Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Among Five Leading Companies in Human Rights

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) has a Statement on Human Rights noting, “we believe our most significant opportunities to impact human rights — and therefore our greatest areas of responsibility — are in the areas of Human Rights in the Workplace, Access to Health Care, and Clinical Research Ethics.” The company supports principles such as non-discrimination, freedom of association and collective bargaining, and freedom from forced and child labor, and expects its suppliers to support them, too.

Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS), a financial services company, notes in its 2011 Corporate Social Responsibility Report that it, too, supports a broad range of human rights and expects its vendors to support them, as well. The company’s “responsible investing” products hold more than 5% of their overall “index and multi-manager solutions assets.” Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS)’s RI screen avoids companies with poor records on human rights, among other things, and the company has been involved in socially responsible investing for more than 25 years.

Earning well while doing good
Companies doing good can boost your portfolio‘s performance. And various other studies have suggested that socially responsible investments are at least competitive with the overall market, if not outperforming it on occasion. That’s a solid motivation for even the most coolly rational investors to take social responsibility to heart.

If you’re in the market for solid socially responsible candidates for your portfolio, check out the real-money portfolio run by my colleague Alyce Lomax. Out of all the Fool portfolios in the group, hers was recently in first place.

The article 5 Leading Companies in Human Rights originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Selena Maranjian.

Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian, whom you can follow on Twitter, owns shares of Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson. The Motley Fool recommends Johnson & Johnson. The Motley Fool owns shares of Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft.

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