Regions was recently named one of JUST Capital’s “Top 100 U.S. Companies Supporting Healthy Families and Communities.” JUST Capital is an independent research nonprofit that measures businesses on how they perform on the public’s priorities, based on their polling.
For this list, JUST Capital, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, identified ten factors that they determined best define how companies invest in the health of communities and the families that inhabit them, including protecting worker health and safety, paying a fair, livable wage, cultivating a diverse and inclusive workplace, and combating climate change, among others. They then ranked businesses based on their performance against these criteria.
Regions is in good company. Compared to other companies in the Russell 1000 (a stock market index used as a benchmark for investors), the top 100 performers in the JUST Capital list:
- Were 3.3 times more likely to provide additional paid sick leave provisions to their employees in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Were 2.5 times more likely to provide a wage increase for U.S workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Experienced 73 percent fewer controversies related to the health and environmental impacts of their products and services.
- Were 10.4 times more likely to contribute and/or pledge to COVID-19 relief organizations or efforts.
- Emitted 25 percent less Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions.
- Were 8.2 times more likely to disclose the racial or ethnic diversity of their board of directors or director nominees.
- Outperformed the Russell 1000 benchmark by 4.6 percent over the trailing year.
The group states on their website that the challenges of 2020 have put the health and safety of communities and individuals at risk in many ways.
This list identifies companies that are taking action to address the urgent concerns of this moment and setting the bar for supporting their workers, the families they support, and the communities in which they operate.
“This ranking is great news for Regions,” says Chief Governance Officer Andrew Nix. “Environmental, Social, and Governance, or ESG, issues are such an important focus right now within the company and with so many of our stakeholders. Receiving this positive recognition from such a well-known and respected organization validates our efforts and puts us in very good standing among our peers.”
JUST Capital also produces annual rankings of America’s Most JUST Companies, and Regions has performed well in those rankings as well. In the 2021 list, the bank ranked #60 out of 928 companies overall and #5 out of 44 banks. This placed Regions in the JUST 100 that was published in Forbes in October 2020.