NEW YORK, N.Y. — Companies such as Nike, Google, Anheuser-Busch and Levi Strauss have taken strides in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and communicating those efforts in ways that are transparent to consumers, according to the second Climate Counts Company Scorecard released today.

The Scorecard, available in a pocket-sized shopping guide, gives consumers the ability to make purchasing decisions based on whether companies are walking the walk to battle climate change. The report found that 84 percent of companies improved their climate-related efforts since the first scorecard was released last June, but the food services sector scored the lowest average.

“Business is being pushed by consumers to do their part to solve the climate crisis,” said Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farm and Climate Counts chair. “The Scorecard allows consumers to make good climate decisions in their everyday purchases, and it’s having an impact.”

Climate Counts is a nonprofit that created the scorecard using input from business and climate experts. (Full disclosure: GreenBiz Executive Editor Joel Makower is a Climate Counts board member.) It used 22 criteria to ranks companies on four benchmarks: whether they measure their carbon footprint, efforts to reduce it, support or opposition to climate-related legislation and communication with the public on their actions. It also ranks companies according to sector: apparel, beverages, consumer shipping, electronics, food products, food services, household products, media and Internet/software.

The average company score improved 22 percent during the last year to nearly 40 points, with Nike receiving the highest score of 82 points. Canon, General Electric, IBM, Stonyfield Farm, Toshiba and Unilever also scored more than 70 points. Google improved its score by 38 points while Levi Strauss and Anheuser-Busch each improved by more than 20 points.

The food services sector had the largest sector average score of 13 points out of 100, with three companies scoring zero. The household products category showest the greatest overall improvement with a gain of nearly 14 points.