General Mills No. 2 on '100 Best Corporate Citizens List'

March 11, 2009

General Mills is No. 2 on Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine's 2009 ranking of the "100 Best Corporate Citizens" in the United States.

"The performances of General Mills and IBM (No. 3) reflect newly energized corporate responsibility, transparency and public disclosure efforts that build on consistently high levels of corporate citizenship practice, as both have made the list for nearly all of the past 10 years," said the magazine in announcing its ranking.

The list is culled from large, publicly traded U.S. companies that are included on the Russell 1000 Index. The magazine measures performance in seven key areas: environment, climate change, human rights, philanthropy, employee relations, financial and governance.

Top scores in all measures
General Mills earned top 100 scores in all seven measures, with a No. 1 (tied) ranking in governance and a No. 3 ranking for employee relations.

While the company has been routinely included on the 100 best list, the No. 2 ranking is the highest ever. In 2007, the company was ranked No. 10.

"This recognition of our efforts and our commitment to corporate social responsibility is really meaningful, and very rewarding," says Chairman and CEO Ken Powell.

"Every day, General Mills strives to live our mission of Nourishing Lives through our branded products, in the communities we serve, and in the way we work to preserve the environment for future generations."

The magazine noted that over the past nine years, companies on the 100 best list have outpaced the remaining Russell 1000 companies by an average of 26 percent when measuring three-year total returns.

The top five companies on the 2009 list are Bristol-Myers Squibb, General Mills, IBM, Merck, and HP.