HP and Dell switch places atop Newsweek Green Rankings

The second annual Newsweek Green Rankings debuted today, announcing Dell (100 score) as taking over the top spot from HP (99.32 score). Rounding out the top five are IBM, Johnson & Johnson and Intel (same companies as last year, but in a different order).

Newsweek’s Kathy Deveny had this to say about the technology companies’ monopoly of the top five spots two years in a row:

“Tech companies dominated this year’s Green Rankings — in part because they make low-impact products, like software, that inevitably have a smaller environmental footprint than, say, a utility (though PG&E did hit No. 20 on the list, thanks to a commitment to renewable energy.) But bottom-line considerations are a big part of what’s driving tech companies in the green direction. In their quest to create products that are cheaper to manufacture and operate, tech firms are devising solutions that have the added benefit of saving energy or reducing waste.” (GreenBiz)

Newsweek also announced the Top 10 greenest companies in the world: IBM, HP, Johnson & Johnson, Sony, GSK, Novartis, Deutsche Telekom, Panasonic, HSBC Holdings and Toshiba. Newsweek ranks companies based on three specific categories: Environmental Impact Score, Green Policies Score and Reputation Survey Score. Newsweek introduced this year’s rankings as follows: “NEWSWEEK’s 2010 Green Rankings is a data-driven assessment of the largest companies in the U.S. and in the world. Our goal was to cut through the green chatter and quantify the actual environmental footprints, policies, and reputations of these big businesses. To do this, we teamed up with three leading environmental research organizations to create the most comprehensive rankings available.”

To read the full article and see the complete rankings, please click here. To read GreenBiz’s take on this year’s rankings, please click here.  
 

After reviewing the list and the methodologies, what do you think? Did Newsweek get it right this year? Do you believe they stayed true to their opening remarks of ‘cutting through the green chatter’ and quantifying the data? Discuss!

How Does Healthcare Reform Affect Businesses and Their Wellness Programs?

The following video, produced by CBS News, illustrates how small businesses may benefit the most from healthcare reform:

According to this video and its accompanying article, some of the main goals of healthcare reform are to limit spikes in insurance costs and to incentivize businesses to cover more workers.

But what about those larger companies that will have to pay more to cover their employees?  According to an article by NPR, these companies will have to offer more benefits and consumer protections such as free preventive services and guaranteed direct access to obstetricians or gynecologists for women.

Additionally, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, health insurance costs are naturally going to rise in the coming year due to inflation, and the new benefits of healthcare reform won’t take effect for another three years.  Some employers may deal with this projected 9% medical inflation rate by shifting costs to workers.

Alternatively, offering more preventative care and wellness programs for employees may actually boost the profitability of companies.  The National Business Group of Health (NBGH) claims that for every dollar spent per employee on preventive services and health improvement programs, employers can get back three dollars in profit due to decreased absenteeism and increased productivity.

Winning Partnerships

When an advocacy group works together with a corporation to come up with commendable policy, great things can happen—socially, environmentally and economically—for both organizations. 

Although corporations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) often seem ethically opposed, now more than ever, successful businesses are realizing that social, environmental and economic responsibility can help their bottom line by boosting brand reputation, lowering waste & energy costs, and tapping the socially responsible investing market, among other things.  Businesses can gain quite a lot from employing the expertise of NGOs to become more socially and environmentally responsible.

Alternatively, NGOs have come to the understanding that it is easier to create change in alignment with their mission if they work with corporations instead of fighting against them.  In addition, by helping business, NGOs can sustain themselves economically with the money they receive for their services… which also helps them to continue their mission.

Here are some examples of Win-Win partnerships between advocacy groups and corporations: