Anytime a magazine issues a best-of list, you have to wonder about certain factors. First off, what politics come into play in arriving at selections? Are the choices arbitrary or rooted in some sort of scientific method? When Rolling Stone magazine listed their controversial Top-100 guitarists of all time, for instance, how on earth did they decide between Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix for the number one and two slots?
Newsweek’s inaugural Green Rankings issue — which ranks the 500 biggest publicly-traded corporations listed in the S&P 500 based on sustainability – made huge ripples in the business world Monday, and for good reason. Introducing a sustainability index creates a new playing field for corporate competitors, and new methods for measurement mean fresh opportunities to get in the race.
As Daniel McGinn wrote in the introduction to the list, “Ranking companies based on sustainability is a huge challenge… comparing environmental performance across industries is a bit like analyzing whether Tiger Woods or LeBron James is the world’s greatest athlete.”
Newsweek informs us that more than half of a company’s green score was based on their overall environmental performance and reputation. Further, of their Top 100 finalists, 70 percent reported their environmental performance voluntarily. For each listing, the magazine gives a brief reason as to why each particular company made the grade. For instance, “Intel, No. 4 in Newsweek’s ranking, recently launched an initiative in which every employee’s bonus is tied, in part, to how well the company does in meeting sustainability goals. Wal-Mart, No. 59, recently announced plans to create a Sustainability Index…”
For a little taste of Newsweek’s Green Rankings, here are the top five:
• Hewlett-Packard
• Dell
• Johnson & Johnson
• Intel
• IBM
The rest can be seen either in this week’s print edition, or at Newsweek Online.
Photo courtesy of xotoko via Flickr.