Johnson & Johnson

Daniel McGinn’s September 21, 2009 article “The Greenest Big Companies in American” for Newsweek, ranked Johnson and Johnson number four in the U.S out of 500 companies and number three in the world out of 100.  Newsweek worked with the environmental researchers KLD Research & Analytics, Trucost, and CorporateRegister.com to rank the companies. The companies were ranked based on their actual environmental performance, policies, and reputation. Ranking the companies was very challenging because of the different industries involved. Another obstacle was the incompatibility of different companies’ data due to the lack of a uniform standard for reporting green data; as well as the limited corporate emissions data.

Jacquelyn Smith’s October 28 2010 article “America’s Most Generous Companies” for Forbes stated that the 5% increase in cash donations in 2008 fell by 7.5% in 2009.  Although profits are improving companies have reduced their cash donations to charity. It is still commendable that companies are willing to donate regardless of the economic climate. Johnson & Johnson took fourth place in the top ten givers, donating a total of $637,426,00 in cash and products in 2009; an increase of 12.7% from 2008.

According to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) press release in the article “public views U.S. companies as more socially responsible than a year ago,” Johnson & Johnson was rated the number one out of 230 companies measured. Researchers at the Carroll School of Management's Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College collaborated with Reputation Institute to develop the Corporate Social Responsibility Index. According to the article, CSR was developed to better understand how the public’s perception on the way companies should behave in areas of citizenship, governance, and workplace practice affects companies’ reputations. The results of the 2010 CSR index indicate that companies are becoming more aware that the public’s perception of them is very important especially in economic times such as these. Based on Johnson & Johnson’s ranking the company is very successful in communicating its CSR efforts to the public.