We’re proud to share that CSRHub’s ESG ranking data has once again been featured in Site Selection magazine’s annual 2026 Sustainability Rankings, published in May and now in their 17th consecutive year. The rankings identify the countries, U.S. states, and metro areas best positioned for sustainable corporate growth, and CSRHub is glad to contribute the corporate-responsibility layer of the composite index behind them.
Site Selection’s index blends a wide set of signals — green building square footage per capita, happiness, federal Energy Star certifications, healthy workplaces, renewable-energy manufacturing, sustainability-oriented incentives, and corporate social responsibility. CSRHub supplies that last piece: an independent, consensus view of how companies in each region actually perform on ESG.
At the country level, the United States takes the No. 1 spot, with Spain (No. 2), Ireland (No. 3), Sweden (No. 5), Germany (No. 6), and the United Kingdom (No. 7) rounding out the leaders.
Among U.S. states, California ranks first, moving up from No. 2 last year, followed by Texas (No. 2), Colorado (No. 3), Arizona (No. 4), and North Carolina (No. 5), with Ohio also landing in the top 10.
On the metro side, the Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos area holds the No. 1 spot, pairing rapid corporate growth with strong sustainability fundamentals, while the Washington, D.C. region was one of the year’s biggest upward movers, climbing from No. 11 to No. 7.
The two methodologies are worth reading together precisely because they don’t always line up. Site Selection weights its factors equally, while CSRHub scores regions on its own 12 measures of sustainability performance — and the gap between the two views is often the most interesting part. A region’s incentives and green infrastructure don’t always track the on-the-ground ESG performance of the companies based there, and seeing both perspectives side by side says more than either does alone.
Each year, CSRHub examines how the corporate facility investment activity that Site Selection tracks by geography — through its Conway Projects Database — aligns with the sustainability profiles of the companies doing the investing. Matching where capital actually flows against independent ESG ratings is a powerful way to gauge whether a region is drawing sustainability-conscious investment. As the analysts at Tractus put it, “Across capital-intensive sectors, sustainability is no longer adjacent to competitiveness — it is embedded within it.”
About CSRHub
CSRHub provides access to the world’s largest corporate social responsibility and sustainability database, powered by expert consensus sustainability ratings, information, and tools. Clients use CSRHub’s decisive data platform for global benchmarking, supply and value chain risk assessment and compliance readiness solutions. Founded in 2007, CSRHub covers nearly 60,000 public and private companies, and provides ESG performance scores on 42,000 companies from 134 industries in 158 countries. Our Big Data platform uses algorithms to aggregate, normalize and weight ESG metrics from 1,000 sources to produce a strong consensus signal on corporate sustainability performance. Interested in learning more about CSRHub?
Bahar Gidwani is CTO and Co-founder of CSRHub. He has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA, worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. Bahar has consulted to a number of major companies and currently serves on the board of several software and Web companies. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York City.
