The 10 Most Green Companies In The World

by Jeffrey

Canada, cars, computers, green business, VOCs

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This just in: the 10 most green companies in the world from CNN Money.

It’s not surprising who is number one, but it is surprising who else is on the list!!

Personally, I find some of them a little hard to believe.

It’s easy to know that Honda with the Prius and other fuel efficiency and hybrid efforts has taken the number one spot on this list.

I’m also glad to report that those efforts made them the number one vehicle manufacturer in the world last year.

Glad to see some green efforts pay off and result in some green as well for them.

Take a look at the list and accompanying snippet of how each biz made it on the list:

#1: Honda, Japan – “The most fuel-efficient auto company in the U.S.”

#2: Continental Airlines, Houston, TX – “Besides spending more than $16 billion over the past ten years to replace its fleet with more efficient aircraft, it installed fuel-saving winglets that reduce emissions by up to 5% on most of its Boeing 737s and 757s, and reduced the nitrogen oxide output from ground equipment at its Houston hub by over 75% since 2000.”

#3: Suncor, Canada – “…it has improved emissions intensity (the amount of oil it extracts per ton of greenhouse gases emitted) 25 percent since 1990. Ditto for energy, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.”

#4: Tesco, Britain – “Wind-powered stores, high-tech recycling, biodiesel delivery trucks – Tesco does all that. Last year the company pledged to cut the average energy use in its British buildings in half by 2010; now it says it will get there two years early.”

#5: Alcan, Canada – “the company has been able to reduce its greenhouse-gas output by 25 percent since 1990, while production increased 40 percent.”

#6: PG&E, San Fransisco, CA – “The utility generates 56 percent of its retail electricity sales from non-greenhouse-gas-emitting sources, and it aggressively helps customers become more efficient…and it has a pilot project in the San Joaquin Valley in which cow manure is turned into electricity.”

#7: S.E. Johnson, Racine, WI – “By using Greenlist, S.C. Johnson eliminated 1.8 million pounds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from Windex and four million pounds of polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) from Saran Wrap, which is now PVDC-free.”

#8: Goldman Sachs, New York, NY – “Goldman invested $1.5 billion in cellulosic ethanol, wind and solar power.”

#9: Swiss Re, Switzerland – “Swiss Re’s main product is insurance for insurers, so its products never come near a smokestack.”

#10: Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto – “HP owns massive e-waste recycling plants, where enormous shredders and granulators reduce four million pounds of computer detritus each month to bite-sized chunks – the first step in reclaiming not just steel and plastic but also toxic chemicals like mercury and even some precious metals. HP will take back any brand of equipment; its own machines are 100% recyclable.”

Personally, I find S.E. Johnson, HP, and Continental Airlines a little hard to believe, but I’ll be checking into it.

What do you think about this list? Do you know of any big or local businesses that take specific actions to green their business?