September 21st, 2009
From Green Right Now Reports
Newsweek has launched a ranking of the greenest companies in America and Hewlett-Packard tops the initial list. The Newsweek Green Rankings, based on companies’ environmental footprint, policies and practices, appears in the Sept. 28 issue of the magazine.
The green ranking covers America’s 500 largest publicly traded companies as measured by revenue, market capitalization and number of employees. Companies were ranked based on criteria such as each company’s greenhouse gas emissions, toxic waste emissions and use of other natural resources. Newsweek and its partners also assessed the companies’ management of environmental issues and policies, regulatory compliance and policies concerning climate change. Newsweek said the rankings also factor in the results of a reputational survey of CEOs, corporate social responsibility officers, members of the media, academics and members of key environmental groups.
The top 10 greenest companies in America according to the report are:
1. Hewlett-Packard Company
2. Dell Inc.
3. Johnson & Johnson
4. Intel Corporation
5. IBM
6. State Street Corporation
7. NIKE, Inc.
8. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
9. Applied Materials, Inc.
10. Starbucks Corporation
Newsweek also broke out the list by industry sector, determining the top 10 greenest companies in their respective industries. The top companies from each industry are:
- Banks & Insurance — Wells Fargo & Company
- Basic Materials — Praxair, Inc.
- Financial Services — State Street Corporation
- Food & Beverage — Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc.
- General Industrials, Construction and Materials — ITT Corporation
- Health Care Equipment and Services — Baxter International Inc.
- Industrial Goods and Services — Agilent Technologies, Inc.
- Industrial Transportation, Aerospace and Defense — United Technologies Corporation
- Media, Travel and Leisure — Starbucks Corporation
- Oil and Gas — Marathon Oil Corporation
- Personal and Household Goods, Autos and Auto Parts — NIKE, Inc.
- Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology — Johnson & Johnson
- Retail — Kohl’s Corporation
- Technology and Telecommunications — Hewlett-Packard Company
- Utilities — PG&E Corporation
Partners on the survey included environmental research experts KLD Research and Analytics, the lead partner on the project, Trucost and CorporateRegister.com.
Newsweek said it used an expert panel to appraise the Newsweek Green Ranking methodology and review the preliminary and final list. The panelists included Dan Esty, prof. of environmental law and policy, Yale University; Marjorie Kelly, senior associate at Tellus Institute and co-founder and former editor of Business Ethics Magazine;
Wood Turner, executive director of Climate Counts; David Vidal, global Corporate citizenship research director at The Conference Board; and John Steelman of The Climate Center, National Resource Defense Council.
