Skip to main content

Tech Firms Take Top Spots in Newsweek's Ranking of Greenest Companies

<p>In the magazine's first-ever Green Rankings of the 500 largest companies in the U.S., Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Intel and IBM take up four of the top five slots; &nbsp;Johnson &amp; Johnson is the only non-technology company in the top five.</p>

In Newsweek's first-ever Green Rankings, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Intel and IBM take up four of the top five slots; Johnson & Johnson is the only non-technology company in the top five.

The magazine's list, which is made up of the 500 most valuable companies in the United States, was a joint project between Newsweek staffers and KLD Research and Analytics, the lead partner on the project, Trucost and CorporateRegister.com. Companies' scores are developed by combining an Environmental Impact Score, a Green Policies Score and a Reputation Score for an overall Green Score.

In this year's rankings, HP scored a perfect 100, Dell earned 98.97 and J&J scored 98.56.

Unsurprisingly, oil and gas companies rank very low on the list, made up of the 500 most valuable companies in the United States. Three oil companies -- Peabody Energy, NRG Energy and Allegheny Energy -- round out the last three companies, with ranks of 500, 499, and 498, and overall "Green Scores" of 1.00, 22.75 and 25.04, respectively.
{related_content}
"If you rank companies solely on their environmental footprint or impact, certain industries would dominate that list," Peter Bernstein, one of the founders of ASAP Media, which worked with Newsweek on developing the rankings, told GreenBiz.com executive editor Joel Makower. "[T]echnology, health care, banking -- they all don't have as great as environmental impact as other industries. So, we had to adjust that with intentions and an industry bias."

In addition to ranking firms based on their overall Green Score, Newsweek's list also breaks out results by industry sector. Among the results from those rankings include: Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Travelers at the top of the Banking and Insurance group; Coca Cola Enterprises, Coca Cola, and Brown-Forman in the top three spots for Food & Beverage; Baxter International, Medtronic, and Becton Dickinson at the top of the Healthcare section; United Technologies, UPS and FedEx in the top spots of Transportation and Aerospace; and Kohl's Staples and Gap taking top rankings for Retail.

Below is a list of the top 20 companies in Newsweek's Green Rankings. For more coverage, read these two articles from Joel Makower: Inside Newsweek's New Green Corporate Rankings and Who's Invested in Newsweek's Least-Green Companies? (Maybe You).

For the full rankings, as well as other insight from Newsweek staff, visit GreenRankings.Newsweek.com

Rank Company Industry Sector Green Score
1 Hewlett-Packard Technology 100
2 Dell Technology 98.87
3 Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals 98.56
4 Intel Technology 95.12
5 IBM Technology 94.08
6 State Street Financial Services 93.62
7 Nike Consumer Products, Cars 93.28
8 Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals 92.62
9 Applied Materials Technology 91.79
10 Starbucks Media, Travel, Leisure 91.63
11 Johnson Controls Consumer Products, Cars 89.53
12 Cisco Systems Technology 88.59
13 Wells Fargo Banks and Insurance 88.53
14 Sun Microsystems Technology 88.11
15 Sprint Nextel Technology 88.06
16 Adobe Systems Technology 87.88
17 Advanced Micro Devices Technology 87.86
18 Kohl's Retail 86.78
19 Allergan Pharmaceuticals 86.73
20 Staples Retail 86.37

More on this topic