Newsweek 2014 top green companies list

The Newsweek 2014 green rankings of the worlds 500 biggest companies have been announced and taking the top spot  is the French media and telecoms giant, Vivendi. The firm’s high ranking is partly due to tying the remuneration of its senior executives to corporate environmental performance targets. In close second is California-based pharma company, Allergen. The firm, best known as the world’s largest producer of Botox, has been tracking its sustainability performance since 1992.

"What we're seeing more and more is a direct link between corporate sustainability, reputation, and financial success," said Elijah Wolfson , senior editor at Newsweek. "Many of the world's largest public companies have begun to recognize that in order to be successful moving forward, they need to openly account for their environmental impact. The goal of Newsweek's Green Rankings is to add to and push for this type of accountability."

It seems that accountability is on the rise, as the project found that a majority of the world's largest companies are now disclosing environmental data to the market. In fact, over 75% of the Global 500 now disclose data on their carbon emissions to investors. This is impressive when you consider that there was almost no disclosure a decade ago.

Here's the rankings:

Global 10

1. Vivendi (telecommunication services) – 85.3%

2. Allergan (healthcare) – 85.1%

3. Adobe Systems (IT) - 84.4%

4. Kering (consumer discretionary) – 83.6%

5. NTT Docomo (telecommunication services) – 83.1%

6. Ecolab (materials) – 82.6%

7. Atlas Copco (industrials) – 77.2%

8. Biogen Idec (healthcare) – 75.7%

9. Compass Group (consumer discretionary) – 75.3%

10. Schneider Electric (industrials) – 75.3%

Elsewhere in corporate news,  just two weeks after being given a dressing-down by Greenpeace for lagging behind in meeting its commitments to create a toxic-free supply chain, adidas has announced plans to get it back on course. Adidas says it will eliminate all polyfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) by 2020. As part of a new agreement, the sportswear giant says it will phase out 99% of all polyfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) – hormone-disrupting chemicals used to repel dirt and water in shoes and clothing – by the end of 2017, leading to full elimination by 2020. And it has agreed to publicly disclose discharge data from 99% of its Chinese suppliers by the end of this year, as well as 80% of its global suppliers by the middle of 2016. This is all building towards “full supply chain transparency” by 2020.

And the Coca-Cola Company says it is on track to meet its 2020 water replenishment goal by balancing an estimated 68% of the water used in its finished beverages, based on 2013 sales volume. Coca-Cola supports projects across India including providing safe water access. The soft drinks business has replenished an estimated 108.5 billion litres of water back to communities and nature through more than 500 community water projects in over 100 countries.

http://www.newsweek.com/green/top-10-green-companies-world