Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Newsweek’s green giants
Newsweek today released its third annual Green Rankings, a leading benchmark for rating the largest publicly owned companies in the United States and around the world. Again this year they divided the rankings into two surveys, the top U.S. companies and the top global companies, this year increasing the number of global companies to 500 from 100. By far it’s tech companies leading the packs, from IBM (who scored #1 and #2 on U.S. and the Global lists respectively) to Hewlett-Packard, BT Group and Infosys among others.
Newsweek’s comprehensive online package includes articles to mull including Cary Krosinsky’s report that companies and their shareholders “make out like bandits when they’re environmentally responsible” and a closer look at “Obama’s Big Green Mess” by Daniel Stone and Eleanor Clift as well as other nuggets on the state of green business in faltering economies and abandoned plans for policy reform at the governmental level.
“Big companies have decided that this is a long-term play,” Thomas Lyon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business is quoted as saying in Ian Yarett’s intro.
Newsweek partnered with environmental research groups Trucost and Sustainalytics to put together the benchmark, and the methodology combines an environmental impact score, an environmental management score, and an environmental disclosure score.
from Tales from the Trail:
Washington spinmeisters start BP’s damage control
The new public relations gurus hired by BP couldn't have started at a better time. The team, headed by Anne Womack-Kolton -- a former spokeswoman for Vice President Dick Cheney and the White House -- had just started work when they had to deal with an unfortunate statement by BP chief executive Tony Hayward.
On Sunday Hayward infuriated many of those struggling to deal with the impact the massive oil spill has had on their lives and livelihood when he said he wanted his "life back" and wanted the oil spill mess to be over. So today his office issued the following email:
