SEP 22

Tech companies dominated the top of Newsweek's "Green Rankings," with Hewlett Packard taking the number one spot.  The list ranked the 500 largest corporations in America based on their environmental impact, green policies and their social responisibility reputation.

Tech companies made up four out of the top five spots:  HP at No.1, Dell at No. 2, Intel at No. 4 and IBM at No. 5.  Google was farther down the list at No. 79 and Apple even lower at No. 133.  The criteria went beyond the environmental-friendliness of their products, factoring in things like the companies' greenhouse gas emissions, water use, waste disposal, environmental initiatives, pollution policies and even how they were viewed by consumers.  You can see specifics on the methodology here.

HP was named the greenest company mainly because of their commitment to reduce GHG emissions and to remove toxic materials from their products.  Greenpeace made a big splash a couple of months ago by calling the company out on their failure to keep their promise on eliminating hazardous materials, but I guess for this ranking, intentions counted as much as action.

HP has made some strong commitments to reducing GHG emissions though. They just announced that they would cut their emissions to 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2011.

Comments (6)

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Top 500 List
written by Sarah Lindquist, September 23, 2009

I was very underwhelmed when I read Newsweek's Top 500 Green Companies. They did admit that it's very difficult to compare apples to oranges to bananas to koala bears, but I guess I needed to know what they considered 'average' and 'poor' greenness levels. I'm sure they didn't want to name names, though.

The list had a short paragraph explaining what companies were doing to make themselves more sustainable, but only for a very small handful of them out of all 500!

Also, what about initiatives to help their employees be more eco-friendly by helping them decrease the CO2 footprint of their commutes? Or donating to green organizations.

I'm glad that they're applauding and bringing attention to their sustainable efforts because it can only help spur on more efforts from everybody.

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Green Laptops
written by Steve G, September 23, 2009

Many of the technologies have been around for a very long time yet they are just recently being used. Take green laptops for example. There are many strict requirements for these portable computers to be rated as "green" and not just green colored.

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HP No.1?
written by Junk, September 24, 2009

I dont know about you people out there but I have seen more HP printers and laptops scrapped after a short useful life than any other brand. Actually most HP products are garbage as soon as they leave the factory! I wonder if they factor in resale value for the top 500?

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HP #1???
written by Anthony, September 24, 2009

"HP was named the greenest company mainly because of their commitment to reduce GHG emissions and to remove toxic materials from their products."

So HP's promises speak louder than Apple's actions?

The only garbage here is this ranking system...

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written by John Rowell, September 24, 2009

...or it's possible that HP advertises extensively in Newsweek...hmmm...

The way I see it, intentions mean nothing - it's *actions* that count. In 2011, *if* HP keeps their promises, they might very well be the greenest tech company - in 2011, that is.

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written by BC Energy Manager, October 01, 2009

I agree with several of the above comments. I applaud HP's commitments but actions / deliverables mean a lot more to me than promises / policies. In addition, what they do to influence their staffs behaviours is important too. I recently converted over to Apple and am more than happy with their "green" state. They are not perfect but I love the power management features.

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