Newsweek Green Rankings Published

It’s that time of year again! The fourth annual Newsweek Green Rankings list has arrived, rating the largest publicly traded companies in the United States and across the globe on their environmental performance. Newsweek collaborated with Trucost and Sustainalytics to compile companies’ overall Green Score from three component scores: Environmental Impact, Environmental Management and Environmental Disclosure, weighted at 45%, 45% and 10% respectively.

The top 5 U.S. Companies are:

1. IBM
2. Hewlett-Packard
3. Sprint Nextel
4. Dell
5. CA Technologies

To read more about the top 15 U.S. companies and see their scores, please click here.

The top 5 global companies are:

1. Santander Brasil
2. Wipro
3. Bradesco
4. IBM
5. National Australia Bank

To read more about the top 15 global companies and see their scores, please click here.

Companies are also ranked according to industry, including Consumer Goods, Healthcare, Energy, Professional Services and Utilities (20 total). There are even lists such as Least Green Companies (BlackRock), Most Transparent Companies (UPS) and Reputation and Reality Winners list (IBM).

Scores were calculated using the same methodology as 2011 for comparability, in order to create a baseline for these companies and provide an environmental benchmarking tool to them and other stakeholders. To see the full lists please click here.

What do you think? Any surprises from the 2011 rankings? Do you agree or disagree with the top ranked companies? Least green companies? Let us know!

2011 Newsweek Green Rankings out today

Since the first Newsweek Green Rankings came out two years ago, a ‘green economy’ was high on everyone’s to do list. Since then, momentum has slowed way down and major government decisions have been non-decisions. However, many of the world’s largest companies have swum against this tide. Even in our weakened economy, big players have attacked green initiatives head on – implying that corporate responsibility is here to stay.

Many top executives understand that corporate responsibility is not only good for the environment but even better for business. Reducing waste reduces costs, something companies are looking to achieve every day. They also know resources are limited – water, land and minerals are finite. Companies that are dependent on these resources for their business are trying to figure out ways to use less, recycle more and consume alternative sources of fuel to sustain themselves.

This year’s Green Rankings are composed of two lists: 500 U.S. companies and 500 global companies that highlight leaders and laggards in sustainability. The data was analyzed by Trucost and Sustainalytics, leading environmental research firms, and assesses companies’ environmental footprint, management and disclosure. Collectively, the companies surveyed are responsible for more than 6 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year – nearly equivalent to all emissions produced annually by the U.S.

Overall, the Rankings suggest that the U.S. is lagging behind the rest of the world. This is especially true regarding transparency, as Europe’s regulatory environment requires companies to disclose non-financial data.

To read the full article please click here. To see the full methodology please click here. To see the full list of U.S. companies please click here. To see the full list of global companies please click here.

What do you think? Do you think the companies at the top are deserving? Are there any companies from the bottom you think should be higher, or companies that are left off altogether? Discuss!

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!

Lessons from Haiti

Here at BrownFlynn, our thoughts and hearts go out to those in Haiti who suffered the devastation of Tuesday’s earthquake. 

To make an online donation to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund, click here.  Your gift to the American Red Cross will support emergency relief and recovery efforts to help those people affected by the earthquake in Haiti.

With this tragic event comes a renewed respect for the power of nature and a reinforced conviction in the necessity of safety.  Specifically, in this case, building safety.

Photograph by Lisandro Suero, AFP/Getty Images

“Tens of thousands of people appear to have lost their homes and many perished in collapsed buildings that were flimsy and dangerous even under normal conditions.” – MSNBC

Newsweek’s New Green Ranking

This past Monday, Newsweek published their first annual Green Rankings.  Unlike many other corporate environmental rankings that are abounding in the marketplace, Newsweek has managed to compile, rate and rank the environmental performance, achievements, and reputation of the 500 largest publicly held companies that trade on either the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ (the two largest American stock markets).

Joel Makower, in his article “Inside Newsweek’s Green Corporate Rankings”, said that, “It may well be the best effort yet to rigorously and comprehensively assess the mainstream corporate marketplace — at least in the U.S.”