Forbes published a new ranking of the best employers, which for some reason is still related to ESG.
It will be opened in 2021 together with KPMG. All indicators are divided into three groups: "Ecology", "Employees and Society" and "Corporate Governance". Depending on their scores, companies are classified as "Platinum", "Gold", "Silver" or "Bronze". There are 222 companies in the 2026 ranking compared to 205 the year before, and the highest platinum group still consists of 30 employers.
This year the top included, among others, Avito, Alrosa, Alfa Bank, Ernst Uniros, Aeroflot, VTB, Vimpelcom, Gazprombank, Kaspersky Lab, Magnet, Megaphone, MKB, MTS, Novatek, Norilsk Nickel, Poly Metal, Polios, Rosatom, Rostelecom, Sver-Bank, T. En+, Yandex, S7 Group, Split, VK and X5 Group. For the first time, Norilsk Nickel and MKB were rated platinum.
For the second year in a row, the banking sector is in first place in terms of the number of platinum companies. In addition to ICB, it includes six other financial organizations. There are five IT companies in the top group, while telecommunications, mining and metallurgical companies are represented by four participants each.
You can be happy about Norilsk Nickel, which within five years turned from silver to platinum. The company says that in 2025 it has allocated 89 billion rubles (almost 8% of revenue) to environmental protection, and sulfur dioxide emissions have fallen from 1.6 million to 1.16 million tons since 2021. These are really important numbers if they are supported by independent measurements and not just corporate reporting.
There are other prominent environmental initiatives. Avito calculates the impact of reusing things, En+ relies on hydropower and low-carbon aluminum, Posagro increases the purchase of green electricity and uses phosphorus, X5 Group develops food sharing and combats food waste, and S7 Group reports a reduction in the volume of waste by 16% per year.