Intel declared US' top corporate citizen

Chip giant takes the plaudits as utilities also praised for high levels of corporate disclosure

Intel has this week been lauded as the US' best corporate citizen, topping a list of 100 socially responsible organisation which also featured a disproportionate number of utility firms.

The list from corporate responsibility magazine CRO assessed the CSR performance of US large cap firms using 150 publicly disclosed metrics. It praised the chip giant for displaying improvement across "a broad swath of corporate citizenship categories".

Intel president and chief executive Paul Otellini welcomed the title, adding that the company's focus on environmental and CSR performance had been driven solely by business concerns. He said that since 2001 the business had invested over $20m on CSR-related projects, but achieved savings of more than $42m as a result.

Eaton, Nike, Deere, Gentech, Corning, Humana, Bank of America, ITT and PG &E made up the rest of the top 10.

Despite their relatively large carbon footprint, utilities firms were the most represented sector in the Top 100 with 19 corporations included.

There is an "inherent logic" to companies from heavily polluting industries like utilities, oil and chemicals adopting sophisticated CSR strategies and high levels of corporate disclosure, said Mark Bateman, director of research at consultancy firm IW Financial, which worked with CRO on compiling the list.

"Companies in these industries have more potential problems than those in supposedly "clean" industries so chemical, oil and utilities companies may be more sophisticated in addressing environmental management," he explained.