Norfolk Southern Corporation
NSC
Industrials
6
exclusion reasons
2 themes
Norfolk Southern Corporation is screened out under 6 exclusion reasons spanning 2 issue categories.
This page is part of our public exclusion list — a transparency tool that shows which companies we screen out and why. It is not investment advice, and it is not an accusation. It is a statement of values.
Norfolk Southern Corporation is a major freight railroad operator whose business involves inherently hazardous workplace conditions. The company has been excluded under the working conditions category, which applies to documented patterns of preventable injuries, deaths, or illness caused by inadequate safety measures.
No specific evidence of incidents, enforcement actions, or safety metrics has been gathered for this review. A proper assessment requires investigation into the company’s safety record, including OSHA violations, injury rates, and any documented fatalities or systemic safety failures linked to its operations.
DOJ/EPA consent decree for East Palestine, OH toxic train derailment (Feb 2023); >$310M total settlement including community relief, environmental monitoring, and remediation of contaminated soil and water; vinyl chloride and multiple hazardous materials released into Sulphur Run creek; among the largest environmental enforcement actions against a railroad in US history
DOJ/EPA East Palestine consent decree; $15M Clean Water Act civil penalty for discharge of hazardous materials into Sulphur Run, Leslie Run, and Ohio River tributaries following Feb 2023 derailment; consent decree also requires long-term groundwater monitoring and water quality testing for affected communities; part of >$310M total settlement
Norfolk Southern Corporation is excluded under worker exploitation, which covers systematic wage theft, misclassification of employees as contractors, unpaid overtime, or other schemes to extract labor value without fair compensation. No specific evidence from the cited source (U.S. Department of Labor - OSHA) has been gathered to detail the nature, scale, or recency of these violations for this narrative.
Research Sources
3 organizations
Related Exclusions
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Companies appear on our exclusion list based on our investment judgment — not because they've done anything illegal. This is a difference of values and opinion, not an accusation of wrongdoing. Exclusion does not constitute a recommendation against investing in any company, and absence from the list does not constitute a recommendation to invest.
This information is provided for educational and transparency purposes only and should not be relied upon as investment advice. Data is drawn from independent watchdogs, NGOs, government registries, and Ethical Capital's ongoing research — see Research Sources for the full list.
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