What do we believe?

• We think capitalism is good.
• We think consumers are good, but busy.
• We think companies would be more responsible if consumers asked them to be.

How can we change the world?

• We educate consumers about corporate social responsibility by leveraging beautiful user interfaces and avoiding complex jargon. Our approach is more MTV than WSJ.
• We help ground conversations about corporate behavior in data rather than rumors.
• We encourage the largest publicly traded companies to disclose more data and improve their behavior by competing with their peers for a better Goodness500 rank.

Methodology

Goodness500 researches the social, governance and environmental performance of companies in the S&P 500 because we believe the largest companies have the best opportunity to make the world better. We use a wide variety of sources such as our annual Corporate Philanthropy Census, company websites (e.g. annual reports, SEC filings, etc.), nonprofit reports, and government databases. Here are some of the details:

Social

• Cash donated (in dollars): Total cash donated in FY2009 (or FY2008 where more recent data was not yet available). Source: company disclosures.
• CEO Compensation (in dollars): Total CEO Compensation in FY2009. Source: company disclosures.
• o Profit: (in dollars) Net income in FY2009. Source: company disclosures.

Governance

• Executive diversity (out of 100): Percentage of officers and directors that are female in FY2010 (as of Q3). Source: company disclosures.
• o Policy Score (out of 100): A composite measure of workplace LGBT policies in 2009. Source: Human Rights Campaign

Environment

• Toxic Waste Produced/Released (in pounds): The amount of toxic waste produced and/or released within the United States in 2008. Source: Toxic Release Inventory
• Green Energy Use (in kWh): Amount of renewable energy used in 2008. Source: EPA Green Challenge

Goodness500 strives for the accuracy and completeness of the data it uses. If you have additional sources or potential corrections, please contact us at feedback@goodness500.org. As we continue to improve our data and encourage disclosure from companies, we will also continue to optimize our algorithm to reflect the best possible snapshot of corporate goodness.

People

Michael Mossoba started Goodness500 because he thinks that there has never been a better time in the history of humanity to try to solve big problems. You can connect with him on Twitter or by Email. He is lucky to work with smart people like Etienne Renner, Alexandra Zelubowski, David Mossoba, Ivan Khilko and Pooja Jain, and always likes to hear from potential collaborators. If you like this web app, you should check out the guys who built it at Contrast.