Which Companies are “Climate Friendly?”

By Gail Nickel-Kailing on May 8th, 2008

Climate Counts, a climate change awareness group, creates a “Climate Friendly” scorecard by analyzing companies’ publicly-stated emissions reductions efforts, climate impact and energy use policies, and transparency in reporting on emissions, and other environmental impacts.

Ranking the companies on a scale from 0 to 100 based on 22 questions that determine if they’ve:

• MEASURED their climate footprint
• REDUCED their climate impact
• SUPPORTED (or blocked) progressive climate policy initiatives
• Made their climate protection efforts PUBLIC and TRANSPARENT

WIRED magazine reports:

As a sector, electronics and computer manufacturers fared surprisingly well, with 9 out of 12 surveyed companies scoring 50 points or more. The report notes that the sector’s top 6 scorers have “embraced what it means to be a corporate climate leader by addressing greenhouse gas emissions from the nascent idea for a new product throughout its entire life cycle.”

How did the tech industry do? Some pretty well and one - Apple - pretty badly. Apple did show a 9-point improvement over last year!

What do those little symbols mean? The green is for “striding” - the best choice, yellow is “starting” - a good choice, and red is “stuck” - a choice to avoid for the climate conscious consumer.

Download the Climate Counts Pocket Guide for 2008 to take a quick look at how companies in 9 categories rated. Interesting to note that of 7 food service companies ranked, 4 scored 1 or 0.