Corporate sustainability and environmental impact are concepts that are increasingly becoming key parts of companies’ operations and marketing efforts. Newsweek recently released its annual green rankings, analyzing companies with eight indicators that assess and measure their environmental performance. The indicators include: combined energy productivity, combined greenhouse gas productivity, combined water productivity, combined waste productivity, green revenue, green pay link, sustainability board committee, and audited environmental metrics.
The U.S. top 10 companies may surprise you:
- Biogen, Inc. (healthcare)
- Allergan, Inc. (healthcare)
- Adobe Systems, Inc. (information technology)
- Broadcom Corp. (information technology)
- Sigma-Adlrich Corp. (materials)
- Hershey Comp. (consumer goods)
- Ecolab Inc. (materials)
- Coca-Cola (consumer goods)
- Aflac (financials)
- Mead Johnson Nutrition Comp. (consumer goods)
For the full lists of the top 500 largest publicly-traded companies, check out the Newsweek rankings at http://www.newsweek.com/green-2015/top-green-companies-u.s.-2015/.
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Poll students: Who buys (or tries to buy) from environmentally-friendly companies?
- Have students name companies that they think fits this description.
- Discuss how sustainability fits into marketing campaigns.
- Show the Newsweek rankings for U.S. and Global companies:
US: http://www.newsweek.com/green-2015/top-green-companies-u.s.-2015
Global: http://www.newsweek.com/green-2015/top-green-companies-world-2015
- How can and should this information be used in marketing campaigns?
Source: Newsweek
