NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Humankind Investments, a quantitatively driven asset manager specializing in socially responsible investments, announced the release of 2024’s “Humankind 100,” its annual ranking of what it believes to be the top U.S. companies offering the greatest benefit to humanity, based on Humankind Investments’ proprietary Humankind Value methodology. As the challenges of creating transparency around Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data and rankings become increasingly apparent, Humankind developed a holistic, quantitative way to calculate impact in terms of human benefit versus human suffering.
Humankind’s ranking rewards companies that sustain human well-being and significantly improve our daily lives. As such, industries that perform well include healthcare, food, water and technology. This year, Alphabet (GOOGL), which generates substantial value through its free online services like email, maps, and internet search, scored highest in the ranking. The positive value of creating free digital tools for consumers outweighs the negative impact of factors like data harvesting in Humankind’s analysis.
Other companies rounding out the top 10 include companies involved in providing healthcare products, hygienic products, and free digital tools: Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), AbbVie Inc. (ABBV), Merck & Co. (MRK), Procter & Gamble (PG), Pfizer (PFE), Amgen (AMGN), Microsoft Corp (MSFT), and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY). The complete rankings – with details on the positive contributions of each company – can be found at rankings.humankind.co.
“We launched the Humankind 100 three years ago to help people understand the companies best supporting their quality of life and to encourage companies to continue striving for progress,” said James Katz, founder and CEO of Humankind Investments.
The ranking was calculated using Humankind Investments’ proprietary Humankind Value methodology, which tends to favor companies that promote human health and improved quality of life. The methodology analyzes each company’s positive and negative contributions to society to estimate a single dollar figure that is meant to represent a company’s true social and economic value to humanity – its “Humankind Value.” The methodology draws on a combination of nationally recognized third-party data providers, as well as academic research, government data and NGO data.
“Since day one, our mission has been to invest in what we believe is best for humanity and inspire others to do the same,” continued Katz. “By publishing these rankings each year we’re optimistic that we can motivate companies to make progress on their own human impact.”
About Humankind Investments
Humankind Investments was founded on the premise that it would be better for all of us if we paid closer attention to how our investments affect humankind. We are a quantitatively driven investment manager whose mission is to give investors concrete and measurable ways to invest in a manner that generates rewards for themselves and for humanity.
A company’s Humankind Value is an estimate of how much value the company creates for humankind, is published annually, and is current as of May 9th, 2024 or earlier. It is based on a quantitative analysis that calculates the comprehensive economic value of a company based not only upon its financial performance metrics but also on the costs and benefits to society from conducting its business. This calculation also attempts to take into account the Humankind Value of the company’s critical supply chain partners. The components of the calculation include: (i) Investor Value, which is the estimated value to investors on the basis of multi-year profitability; (ii) Consumer Value, which is the estimated value to customers based on the offering of a product or service; (iii) Employee Value, which is the estimated value to employees based on their salaries, bonuses and benefits; and (iv) Societal Value, which is the estimated unaccounted costs and benefits to society from the operation of the company’s business.
Humankind Investments calculates a single dollar value of a company’s Humankind Value, which is intended to capture the aggregate worth of a company based upon its economic impact on humanity, defined as investors, customers, employees, and society at large. It’s important to understand that this single dollar value of Humankind Value for a company is not a precise measurement of the economic impact that companies have on humanity – rather, it represents a good faith estimate based on our internal model of how these companies behave and what the estimated impact on humanity of their behavior is. In other words, we’ve created a simplified mathematical representation of the real world, and are using that to derive this single dollar value for a company.
This information does not constitute an offer, recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any particular security or to adopt any specific investment strategy. The information herein has not been based on a consideration of any individual investor circumstances and is not investment advice, nor should it be construed in any way as tax, accounting, legal or regulatory advice. Investors should seek independent legal and financial advice, including advice as to tax consequences, before making any investment decision. The information presented has been developed internally and/or obtained from sources believed to be reliable; however, Humankind Investments does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of such information. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
