Accountability score*: 56
Global 500 rank: 132
Sector: Energy and utilities
Region: Europe

There's a pattern here - European energy and utility companies dominate the top 10 on this year's list. (Which includes Italy's Enel, Europe's second-biggest utility.) That's first because energy companies have the most obvious non-financial consequences - on the environment, and on politics - to address. It's also because Europe is a leader in making CSR a core part of doing business. Europe's stock exchanges, like Euronext, require companies to have responsibility practices and external verification to list and trade. Enel, no exception, lists a "triple bottom line" in its annual report, using specific indicators to track its non-financial performance, ranging from the liquidity of its loans to customer-satisfaction surveys to its percentage of energy produced from green sources.