Eastman Named One of Five Best Corporate Citizens among U.S. Chemical Companies by Corporate Responsibility Officer Magazine

Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN) has been named one of the five best corporate citizens among chemical companies in the U.S. by Corporate Responsibility Officer Magazine (CRO).

“It is an honor for Eastman’s employees to receive this recognition,” said Brian Ferguson, chairman and chief executive officer of Eastman. “Corporate citizenship is at the heart of everything Eastman men and women do, from operating our facilities safely to protecting the environment to caring for our people and our communities.”

To determine CRO’s 10 Best Corporate Citizens by Industry 2007, a research firm, IW Financial, was contracted to evaluate specific information about the most influential U.S. public companies. Those companies were assessed on eight categories: environment, climate change, human rights, employee relations, corporate governance, lobbying, philanthropy, and financial. The category rankings were then averaged to determine the “10 Best.”

“We saw this exercise as a valuable way to decipher companies’ performance on things like governance and sustainability issues, especially when looking at how they did when measured against the companies that they duke it out with in the marketplace,” said CRO Editor-In-Chief Dennis Schaal.

Multiple industry sectors were examined, including utilities, media, financial, energy and chemical. Eastman ranked fifth among the top ten chemical companies in the country.

CRO is a membership organization for corporate responsibility officers. Along with their 10 Best Corporate Citizens by Industry list, they also publish an annual list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens. Membership in the organization is not required for award consideration.


Eastman manufactures and markets chemicals, fibers and plastics worldwide. It provides key differentiated coatings, adhesives and specialty plastics products; is a major supplier of cellulose acetate fibers; and produces PET polymers for packaging. As a Responsible Care® company, Eastman is committed to achieving the highest standards of health, safety, environmental and security performance. Founded in 1920 and headquartered in Kingsport, Tenn., Eastman is a FORTUNE 500 company with 2006 sales of $7.5 billion and approximately 11,000 employees. For more information about Eastman and its products, visit www.eastman.com.