racial justice report

The Racial Justice Initiative educates companies on the importance of incorporating standards related to racial justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and environmental justice. By showing the material benefit of cultivating a diverse workforce, with strong equity-based policies and practices, we help companies further positive actions for their employees, communities, shareholders, and consumers.  

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The Racial Justice Scorecards on the Large-Cap 3000 track publicly available information on key actions related to racial equity; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) disclosure and policies; and environmental justice. We update our data quarterly, giving companies we engage with the opportunity to improve throughout the year. We conduct annual comprehensive research on the full 3000 companies once a year. During this time, we engage with companies and stakeholders to understand and gauge corporate progress on racial equity.

The Racial Justice Initiative directly engages public companies on their racial equity and DEI policies and practices. We use the Scorecards as the backbone of our corporate engagement strategy and use our key performance indicators (KPIs) as evaluation guidelines to track and monitor corporate progress. Our Racial Justice Scorecards have been used to create standards for investors, companies, and stakeholders to act responsibly in favor of racial equity.

METHODOLOGY, SCORING, AND KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

In collaboration with our Advisory Committee, organizational allies, and other stakeholders, 28 key performance indicators were established to measure companies’ progress on racial equity and environmental justice, creating individual corporate scorecards. As You Sow’s Racial Justice Research Team examines corporate websites and reports, corporate social media accounts, and  credible primary, secondary, and tertiary sources for material information on each company in the Large-Cap 3000 to determine the level of action, or inaction, on racial equity, diversity, equity and inclusion, and environmental and climate justice. Our environmental justice research focuses on a multidisciplinary approach by pulling information from a variety of sources to build a profile of corporate environmental commitments and activities. The Racial Justice Initiative worked closely with environmental justice issue experts to develop KPIs which monitor corporate progress in an environmental justice framework. Research and data for seven of the Workforce Disclosure KPIs are taken directly from our partner initiative at As You Sow, Workplace Equity. The remainder of our Racial Justice KPIs are researched and scored by the Racial Justice Initiative and subjected to an intensive, multi-level, quality assurance process. The scoring of each KPI is described in the Racial Justice Scorecard Report, please note that there is no additional weighting to our current KPIs and that the companies’ scores show the true valuation of their actions.

As You Sow releases quarterly updates to the Racial Justice Scorecard, as well as one large-scale annual update. It is possible that a company may have increases or decreases to their scores that are not represented in real-time. To inform us of corporate reporting not captured, please send an inquiry to info@asyousow.org. To learn more about the Racial Justice Initiative’s corporate engagement on racial and environmental justice please visit our webpage.

RACIAL JUSTICE SCORECARDS: QUARTERLY UPDATE KEY FINDINGS

  • During this year’s research, no clear indication has been found that companies have stopped the usage of the term “ESG” on their website or as part of their reporting. However, many companies no longer label their annual ESG data disclosure “ESG Report” but instead opt for – often colorful – alternatives: Do More Good Report, Sail and Sustain Report, Stewardship Report, Health for Humanity Report, Responsible Business Practices Report, Snacking Made Right Report, Comfort Report, to mention a few.

  • Since 2020, only a very small number of companies (32) conducted a racial equity audit and/or released their findings. Only 5 reports were released in 2024, none in 2025 so far.

  • A third of the Large-Cap 3000 companies (1003) have some kind of Employee Resource Group (also referred to as Affinity/ Business/ Colleague/ Resource Group or Network) for BIPOC employees. However, we also found that some companies that previously mentioned each of their ERGs by name now only mention the overall number of groups, without disclosing their actual make-up.

  • A number of companies (1103) require or offer some form of DEI training – either for all employees (629 companies) or at least for a certain group of employees (472 companies) – with the majority of companies simply calling it “anti-discrimination” training, while others emphasize “diversity”, “inclusion”, or “unconscious bias”.

  • Despite the recent discussions around DEI, the percentage of companies in the Large-Cap 3000 with initiatives, programs, and policies that would typically fall under the purview of a DEI department has remained at around 65%.

  • DEI leaders hired in late 2020 and 2021 were predominantly in executive positions. We have seen a gradual decline since then, with 277 companies having a C-Suite employee as its DEI leader in March 2024 compared to only 175 companies in March 2025. Another trend is the renaming of “DEI” to “Employee Engagement”, “Culture”, Talent Acquisition” and “Belonging”.

  • The number of companies with a diverse supplier program has decreased from 25% to 22%.

  • Only 130 of the Large-Cap 3000 companies state that they support, or partner with, a civil rights organization.

  • Only 93 of the Large-Cap 3000 companies publicly recognized, or made statements, regarding environmental and/ or climate justice in relation to their business practices.

  • 524 of the Large-Cap 3000 companies have between 1 and 25 environmental violations since 2020.

  • Only four companies, Chevron Corp., Lowe’s Companies Inc., The Home Depot Inc., and United Parcel Services Inc., have more than 100 environmental violations each since 2020.

  • Only one company, McDonald’s, received the lowest possible score for having disproportionate effects on BIPOC communities.

  • Of the Large-Cap 3000 companies, 145 companies have a total score that is less than zero, meaning that they do more harm to communities of color than they make up for with positive policies and practices. The majority of the low scorers are in the Industrials sector.

LEADERS: TOP 10

 

LAGGARDS: BOTTOM 10

 

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND SCORING RUBRIC