house paid off and a few investments, it then becomes about enjoying your money, rather than hoarding it. Giving back gives me a much bigger kick than spending these days.”
Daniel Wessels: CEO, Jacaranda Finance
Fintech founder Daniel Wessels knows only too well that money remains a taboo topic in Australia with many people.
He points to consumer surveys that reveal people are more likely to talk about their sex life with friends than their finances.
It’s a major concern for the man who founded Jacaranda Finance in 2013, which has helped countless people lift their credit scores and get their finances back on track.
“If people aren’t learning money habits at school and they aren’t discussing it with their friends, learning new strategies and better habits is difficult,” says Wessels, who is based in Brisbane.
He wants to see more people take the time to proactively understand where and why they are spending money.
“Everyone needs to have a financial strategy and a plan to measure if it’s working,” he says.
The father of two young children admits his week can be pretty fast-paced. Pomodoro clocks, sleep optimisation techniques and saying ‘no’ keep him on task during the week.
“I used to think I was fairly decent at managing time, but the whole game changed when we had kids,” he says.
“Now, I’ve got to get out of the house at a certain time and leave the office at a certain time for daycare pickup. I’ve got to be really specific about my tasks to maximise my week.”
Before he had a family, he loved heading out to one of the trendy new restaurants popping up in Brisbane.
But that happens less these days. He’s saving to build his forever home but admits that price rises have resulted in rising costs.
“It’s such a big project with so many variables that change quickly,” he says.
These days, Wessels likes to optimise his professional and personal life. “With only a finite amount of money, time and energy, you’ve got to be really good at deciding what you want to be good at,” he says.
He calls this ruthless prioritisation. He has a very specific focus on activities that prioritise health and wealth, adding experiences into the mix more recently. This has meant the addition of micro-holidays to his annual calendar.
Wessels works with a couple of financial advisers. That said, he also does his own due diligence before agreeing to investments.
“One likes private equity investments that pay cash every month and another prefers to focus on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange for buying shares because he’s bullish about that.” he says. “They’re each experts and really good at what they do.”
Jim Penman: CEO, Jim’s Group
He may have invested a lifetime building a franchise juggernaut that is reportedly a $1 billion a year empire, but Jim Penman insists he’s a frugal guy who prefers to spend time planting a tree in his garden than contemplating his wealth.
What started out as Jim’s Mowing back in 1989 became Jim’s Group. Today, there are 5,700 franchisees across Australia and New Zealand in the business that has become ubiquitous for being the local handyman company that households could rely on.
He may have built a successful business empire, but the Melburnian insists he’s stingy when it comes to money.
“I wear my clothes even today until they wear out. I’ve always had a very lean and mean attitude. I live a simple life. My personal needs are very modest and my finances are simple,” he says. Jim reveals he’s usually in his garden these days and rarely eats out or takes holidays.
He is also running for state politics in the November Victorian election.
“I’m not particularly money focused. I could tweak the franchise contract to put more fees in and double my profitability, but that’s not my goal or my aim. To be honest, I often make decisions that go against my financial self-interest,” he says.
Jim purchased his first brand new car three years ago, opting for an electric Volvo.
“Being rich is not my aim and it never has been. People think I’m a lot richer than I am. They think I’m a billionaire, which is kind of ridiculous,” he says.
In fact, he insists he carries debt, which is common for anyone in business. “If I wanted, I could pay it off in 18 months.”
While his competitors were spending on fancy office space, Penman was running his franchise from his basement, keeping business costs low. “When I started out, I didn’t have any concept of how big this business could be. But there has never been a plan to grow franchisee numbers.
“Our attrition rate is far more important, and how to reduce complaint rates and drive more enquiries through new software.”
He believes people these days worry too much about impressing others, which leads to spending on superficial things.
“I would rather than offer people advice on how to be happy, rather than how to become rich. It’s important to have a good income so you can support yourself. But life is more about purpose.”
Jim doesn’t bother with stocks or bonds. He only invests in his own business. “My rate of return on my business is substantial. I could buy back a regional franchise when they come on the market and get a 20-25 per cent annual rate of return, plus capital gains. There’s nothing like that available in the investment space.”
Nicola Beswick: Founder, White Rabbit Advisory
Rabbit Advisory founder.
A clothing allowance provided by her parents and then a part-time job during high school was the first taste of financial freedom for Nicola Beswick.
She quickly became a spender rather than saver, but she’s changed her tune over the years.
The founder of financial advice firm White Rabbit Advisory left behind a successful career in intellectual property law a year ago to become a financial adviser because she realised the potential that financial education could have on someone’s life.
Her journey began after coming across the book Rich Dad Poor Dad some years ago, which opened her eyes to the power that money could have on her life. This marked a time when she became serious about her finances.
“Financial education and investing over time can have a huge impact on a person, and that book got me thinking about money and financial education in the first place,” she says.
Nicola says years ago, her father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. When dealing with the devastating news and an uncertain future, her father discovered he was eligible to receive an income protection payout.
“This was the stone that rippled his pond and mine. A new complex world of finance opened up and I discovered my calling – helping people plan for a financially secure future.”
She hasn’t looked back. “Commercial law was very transactional. I don’t regret quitting at all. I’m much happier now helping people get their finances in order. Financial planning helps people change their lives. That was a really big driver for me.”
The Melburnian admits she’s learned plenty of lessons along the way as she embarks on the process of building wealth. She uses superannuation as an investment vehicle, favouring its tax advantages.
“I also built a nest egg outside of super, because you never know when the rules will change,” she says.
She prefers to set a financial goal and save up for something specific over time than rush out and make a purchase.
“It’s a really powerful thing to wait before making a purchase,” she says.
Her current financial goals involve renovating her heritage-listed home. “We will keep the façade and gut it to rebuild. That’s a major expense for us on the horizon.”
While holidays are rare, she will spend on overseas trips on occasion. “I’m terrible at taking time off. I’m always working.”
Sam Riley: CEO, Drova
Sam Riley was in his 20s when he set out to amass enough money to be able to retire by the age of 40 if he wanted to.
“The goal was always to be doing something by 40 that kept me engaged enough that I didn’t actually want to retire because I was happy,” he says.
An entrepreneur at heart, Sam started a juice and espresso bar when he was 21, which didn’t work out. His next venture was a technology business, Ansarada, an ASX-listed company he ultimately sold nearly two years ago for $250 million.
The sale set him up for life, but he’s not one to rest on his laurels, launching into the complex world of artificial ntelligence with his next technology play, a company called Drova.
The technology startup simplifies risk, compliance and resilience for small businesses. Sam believes it’s got potential to become a tech juggernaut in time.
Having early financial success has meant he has the luxury of slow mornings and working in short bursts throughout the day, problem solving, experimenting with what works and figuring out how to harness AI.
“I favour a more sustainable approach to working these days. More frequent breaks. Making sure not to deteriorate my capacity,” he says.
It was a hard slog. He admits he touched the fringes of serious burnout when he was younger, which he works hard to avoid these days.
“Every business venture has exposed a gap in my skills that I’ve worked to close. Whether that’s marketing or managing people, closing those gaps along the way is how you get more effective at generating wealth,” he says.
The secret to his success has been finding ways to bolster value in the corporate world, finding ways to bring more to the table. Sam admits he spends too much money on travel, food and niche vinyl audio equipment, like turntables. He prefers to invest in experiences rather than things.
But it can get expensive. Like a recent trip to Antarctica to stay in a lodge for a week. “The thing is I didn’t like having these experiences on my own, so I have to bring family or other people and then pay for them.”
Sam describes his investment portfolio as balanced. While he continues to invest in entrepreneurial ventures, he admits he has a safe foundational platform to his investment approach.
“Over the years, I’ve added a lot more dividend stocks and protective assets like gold and silver, and some index funds.
“When I was younger, I didn’t appreciate the value of being safe and boring in the investment world.”
He says a lot of his investments used to be leading edge and visionary. “Some of them work, and some of them don’t. I didn’t really have much balance in my portfolio. I still invest in entrepreneurial things, but am much more conscious of taking a more even-handed approach,” he says.
This article appeared in the Winter 26 issue of Kanebridge Quarterly, which you can buy here.
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