February 15, 2021 BARRON’S 25
2020 2020 2021
Company / Ticker Total Return Rank Rank
Cree/CREE 129.5% 80
Nvidia/NVDA 122.2 11 23
West Pharmaceutical Services/ WST 88.9 54 57
First Solar/ FSLR 76.8 45
Autodesk/ADSK 66.4 10 4
Lam Research/ LRCX 63.2 47 38
SVB Financial Group/ SIVB 54.5 79
Adobe/ADBE 51.6 29 65
United Parcel Service/UPS 47.3 71
KLA/KLAC 47.3 74
Xilinx/XLNX 46.6 73
BlackRock/BLK 46.4 82 44
Intuit/ INTU 45.9 67 51
Ball Corp./BLL 45.0 16 21
Mettler-Toledo International/MTD 43.7 69 20
Applied Materials/ AMAT 42.8 84 90
Microsoft/ MSFT 42.4 42 73
Williams-Sonoma/WSM 41.4 32 16
Target/TGT 39.8 90
Agilent Technologies/A 39.5 1 2
Salesforce.com/CRM 36.8 31 53
Clorox/CLX 34.3 24 11
ON Semiconductor/ON 34.3 15 10
Texas Instruments/ TXN 30.8 2 46
Xylem/XYL 30.5 61 17
Our Winners Last Year
In 2020, 46 of the 100 constituents on last year’s ranking beat the S&P 500.
Here are the top 25 gainers and how they ranked in terms of sustainability.
Not on the 2021 ranking. Source:Calvert Research & Management
and consumed by the company. Scope
3 includes all other indirect emissions
that occur in a company’s value chain,
or all aspects of its business.
By 2030, 100% of V.F.’s materials
will come from regenerative, respon-
sibly sourced, or recycled materials.
It’s also looking at sustainable pack-
aging, including use of plant-based
materials. The initiatives will be fi-
nanced by the company’s inaugural
500 million euro ($606 million)
green bond. The targets are “among
the most ambitious in the industry,”
says Steve Rendle, CEO of V.F. Corp.
Verizon did its first corporate re-
porting last year, as recommended
by the Task Force on Climate-Related
Financial Disclosures, or TCFD, an
organization established by the Finan-
cial Stability Board to develop recom-
mendations for climate-related disclo-
sure that would help investors, credit
issuers, and insurance underwriters
better evaluate companies. The giant
telecom committed to getting 50% of
its electricity from renewable sources
by 2025 and to be net neutral on
Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by
- In 2020, it “really got the fly-
wheel going” on renewable energy
purchases, says Verizon’s Ellis.
And though Agilent hasn’t an-
nounced a net zero goal, it upped its
data are critical to achieving diversity
in the workforce. Once companies
begin reporting such information,
people can track their progress in
creating a staff from a mix of groups.
Creating jobs for minority employ-
ees, who often come from disadvan-
taged backgrounds, is also critical in
fighting income inequality.
“I was born in Europe and see
CEOs as business leaders, commu-
nity leaders, and society leaders,”
says Christophe Beck, the chief exec-
utive of Ecolab. Management played
a unifying role in companies that
were often riven during a particu-
larly polarizing year. “Our role is to
bring the teams together, calm them
down, and reduce the divisions and
come as one,” Beck says.
To be sure, there’s plenty of room
for improvement. Women account for
just a third of the members of a typi-
cal board, notes Calvert portfolio
manager Chris Madden.
Among the top 10 companies on our
list, only one, Best Buy, has a female
CEO. Move down to No. 11 through No.
20, and there are two—at No. 11Clorox
(CLX) and No. 16Williams-Sonoma
(WSM). And all the chief executives in
the top 20 are Caucasian.
Across America, companies have
moved aggressively to reduce the
amount of carbon dioxide emitted by
their consumption of fossil fuels,
known as a carbon footprint. Many
joined coalitions to reduce their car-
bon footprints to net zero, meaning
that any emissions are offset by re-
moving carbon from the atmosphere.
Most of the companies on our
ranking operate internationally, so
they’re subject to pro-environment
regulatory regimes, such as those in
Europe, which aim to be carbon-neu-
tral by 2050. This year, immediately
after the presidential inauguration,
the U.S. rejoined the Paris Agree-
ment, which is targeting carbon
neutrality by 2050. China aims to
be carbon-neutral by 2060.
I
n 2020, V.F. Corp. took steps to
decarbonize its value chain by
2030, and to be using 100% re-
newable energy by 2025. In par-
ticular, it wants to reduce Scope 1 and
Scope 2 emissions by 55% by 2030,
and Scope 3 emissions, by 30%.
Scope 1 covers direct emissions
from owned or controlled sources;
Scope 2 covers indirect emissions
from the generation of electricity,
steam, heating, and cooling purchased
which finished fourth in our rank-
ings, granted stock to everyone in the
company. “There’s something inequi-
table about not having everyone par-
ticipate in the overall success,” says
CEO Andrew Anagnost. “If you can
get employees as stakeholders, you’re
leading by example.”
Companies stepped up for commu-
nities, too. Ecolab ramped up capacity
in disinfectant and sanitizing products
by as many as 15 times, donated a mil-
lion pounds of cleaning and sanitation
products to the community, and
funded out-of-work restaurant em-
ployees. Agilent used its 3-D printers
to make face shields for local health-
care providers; it also made masks
and hand sanitizer. Verizon an-
nounced its Citizen Verizon program,
which includes several ESG goals,
including becoming carbon-neutral by
- Another project: giving middle
school students in underserved com-
munities tablets and wireless access.
In summer came the protests
around racial and social inequality,
following George Floyd’s death while
in police custody. The protests cata-
lyzed some companies to refashion
themselves to reflect a more diverse
population, a “very reasonable reac-
tion to real-world events,” says
Calvert’s Streur. This, too, has longer-
term implications: A lack of diversity
affects a company’s ability to attract
and retain talent, and more diverse
inputs allow for different perspec-
tives and lead to better decisions.
Companies began pushing harder
to attract women and people of color
to their employee base. One standout:
No. 5-ranked Voya Financial, where
46% of senior managers are women,
a far higher portion than at most
public companies and well above the
financial-industry averages. Verizon
publicly disclosed the gender, racial,
and ethnic makeup of its workforce
from its report to the Equal Employ-
ment Opportunity Commission. The
Progress, Not
Perfection
These companies
have made
a measurable,
positive impact
for all their stake-
holders. Yet just
3
of the CEOs in the
top 20 are women
—and all are
Caucasian.
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