CRR is a proposed federal law. Should it be passed, Corporate Responsibility Rankings would rank all companies by how responsible they are. Those rankings would then be posted as CRR labels in all storefronts and on all products sold in the country. It’s kind of like Nutrition Facts, only for how good or how harmful that company is for the world.

To calculate the rankings, ten metrics would assess how well each business treats its Workers, the Environment, and the Communities in which they operate. More specifically those metrics would assess each company by:

Workers

• How evenly it distributes its pay
• How well its lower-level employees can make a decent living on their wages
• How well it protects its workers’ safety and health

Environment

• Its carbon footprint
• How much other (non-greenhouse) pollution it creates
• How recyclable and biodegradable its products are
• How much water it uses

Community

• How well it pays its fair share of taxes
• What percent of its proceeds go to charity
• How often it relocates its jobs

Each quarter, the best company in each of these three categories would get a 10, the worst would get a 0, and all others would be ranked accordingly in between. The Workers, Environment, and Community scores would then be averaged into one composite score for each company.

To make all of this work, the government would first use data that businesses already report each year—like how much money they make, how much they pay their employees, how much they pay in taxes, and how much they donate to charities. Businesses would then report some new data, too—like what they’re buying, what they’re selling, what resources they’re harvesting from the land, and how much they recycle. Put together, that data would automatically be run through algorithms to form each business’s new CR Rankings every quarter. A new division of the government, the Corporate Responsibility Bureau, would oversee the collection of data and the calculation of rankings. The CRB would also periodically make any needed changes to the system to make sure it is as efficient and effective as possible.

Keep reading to learn more about CRR’s Metrics and how they would be calculated, about all the specific Data Needed for the ranking system, and about many Additional Notes that finish fleshing out how CR Rankings would work.