Green Rankings for the top 10 U.S. Companies for 2010 (Post 6)

I was interested in finding out who the "greenest" U.S. companies were for 2010, so I decided to do a little research and look it up. I found a list according to Newsweek. It seemed pretty reasonable, but I wanted to figure out how exactly they came up with this "green score" and all the factors that went into compiling it, so I included a little background into that. I thought that the list was pretty interesting and thought I would share it!

These are the Green Rankings for the top 10 US companies on a list of 500. (BOLD=green score)

1              Dell»

Technology         100.00   81.49     100.00   84.33

2              Hewlett-Packard»

Technology         99.32     90.60     94.09     95.35

3              International Business Machines»

Technology         99.20     98.71     89.52     98.42

4              Johnson & Johnson»

Pharmaceuticals               99.02     74.95     98.86     80.34

5              Intel»

Technology         97.57     95.74     88.79     92.71

6              Sprint Nextel»

Technology         94.98     99.70     94.58     44.72

7              Adobe Systems»

Technology         94.15     89.61     88.08     72.57

8              Applied Materials»

Technology         92.67     91.98     87.33     60.06

9              Yahoo!»

Technology         92.67     68.62     89.07     59.74

10           Nike»

Consumer Products, Cars             92.66     67.63     77.53     97.39

*For the full list, click here: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/18/green-rankings-us-companies.html

GREEN SCORE

Companies on each list—the U.S. 500 and the Global 100—are ranked by their overall Green Score. This score is derived from three component scores: the Environmental Impact Score (EIS), the Green Policies Score (GPS), and the Reputation Survey Score (RSS), weighted at 45 percent, 45 percent, and 10 percent, respectively. The Green Score, as well as each component score, is published on a scale from 100 (highest performing) to one (lowest performing).

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT SCORE

Based on data compiled by Trucost, it is a comprehensive, quantitative, and standardized measurement of the total environmental impacts of a corporation’s global operations (90 percent) and disclosure of those impacts (10 percent). More than 700 metrics—including emissions of nine key greenhouse gases, water use, solid-waste disposal, and emissions that contribute to acid rain and smog—figure into the Environmental Impact Score.

GREEN POLICIES SCORE

Derived from data and analysis provided by MSCI ESG Research, the Green Policies Score is an assessment of how a company manages its environmental footprint.

REPUTATION SURVEY SCORE

This score is based on an opinion survey of corporate social-responsibility professionals, academics, and other environmental experts who subscribe to CorporateRegister.com. The survey went out to 14,921 validated users and asked each respondent to rate a random sample of 15 companies on a sliding scale (100 to one) from “leader” to “laggard” in three key green areas: environmental performance, commitment, and communications. Of those surveyed, 2,480 individuals were identified as “sector specialists”—those having a specific working knowledge of environmental issues within their industry—and were asked only to score companies in their sector of expertise. Additionally, the CEOs from all companies on the NEWSWEEK U.S. 500 and Global 100 lists were invited to participate in the survey, 90 of whom responded and either took the survey themselves or designated a senior-level representative to do so on their behalf. Survey responses were collected over six weeks, from July 1, 2010, to mid-August.