Newsweek Unveils "Green Ranking" of Large US Companies

When I saw Newsweek's latest "green" rankings out on America's largest companies I was immediately reminded of the US News ranking of universities. The US News report is hugely promoted in the media and most if not all university bound students and their parents are at least generally aware of the top schools on the list. The schools themselves, however, hate the list. Actually I shouldn't say that, the schools who believe they should have a perch atop the list hate it...the little underdogs love it. Trust me, go ask someone at Harvard what they think of the list!

There is definitely truth in the criticisms about the ranking criteria, how performance is measured, etc. but I like Ariel Schwartz of Fast Company who wrote, "...the rankings aren't perfect...[but] as a tool for public humiliation--they can't be beat!"

Read the whole list for more detail but here are the top 20 greenest large companies according to Newsweek.

1. Hewlett-Packard
2. Dell
3. Johnson & Johnson
4. Intel
5. IBM
6. State Street
7. Nike
8. Bristol-Myers Squibb
9. Applied Materials
10. Starbucks
11. Johnson Controls
12. Cisco Systems
13. Wells Fargo
14. Sun Microsystems
15. Sprint Nextel
16. Adobe Systems
17. Advanced Micro Devices
18. Kohl's
19. Allergan
20. Staples

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