Other Dutch companies in the ranking are:
24 Philips
73 ING
148 Randstad
165 Ahold
196 Akzo Nobel
202 Unilever
341 Heineken
Press release Sustainalytics
Global companies are becoming more transparent on their environmental performance. Over 85% of companies in Newsweek’s Green Rankings now disclose some level of detail on their environmental information, representing a 20% improvement on the previous year.
This is in line with the goal shared by Newsweek and its research partners, Trucost and Sustainalytics; to engage companies in measuring and disclosing environmental performance as an essential first step towards improving it.
Dr. James Salo, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Research of Trucost commented, “Since the launch of Newsweek’s Green Rankings in 2009 we have had thousands of conversations with companies seeking to provide information about their environmental performance. By improving the transparency on their environmental performance, companies are becoming more responsible for its improvement. This is an important step towards reducing environmental impact and risk.”
Notably, disclosure by emerging markets companies increased by approximately 8% , reflecting a promising shift towards transparency in countries such as Brazil, Korea and India. For the first time, the global list was topped by three emerging markets companies, Banco Santander and Banco Bradesco from Brazil, along with Indian IT leader, Wipro.
Heather Lang, Sustainalytics’ Director of Research Products, North America added “it is very encouraging to see enhanced disclosure and environmental leadership coming from emerging markets. Though there is still considerable headway to be made in normalizing this trend, we expect it will increase in the years ahead.”
Among other key findings, at the industry level Information Technology & Services, and Technology Equipment remain the highest ranking sectors on both the US and Global lists. The two sectors improving the most in the 2012 Green Rankings are Food, Beverage, and Tobacco and Transport.
For the first time, the online feature of the Newsweek Green Rankings 2012 includes 20 unique industry pages, highlighting key areas of impact, strengths and weaknesses. In addition to generating overall rankings out of 500, readers can easily discern where companies rank relative to their industry peers in managing similar impacts and exposure.