Monsanto Company Named One Of CR Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens

ST. LOUIS, April 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- CR Magazine named Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) to its "100 Best Corporate Citizens" for 2013. This is the fourth time Monsanto has been included on the magazine's ranking of corporate responsibility performance of major U.S. companies.

"At Monsanto, we are committed to sustainable agriculture and to continuously improve ways in which we contribute. We are pleased that this honor recognizes that commitment," said Jerry Steiner, executive vice president, sustainability and corporate affairs at Monsanto. "This recognition reflects the thousands of Monsanto employees who are working together with farmers and partners around the world to improve agriculture and improve lives."

First published in 1999, the "100 Best Corporate Citizens" list ranks large-cap Russell 1000 companies based on publicly available information in seven key categories: climate change, employee relations, environmental, financial, governance, human rights and philanthropy.

The full list of companies and details on scoring is available at www.thecro.com.

"We are pleased to honor the companies on this year's Best List, as they represent a tried and true standard of transparency within the Russell 1000," said Dirk Olin, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, CR Magazine. "Across environmental, economic, and social values, these firms continue to set the bar high for organizations in the United States."

Monsanto has established goals to help farmers double corn, soy and cotton crop yields and reduce resource intensity in agriculture by one-third by 2030. Through research investments and partnerships, the company has reported steady progress on its bold goals.  

Over the past year, the company began two new initiatives to improve processes that strengthen its commitment to sustainability and stakeholder engagement.

Monsanto's 2011 Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Report was the first year the company, as a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Organizational Stakeholder, declared the GRI as its framework and used it to develop content and report metrics. The GRI is a comprehensive sustainability reporting framework that is widely used around the world. Through the use of this voluntary tool, Monsanto can ensure its sustainability approach is more comprehensive and focused on company and stakeholder priorities, and that it is more transparently communicated.

In June 2012, Monsanto formed the Sustainability Strategy Council (SSC), an internal organization comprised of 25 leaders from around the business charged with establishing, implementing and measuring a comprehensive sustainability strategy for the company. This strategy includes both internal operations and contributions to global agriculture. 

The combination of these two important initiatives in addition to Monsanto's longstanding commitment to stakeholder engagement, the environment, climate change, human rights, governance, philanthropy, financial performance and supporting employees were essential in the company making this year's "100 Best Corporate Citizens" list.

This ranking is one of several accolades recently received by Monsanto, including recognition for excellence in corporate responsibility at the Asia-Pacific Enterprise Leadership Awards (APELA) International event. At the APELA event, Monsanto received recognition for clean water and housing initiatives in Indonesia and farming initiatives in the Philippines. The initiatives were funded by Monsanto Fund, the philanthropic arm of Monsanto.

To learn more about Monsanto's sustainability agriculture and humanitarian projects around the world, please visit www.monsanto.com/improvingagriculture.

About Monsanto Company

Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality. Monsanto remains focused on enabling both small-holder and large-scale farmers to produce more from their land while conserving more of our world's natural resources such as water and energy. To learn more about our business and our commitments, please visit: www.monsanto.com. Follow our business on Twitter^® at www.twitter.com/MonsantoCo, on the company blog, Beyond the Rows at www.monsantoblog.com, or subscribe to our News Release RSS Feed.

About Corporate Responsibility Magazine

SharedXpertise Media LLC is the publisher of CR Magazine (www.thecro.com), the leading voice of the corporate responsibility profession and the publisher of the 100 Best Corporate Citizen's List, which has been ranked one of America's three most-important business rankings according to PR Week. SharedXpertise alongside the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association (www.croassociation.org) are also co-founders of the COMMIT!Forum, recognized worldwide as the leading event for corporate responsibility practitioners.

About the 100 Best Corporate Citizen's List

The 100 Best Corporate Citizens List was first published in 1999 in Business Ethics Magazine, and has been managed by CR Magazine since 2007. To compile the list, every company in the Russell 1000, the highest ranked stocks in the Russell 3000 Index of publicly held U.S. companies, is ranked according to 298 data points. The methodology for generating the list is governed by a Ratings and Rankings Committee of the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association (CROA).

Contact  |  Media: Billy Brennan (314-694-3665)

SOURCE Monsanto