Air Products (NYSE:APD) has again been named to the 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, published by 3BL Media. The list recognizes outstanding environmental, social and governance (ESG) transparency and performance among the 1,000 largest public companies in the United States. It is the tenth consecutive year Air Products has been named to the list.
“Sustainability and corporate responsibility is at the core of what we do. It is part of our higher purpose, and this recognition reaffirms our commitment to work with our employees, our partners and our communities to continue to build a more sustainable future,” said Seifi Ghasemi, Air Products’ chairman, president and CEO.
The 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking is based on 146 ESG transparency and performance factors across eight pillars; climate change, employee relations, environment, finance, governance, human rights, stakeholders and society, and ESG performance. There were also several factors within the 2021 methodology that account for the response to various social issues that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To compile the ranking, data and information is obtained from public sources only, rather than questionnaires or company submissions. Research is conducted by ISS ESG, the responsible investment research arm of Institutional Shareholder Services.
Sustainability is Air Products’ growth strategy. It creates growth opportunities while also supporting Air Products’ higher purpose of bringing people together to collaborate and innovate solutions to the world’s most significant energy and environmental sustainability challenges.
Air Products aligns its corporate responsibility efforts under economic, environmental and social categories using its “Grow, Conserve and Care” sustainability framework and covers important sustainability priorities based on feedback from key stakeholders. In 2020, Air Products announced its “Third by 30” goal to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions intensity (kg CO¬¬2/MM BTU) by one-third by 2030 from a 2015 baseline.
In addition to its inclusion in the 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, Air Products’ sustainability efforts have also been recognized by Barron’s, which named Air Products as the top climate aligned company in its 2021 Ranking of the Most Sustainable Companies in America. Overall, Barron’s ranked Air Products 13th on its 100 Most Sustainable Companies list, up 20 spots from the previous year.
Air Products was also included in the S&P Global 2021 Sustainability Yearbook and the Corporate Knights’ Clean 200. The Clean 200 was established in 2016 and ranks the largest publicly-listed companies by their clean energy reviews. In addition, in November, Air Products was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index (DJSI) for the 11th consecutive year. The 2020/2021 DJSI recognition ranks Air Products among the top 20 percent of North American companies in its industry group for corporate sustainability performance.