The St. Paul Companies, Inc. leads a list of seven Minnesota-based companies that have been named the "100 Best Corporate Citizens" for 2004 by Business Ethics magazine.

Now in its fifth year, the annual rankings identify companies among the Russell 1000 - the largest publicly traded companies - that excel at serving a variety of stakeholders well. The ranking is based on quantitative measures of corporate service to seven stakeholder groups: Stockholders, employees, customers, the community, the environment, overseas stakeholders, and women and minorities.

The St. Paul Companies is No. 4 on this year's list, behind Fannie Mae, Procter & Gamble and Intel. Other Minnesota companies in the rankings are Ecolab (No. 10), Imation (No. 11), 3M Company (No. 20), Deluxe Corporation (No. 42), Graco (No. 49) and Medtronic (No. 57). IBM, which has a strong presence in Minnesota, is No. 12 on the list.

Five of these companies are among 29 firms recognized by the magazine for appearing on the list all five years: Ecolab, Graco, IBM, Medtronic and The St. Paul Companies.

Among all states, Minnesota has the third-highest number of companies on the list, tied with Michigan. California and New York have the most companies in the rankings.

Statistical analysis for the list was done by Sandra Waddock and Samuel Graves of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Social ratings were provided by KLD Research & Analytics of Boston, a research firm serving socially responsible investors.

The "100 Best Corporate Citizens" story appears in the spring issue of Business Ethics magazine. To view the complete rankings and related editorial, visit the magazine's Web site.

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