Earlier this week, Christian shared with us the recent findings around the top 500 Green Ranking. He’s created a great post about it and for the many of you who speak German, it’s worth a read. Since my German ist schwach, I’d love to share what I learned.
Newsweek, Trucost and Sustainalytices have recently published their top 500 “Green Ranking” which includes an expanded KPI sustainability rating of the 500 most strong-selling global companies. The so called “Green Score” is focused on three fields: Environmental Impact, Environmental Management and Environmental Disclosure. This score explains how the largest 500 companies in the world are positioned.
* Swisscom AG, Infosys Technologies Limited, International Business Machines Corporation, Hewlett-Packard - amoung the Green Ranking. (image from Newsweek Green Ranking, October 2011)
The top global winner this year is the German Reinsurer, Munich RE, who knocked off last year’s winner IBM. Having a German company at the top makes my colleagues proud, and it should. I am the first to admit that the US has been a few steps behind when it comes to Green initiatives. In fact, this year, more than 50% of the top 100 companies are from Europe. So is Europe actually Greener than the US?
Christian explained that if you asked this question to Europeans, you would probably get the following three answers regarding the practices of most of the U.S.:
- Poor fuel efficiency, or as he stated "20 liters per 100 kilometers".
- Always on air conditioning.
- Bad building insulation.
But is this “old” picture still true? Especially considering that all companies are situated in globalized markets. The report digs deep into all areas and gives lots more detail. What I understood at the end was that although there are many areas to improve, and the U.S is starting to get better, none of the countries that are doing so well in Europe show any signs of backing down.
My takeaway from this?
“green” is clearly a global initiative. Sure, the U.S. falls behind in some categories, but the effort to move in the right direction is there. Having a leader like Europe to pave the way only helps the other countries find success.
