Sometimes CR seems to be 100 percent risk. But at CR Magazine’s Responsible CEO of the Year event, it’s all about the reward. Each year since 2008 at the fall CRO Summit, CR Magazine’s editorial team has announced its Responsible CEO of the Year Awards in seven industry segments to CEOs who have put themselves at personal and professional risk in order to deliver on corporate responsibility promises. Following the first day of the CRO Summit this past October at Chicago’s historic Union League Club, CR held a banquet to give its 2009-2010 Awards in all seven categories:

Large Market

John Hess, CEO, Hess

John Hess has managed Hess Corporation into a Corporate Responsibility over-achiever in the energy sector. As #10 on the 2010 CR Magazine 100 Best Corporate Citizens List—top among energy companies—Hess has delivered uncharacteristically brilliant success (remember, Hess makes its living as a fossil-fuel extractor) as evidenced by its #7 rank in Environment and #8 rank in Climate Change. (Note: and this is not the first time—in 2009 the company ranked #2 in Climate Change). As Hess CRO Paula Luff tells CR Magazine, “John leads by example, doing everything possible to ensure that our host countries know us as someone not there just to extract hydrocarbons, but as those countries’ ‘best corporate citizens.’”

Mid-Market

Lawrence Blanford, CEO, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

After two years off the 100 Best Corporate Citizens List because it had yet to reach the size to make the Russell 1000, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters weighed in as the solid #39 in 2010. In 2007 and earlier years, when the 100 Best List was pulled from both the large-cap Russell 1000 and small-cap-dominated SRI fund Domini 400, the company had often appeared at or near the top, powered by its pedigree in sustainable farming and fair trade practices. Since joining the company in 2007 from fast-growth CEO slots at Royal Group building products and Phillips Consumer Electronics, Blanford has started GMCR on a rapid rise as a strong consumer brand. While in 2009 GMCR was considered a "mid-market" company, its rise to the Russell 1000 will put the company in the Large Market category, where the competition gets ever-tougher, and includes a GMCR competitor who is one of only three companies that have made the 100 Best List for all 11 years: Starbucks.

Small Market

Neil Eckert, CEO, Climate Exchange PLC

As CEO of Climate Exchange PLC, which owns the Chicago and European Climate Exchanges, Eckert and his Chairman Richard Sandor have been instrumental in popularizing the CCX and ECX models for GHG cap-and-trade among corporations and government policy-makers worldwide. While voluntary carbon contract volume dropped in early 2009, complex carbon contracts on the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange climbed 1,889 percent in the first half of 2009, including five consecutive monthly volume records for the multi-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in 2009’s first half.

Private Companies

Scott Lang, CEO, Silver Spring Networks

Lang leads the Silver Spring, the emerging standard in smart grid technologies, hailed by President Obama in early 2009 as a critical element in America’s sustainable and independent energy future.  Considering that utilities spend 15 percent of their total annual costs and use their dirtiest plants to feed demand for the 2 percent of the days when demand is highest, Silver Spring’s smart metering technology gives utilities the data to better manage those peak costs and CO2 emissions. The company has attracted $175 million in venture capital to date and sports Al Gore and superstar VC John Doerr on its board.

Non-Profit/NGO

Paul Dickinson, CEO, Carbon Disclosure Project

Using the theory that smoke follows money, since founding the CDP in 2000, Paul Dickinson has signed on 475 institutional investors with $55 trillion under management to encourage the world’s 3,700 largest companies to disclose their carbon emissions. Dickinson has also successfully used world leaders such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Angela Merkel to solicit companies to respond to the CDP’s disclosure questionnaires. While CDP’s annual reports have set the international standard for CO2 disclosure, perhaps the CDP’s biggest single victory to date is the July 16, 2009, announcement that Walmart is instructing its suppliers to disclose to the CDP.

Government/Regulatory

Richard Daley, Mayor, City of Chicago

The 2008 winner in this category has not rested on his environmental sustainability

laurels, continuing to green up Chicago’s municipal building code, introduce energy

efficiency and recycling innovations, and quintuple bike lanes by 2015—all of which

continues to put Mayor Daley up front as America’s Greenest Mayor and help Chicago grab the mantle as America’s Greenest Big City.  If Chicago is successful in its bid for the 2016 Olympics, Daley’s green successes will have had much to do with the victory, as the International Olympic Committee has put significant emphasis on environmental sustainability and leadership in its selection criteria.

Corporate Foundation

Stanley Litow, President, IBM International Foundation & Vice President Corporate Citizenship

Last year’s winner in this category continues to spin out strong results from Big Blue’s $200 million (assets) Foundation. Litow’s largest initiative is the 80,000-teacher

Reinventing Education program, which touches 8 million children worldwide and offers innovative technologies to spur reading. Alzheimer’s and AIDS research are also on Litow’s agenda. As the former COO of the New York City schools and aide to New York’s Governor and N.Y.C.’s Mayor, Litow is known for his tireless advocacy, a trait that serves him well in both his role as IBM’s VP Corporate Citizenship and as a member of the Board of Governors of the CRO Association.

Social Entrepreneur

Michael Eckhart, President, American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)

Arguably Mike Eckhart has done more than anyone on Earth to promote the finance-friendliness of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear,

cogeneration, and hydro. This former CEO of United Power Systems, venture capitalist and Booz Allen Hamilton principal has been a pioneer in making renewable energy a good investment, recognized by governments as far and wide as India and South Africa for his groundbreaking work. Eckhart is a three-time Clinton Global Initiative participant, and has driven ACORE membership to more than 600 corporations, including most major U.S. utilities and energy companies. In the post-carbon economy, Eckhart’s leadership will continue to pay dividends throughout the world economy.