Don't Be Fooled by Newsweek's "Green Rankings"

Newsweek has finally decided to rank businesses, in Fortune 500-esque style, on their green-ness. They call this list the Green Rankings and they call these companies, "America's Greenest Companies." This seems to come as the right kind of scrutiny for the right kind of target. After all, how long have businesses been saying that the environment is part of the 'new' triple bottom line. It's only right that if there is a rank for how much money a company makes then there's a rank for how large an environmental impact it makes.

However, there is a serious flaw with these rankings. It creates the illusion that the companies on the list are practicing good environmental stewardship. Most of them are far from achieving these lofty goals and stilll sit in the realm of wishful thinking. This ranking system doesn't evaluate the most environmentally friendly businesses out there, it only evaulates the largest companies out there. Intel ranks in the Top 4 on this list. Intel is one of the major players in the electronics and technology industry. This industry is the source of 2.2 million tons of waste electronics each year and approximately 80% of that ends of in landfills. 70% of the heavy metals found in landfills come from electronic products. Heavy metals that include mercury, lead, cadmium, etc. and other toxins such as halogens and PVC. These toxins contribute to air, land and water pollution and at low concentrations can be fatal to humans and wildlife. Activists have been requesting the industry make design changes so that the recovery and recyclability of the toxins and wastes of electronic products can become reality. None of the large tech companies have stepped up to the plate. It seems to be far more urgent to develop a laptop that's slimmer than a cereal box than to address the accumulation of waste and toxins from their products in the environment. This list should be renamed America's Top 500 Companies That Have Considered the Negative Consequences of the Environmental Degradation They are Causing and Have Created a Plan to Combat the Damage with a disclaimer that these businesses do not represent the most green companies in the nation.The only real requirement for inclusion on this list is a bank roll to buy a spot on the list (if it ever comes to that). If your a big business you're in. If you are the most environmentally friendly business in the country but you don't have thousands of employees and billions in the bank you're out.

What about the real green businesses? Clif Bar, Earthbound Farms, Preserve, Greenerprinter --these are just a few of the many businesses whose environmental performance far exceed those on Newsweek's list. These are businesses built by real Americans, contributing to real improvement in America, standing on the real efforts of American toil. If Newsweek wanted to make real news by releasing a Green Ranking they should have ranked real green businesses. When is mainstream business and their cronies going to quit the antics and face the fact that there is no escaping the real work that would merit their inflated egos? If they want to put forth the sensational newsworthy claims that they make, they should just do the unglamourous self-sacrificing groundwork to back it up.