Data Needed

The key to effectively running a system like CRR is the data. This information allows CRR to assess the responsibility of various companies in a fair, objective, and comprehensive manner.

Should CR Rankings be enacted law, the federal government would take this information from businesses, employees, and researched statistics. It would do so regularly—collecting it quarterly from businesses, yearly otherwise (specifically data points 23-44). See below for all of the specific data that would be collected.

While we have set up this data structure to be as comprehensive as possible, we have also taken great pains to structure it to be as easy for companies to report as possible. Much of the data CRR needs is information that businesses already report to the government. The rest mostly consists of what each business buys and sells. That is information any responsible business should be keeping track of.

These two goals—comprehensive yet simple—should always dictate what data should be collected and how it be collected for CRR. Over time, should the CR Bureau find that there are aspects of the behind-the-scenes behavior of companies that isn’t currently being reflected in CR Rankings, then it should add more data to be collected. If it finds that any of the information being collected is redundant, obsolete, or too onerous for businesses, then the Bureau should delete or consolidate certain data elements.

Data already reported to the government:

  1. Net corporate revenue after all returns and allowances (collected by the IRS with forms 1120 and 1120S)
  2. Total corporate taxes paid (collected by the IRS with forms 1120 and 1120S)
  3. Total corporate charitable contributions (collected by the IRS with forms 1120, 1120S, 8283)
  4. Total wages given to each employee in all forms of compensation (collected by the IRS with forms 1040, W-2, and 1099 MISC from individuals; and forms W-2, W-3, 1120, and 1120S from businesses)
  5. Employment location zip code of each employee (collected by the IRS with forms W-2, 1040)
  6. Listed violations of all worker safety laws (documented by OSHA)
  7. All lawsuits and complaints filed with all state and federal governments against each company (submitted to the IRS, EPA, OSHA, and all other local, state, and federal government agencies)
  8. The death of any employee from a work-related incident or the in-patient hospitalization of three or more employees as a result of a work-related incident (self-reported to OSHA within eight hours of incident in accordance with the OSH Act)

Data already recorded by companies but would now also be reported to government:

  1. Total hours worked by each employee (also newly including employee’s age, gender, and race/ethnicity) (FLSA required wage records now to be submitted as part of each employee’s W-2 form)
  2. Listed work-related injuries and illnesses by company (forms 300, 300A, 301, which already must be filled out but would now be submitted to federal government at regular intervals)

New data to be reported by businesses:

  1. Records of all corporate sales (by item type, item quantity, item mass, materials of item plus packaging, locality of sale, price, and EID of company sold to, if available and applicable)
  2. Records of all corporate purchases (by item type, item quantity, and EID of company purchased from, if available; this includes all raw materials, commercially packaged materials, and services rendered)
  3. Records of all resources harvested directly from the land, air, and sea (by material type, quantity, method of extraction, and location; includes both living things and nonliving raw materials)
  4. Documentation of any destruction or alteration of land, sea (in all building projects and resource harvesting, etc, including but not limited to mining, logging, construction)
  5. Records of all materials chemically altered (by type and mass of each reactant and product)
  6. Quantity of all externally recycled materials (by type and mass)
  7. Total number of livestock owned (by type of animal and portion of year kept, if applicable)
  8. List of all new, eliminated, and transferred job positions
  9. Documentation of any corporate time and/or money going to environmental conservation projects or research
  10. Documentation of any new technologies discovered and/or new products created that could qualify for innovation points

New data to be collected by the government:

  1. Total corporate electrical usage (in kilowatt-hours by source locations and fuel types)
  2. Total corporate water usage (by volume, from public-supply systems, private wells, and all other sources)
  3. Recycling capabilities (by locality, globally)
  4. Average consumer recycling frequency per material type (by locality, globally)
  5. Rating of the ease of recyclability of all products sold in US (as decided subjectively by CRB based how easy it is to deconstruct and recycle the products themselves and their packaging)
  6. Estimates of pollutants from farm runoff (including nutrients, sediments, and pathogens, with estimates based on terrain, land use, buffers, and periodic water testing above and below runoff sources)
  7. Median yearly housing costs (by locality, globally)
  8. Median yearly utility costs (electricity, heat, water, gas, internet) (by locality, globally)
  9. Median yearly food costs (by locality, globally)
  10. Median yearly transportation costs (by locality, globally)
  11. Median yearly health care costs (by locality, globally)
  12. Lowest cost for safe basic housing (by locality, globally)
  13. Lowest cost for clean water access (by locality, globally)
  14. Lowest cost for sanitary waste disposal (by locality, globally)
  15. Lowest cost for fulfillment of basic caloric needs (by locality, globally)
  16. Lowest cost for K-12 education (by locality, globally)
  17. Lowest cost for reliable internet access (by locality, globally)
  18. Employee gender and race/ethnicity (on individual tax return form)
  19. Employee verification of total yearly hours worked (on individual tax return form)
  20. Employee indication of whether part-time work was or was not by choice (on individual tax return form)
  21. Employee Rating of Safety and Health questions (answered on addendum to the individual tax return form)
  22. Employee list of any additional work-related illnesses and injuries (answered on addendum to the individual tax return form)
  23. Work-related illnesses, injuries, and deaths as diagnosed by any medical professional
  24. Complaints and/or evidence of wrongdoing filed directly to the CRB