The Clorox Company has earned the top ranking on Barron’s 2023 100 Most Sustainable Companies list — its second time in the top five and fifth consecutive year in the top 25 since the rankings were first released in 2018. Clorox was selected for its continued efforts around sustainability, diversity and transparency.

“Sustainability is built into the fiber of our purpose to champion people to be well and thrive every single day,” said CEO Linda Rendle. “This recognition reflects our unwavering commitment to fully integrate environmental, social and governance performance into our daily business. While we’re incredibly proud of this achievement, we still have more work ahead to continue making positive change for our teammates, communities, shareholders and planet.”

Released earlier today, the list is compiled by Barron’s in collaboration with Calvert Research and Management based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance by the 1,000 largest U.S. publicly traded companies by market value. Calvert analyzes how companies perform according to five key constituencies—including shareholders, employees, customers, community, and planet— and determines rankings based on more than 230 ESG performance indicators.

See related article: Clorox Issues FY22 Integrated Annual Report Highlighting Progress on Growth and Transformation, ESG Strategy Goals

Clorox has made considerable progress toward its ambitious ESG goals across the areas where it can have the greatest impact: Clean World, Healthy Lives and Thriving Communities. Recent highlights include:

• Surpassed science-based target to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 50 percent by 2030, with a longer-term goal to achieve net-zero emissions across scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2050.
• Reached goal to source 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy for U.S. and Canadian operations.
• Attained zero-waste-to-landfill status in nearly half of its facilities and more than three-quarters of its plants.
• Reached 84 percent of the company’s goal to have 100 percent recyclable, reusable or compostable packaging by 2025.
• Named an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2022 Safer Choice Partner of the Year for the fifth time for the company’s manufacturing of products that contain ingredients the EPA has determined are safer for human health and the environment.
• Reached and maintained pay equity commitment —meaning no statistically significant differences in pay— across gender globally and races/ethnicities in the U.S. for the last two years.
• Included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the fifth consecutive year, which tracks the performance of public companies committed to transparency in gender-data reporting.
• Sustained diversity in corporate governance, with 50 percent female and 25 percent minority board members.

Clorox CEO Linda Rendle will be a featured speaker at ESG Investing at a Crossroads, a virtual event that is part of the Dow Jones Energy & Sustainability Issue Briefing series, on Thursday, March 16. The live webcast, led by Barron’s journalists, will begin at 11:00 a.m. ET (8:00 a.m. PT) and can be accessed on Barron’s website. A replay of the webcast will be available following the event.

The full list of Barron’s Top Sustainable Companies of 2023 can be found here.