ESG Trends in 2025: Key Insights from the 100 Best Corporate Citizens Ranking

The 2025 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking reveals major ESG trends, from tighter competition and performance-focused factors to Paris Agreement-aligned lobbying. Explore what this means for corporate responsibility.

Every year, the 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking acts as a benchmark for ESG leadership. This year, the results point to three major shifts:

1. ESG competition is intensifying. With scores up 2.5% year-over-year, companies are doing more to disclose and perform across 219 ESG factors. The tighter score gap between the top and bottom of the list proves that every company in the Russell 1000 is under pressure to step up.
2. Performance matters more than ever. Following methodology updates in 2024, the 2025 ranking increased the weight of performance-based ESG factors, emphasizing what companies do over what they say.
3. Political influence is under scrutiny. Since 2021, the ranking has incorporated InfluenceMap’s analysis of corporate lobbying. In 2025, VF Corp. was the only company to earn a “green flag” bonus for lobbying in alignment with the Paris Agreement.

Together, these shifts reflect a broader reality: transparency and accountability are now baseline expectations, not optional extras.

📥 Dive deeper — download the full report here: [link]