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What do tech companies know that you don’t know about being green?

By | September 21, 2009, 3:47 PM PDT

It strikes me as particularly intriguing that four out of the top five companies on a new “Greenest Big Companies” listed published in the latest Newsweek are also four of the biggest technology companies in the world. They are Hewlett-Packard (No. 1), Dell (No. 2), Intel (No. 4) and IBM (No. 5).

The third, Johnson & Johnson, is the venerable healthcare and pharmaceutical products company (or HABA producer, as we used to say when I was a supermarket cashier in high school).

What do these companies have on yours? Well, the ranking was pulled together by using data from several different organizations. They included Trucost, which works for non-profit organization NSF International on environmental measurement and reporting. More than 700 different metrics are used by Trucost to calculate corporate environmental impact. KLD Research & Analytics provided what Newsweek describes as a “Green Policies Score,” which essentially involves a more qualitative analysis. Data was also pulled in from CorporateRegister.com. The Newsweek rankings are a weighted average of all these scores. Companies could get 45 percent each for Environmental Impact and Green Policies, that got 10 percent for their reputation survey standing.

OK, so I get the choice of HP. But 100 percent, guys? Is ANY company really 100 percent? I beg to differ, unless you’re hoping that next year’s “100″ score will again raise the bar. Incidentally, dear readers, Dell is barely a point behind with a 98.87 Green Score, while Johnson & Johnson snagged a 98.56 weighed average Green Score.

Incidentally, the highest ranked consumer products company on the list is Nike, which 93.28. Wal-Mart, which is held up by oodles of people as a leader in corporate sustainability initiatives, wound up at No. 59. Is Green Score was 80.38.

Want to read more, you’ll have to visit the Newsweek site, because I don’t have all the data. Here’s the link to the report.

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Heather Clancy

About Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy

Contributing Editor, Business

Heather Clancy has written for United Press International, ZDNet, Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times. She holds a degree from McGill University. She is based in New Jersey.

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Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy
Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I'm also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I'm covering in my blog.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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