Environmentally responsible companies?

Question

I think more companies need to be environmentally responsible. Reducing waste, offering recycling opportunities, using less energy, creating less polution. I would like to support the companies that go the extra mile. What environmentally friendly companies do you like, and what do they do to help?

Answer 1

Boeing: Their new 787 is 40% more fuel efficient then simlilar sized aircraft

Dupont Chemical: is remaking itself as a sustainable chemical company. Has recognized the incredible savings that can be achieved when you cut down on waste and inefficiency.

Goldman Sachs: made a fortune off of Horizon Windpower, new World Headquarters in NYC will be built to LEED standards.

Wal Mart: recycles a staggering amount of plastic and cardboard in their daily operations. I have seen this with my own eyes. Changes as simple as making deoderant suppliers stop putting deoderant containers in little paperboard boxes have saved countless trees and untold quantities of diesel fuel.

HEB: recycles plastic grocery bags at their stores. They MAKE money on this program.

Interface Incorporated: A billion dollar company and the pioneer in 100% recyclable carpet tiles for home and office applications. Carpet is plastic, which is made from oil. Almost all of the carpet sold in America is eventually landfilled.

Florida Power and Light is putting up huge windfarms across the US

General Electric is pushing the green envelope with its Ecomagination program.

The US Air Force is building the nation's largest utility scale solar plant in Nevada.

The list goes on and on. Exxon isn't on it.

Answer 2

I think it was Business Week that had an issue featuring the Top 20. Starbucks is one that I can remember. I know that many Costco's are doing acres of Solar Power, generating 75% of their operating power. Whole foods (too obvious?), Richard Branson (Virgin Airlines and now Virgin Fuels), and Toshiba (takes responsibility for end-of-life product management and ensures that all new products undergo environmental assessments. Toshiba has developed energy-efficient products like refrigerators, TVs, vacuums and air conditioning units, and has adopted lead-free soldering in most products. The company built the world's first prototype of a small hydrogen fuel cell for portable PCs. 2005 performance: 60%) just found that.
I love Burts Bees, Whole foods, and my two Toyota Hybrids. :0) Toshiba source listed... has 9 other companies listed, many not USA.

Answer 3

I like Trader Joes because they offer a unique and fun way for people to bring their own bags in for reuse by giving out bag raffle tickets each time a customer brings one and they have alot of organic stuff there and its cheap too!, they have recently up their recycled contents of tp and paper towels from 25% Post consumer waste to 80% PCW and the san francisco Trader Joes were the first ones before all the other supermarkets to stop offering plastic bags after the ban in the city and they took it off months ahead of schedule.

The only thing now that i wish they would do is that they get compost bins for the foods that they wont donate to charities or use and throw it there instead of the garbage dump where it ends up in the landfills and also I hope they would consider stop offering both plastic and paper bags altogether and start replacing them with compostable bags with handles and reuse empty cardboard boxes to bag peoples groceries in.

Answer 4

First of all, if the company is public then they are beholden to the stock holders and less likely to be green because of the costs. Ben & Jerry's ice cream is environmentally conscious. It's sad that thats all I can think of.

Best way is to support environmentally sound products instead of companies (like hybrid cars, solar and wind energy), don't buy disposable products.....etc

Answer 5

Hmm...

Walmart, for using their monopoly to insist upon greenness, if nothing else to up their bottom line. And for providing a recycling program for those ubiquitous plastic bags that I despise.

Ikea, for taking the much more generous environmental program with tree donations, donations to various causes, making their stuff out of recycled and sustainable materials. Also for offering a recycling program.

Whole Foods, for properly paying their farmers and getting yummy stuff way more naturally than anyone else.

Starbucks/Caribou Coffee for insisting upon fair trade prices for coffee so farmers can grow coffee sustainably.

Virgin for "fueling" investment in greener products, fuels and planes. Seriously? I think Richard Branson will try just about anything once.

Kinkos for recycling as much paper as they can.

S-BAR for starting to come up with ways to quantify sustainable business practices.

Answer 6

IKEA is very environmentally responsible. They have stations where you can recycle various products, including batteries. Most of their product packaging is very minimal. They also don't give their customers bags anymore, but give them the option to either bring their own or buy a resusable "big blue bag" (made of tarp-type material) for 59 cents. I bought one and use it at the grocery store too. IKEA rules!

Answer 7

IKEA, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, etc....anyone who doesn't use plastic bags and recycles everything is my kind of company. I think if you go to treehugger.com they may have a list of responsible companies

Answer 8

If you want environmentally responsible credit cards then try Salmon Nation Visa Card. they donate 50% of their income to preserve the salmon fishes and their environment in the pacific coasts

Answer 9

Yes like Texas electric they are changing advertisements and co. name but there are the same robbing co. Just cant under stand why their profits jumped 10 times.

Answer 10

Walmart now has recyclable bags, which if you think about how many bags are going out everyday, the numbers are staggering.