Just Capital and CNBC Announce 2026 Rankings Celebrating the Best of American Business

Just Capital’s Annual Rankings Highlight Outstanding Corporate Performance Based on the Priorities of the American Public

New York, NY, March 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just Capital, in partnership with CNBC, today announced its 2026 Rankings of America’s largest public companies. Now in their 10th year, the Rankings celebrate companies for their performance on the issues that matter most to the American people, such as paying a fair, living wage; supporting worker well-being, advancement, and training; communicating transparently; and acting ethically at the leadership level. 

The 2026 Rankings showcase responsible business leadership across 20 industries. As AI and other transformative technologies reshape the economy, business leaders require precise, decision-grade data to weigh tradeoffs, manage risk, and plan for the future. In service of this, ranked companies can now explore their performance in-depth through Just Capital’s flagship Just Intelligence product. The platform has been updated to include an AI-enabled chatbot, currently in beta, which allows users to pose queries that draw on Just Capital’s robust corporate performance database and business case library.

2026 Industry Leaders

This year, Just Capital is proud to celebrate 21 companies with Industry Leader designations: 

The 2026 Industry Leaders demonstrate common areas of strength across sectors including workforce investment, governance discipline, and environmental transparency. All Industry Leaders are ranked in the top 100 overall, and 16 of 21 improved their overall rank year-over-year.

“At a time of great uncertainty, and with questions being asked about the future of capitalism, our Rankings are designed to celebrate American business at its best,” says Just Capital CEO Martin Whittaker. “This year’s Industry Leaders demonstrate that delivering value for shareholders, the economy, and society at large is not a trade-off, it’s a blueprint for success.”

Just Capital tracks the financial performance of the top performing companies in their analysis. The organization’s flagship index (JULCD) tracks the top 50% of performers across each industry and, as of March 10, 2026, has outperformed the Russell 1000 benchmark by 12.7% since inception in 2016. The Just 100 Index which tracks the top 100 overall performers has outperformed the Russell 1000 equal-weighted index by 55.6% since inception in 2019. 

Just Intelligence: Translating a Decade of Data into Decision-Grade Insights

In February 2026, the organization released enhanced capabilities within its flagship Just Intelligence product. Just Intelligence supports strategic planning and decision-making by offering a comprehensive view of public expectations and sector realities, and by connecting those signals to core business outcomes. The platform is built on more than a decade of Just Capital’s public opinion research and corporate performance data, and surfaces areas of relative over- and under-performance across a company’s stakeholder ecosystem, including workers, customers, communities, environment, and shareholders.

Just Intelligence now includes a new AI-powered chatbot for users to understand and improve their company's stakeholder performance in a more accessible and engaging manner. Users can pose queries in natural language to quickly surface actionable insights from Just Capital’s database of performance analysis and business case library. The chatbot is currently in beta and available to paid subscribers of Just Intelligence. 

Methodology 

Since 2015, Just Capital has surveyed nearly 200,000 Americans on their priorities for just business behavior. The annual Rankings assess 933 of the largest publicly traded U.S. companies using a model grounded in the priorities of the American public. Companies are evaluated across 17 issues spanning workforce investment, customer trust, governance accountability, environmental performance, and community impact. 

For the 2026 Rankings, Just Capital updated its industry classification to align with Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB) supersectors. This year the organization introduced new industry-specific data points and removed data points that were less relevant based on industry context. Many metrics continue to be evaluated across the full universe, ensuring comparability on cross-industry topics including broadly applicable governance and workforce practices.

About Just Capital

Just Capital is the foremost independent organization advancing responsible business leadership. We translate insights from public polling, performance data, and financial analysis into actionable intelligence leaders can use to drive long-term business success and shared prosperity for people across America. Our flagship product Just Intelligence is designed to offer a comprehensive view of public expectations, stakeholder performance, and sector realities in order to drive responsible decision-making. When companies make better decisions, they can create lasting value for shareholders, contribute to stronger communities, and help drive broader economic and societal progress. For more information, visit justcapital.com.

CONTACT: Evangeline DiMichele
JUST Capital
edimichele@justcapital.com