JUNO BEACH, Fla. – FPL Group Inc. (NYSE: FPL), a leading clean energy company and the largest producer of wind and solar power in the United States, has been named one of the country’s “100 Best Corporate Citizens” for 2008.
Each year, 100 of the country’s 1,000 largest companies are named to the “Best Corporate Citizens” list, which is compiled byCRO, the magazine for corporate responsibility officers, and IW Financial.
“For FPL Group, corporate responsibility means showing a strong commitment to the communities we serve, to the environment, and to addressing issues such as climate change for the benefit of future generations.” said FPL Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lewis Hay, III.
The “100 Best Corporate Citizens” were analyzed in eight weighted categories, including environment, climate change, financial performance and philanthropy among others. CRO noted that only information available from public sources was used in evaluations, and that the selection process employed a data-driven approach to eliminate subjectivity, bias and risk of misinterpretation.
“CRO’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens list answers the question: Which companies do best across a wide variety of citizenship issues?” said Mark Bateman, director of research at IW Financial. “Companies can’t make it onto the list if they do poorly in too many categories,” he added.
Other companies included among this year’s “Best Corporate Citizens” were Intel Corp., Eaton Corp., Nike Inc., Genentech Inc. and Bank of America Corp.
FPL Group has received other recent honors as well. The company was one of only two U.S. electric power producers named to this year’s “Global 100” list of the most sustainable corporations. The “Global 100” are chosen from a pool of 1,800 international companies by Corporate Knights Inc., publisher of the world’s largest circulation magazine specializing in corporate responsibility, and Innovest, an investment research firm focused on sustainable companies. The list, released annually at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, recognizes companies with an exceptional capacity to address environmental, social and governance issues. Almost one-third of the companies on the 2007 list were dropped this year.
In addition, Forbes magazine selected FPL Group as one of the “400 Best Big Companies in America” for 2008. Companies named to Forbes’ 2008 Platinum 400 list are judged on financial benchmarks, corporate governance, accounting standards and other criteria. The final roster includes both American and foreign corporations that have a significant presence in the United States. In the 10 years that Forbes has assembled this list, FPL Group has been selected eight times. This year, FPL Group was 192nd on the list.
FPL Group, with annual revenues of over $15 billion, is nationally known as a high quality, efficient, and customer-driven organization focused on energy-related products and services. With a growing presence in 27 states, it is widely recognized as one of the country’s premier power companies. Its principal subsidiary, Florida Power & Light Company, serves 4.5 million customer accounts in Florida. FPL Energy, LLC, an FPL Group competitive energy subsidiary, is a leader in producing electricity from clean and renewable fuels. Additional information is available on the Internet at www.FPLGroup.com, www.FPL.com andwww.FPLEnergy.com.