Corporations have been blamed for all manner of environmental evils -- and, in many cases, for good reason. But a growing number of powerful CEOs are seeing the green light. The corporate leaders highlighted here don't run wholly sustainable companies, by any means (many, like Wal-Mart and Pepsi, still have big problems to tackle), but they're making serious attempts to green their products and operations, and the effects of their efforts are rippling throughout the corporate world. Read through the list, then tell us what you think in the comments section at the bottom of this page.
Courtesy of Toyota
Ten years ago, Toyota became the first automaker to offer a mass-produced hybrid vehicle, and now it's sold more than a million. The Prius-pushing car company keeps showing up Detroit, even while leasing its technology to Ford for a new line of hybrid SUVs. President and CEO Watanabe has got big hopes for even more breakthroughs, declaring recently that he wants to develop cars that actually clean the air while they're running. If his track record is any indication, that's no idle threat.
This Danish health-care company has been a leader on sustainability for more than a decade, known for its commitment to the triple bottom line and for meeting with and listening to stakeholder groups. Novo Nordisk uses renewable energy, has partnered with World Wildlife Fund to cut CO2 emissions, and aims for sustainability throughout its supply chain. In September 2005, the corporation was honored as "best in class" for its approach to climate change by the Carbon Disclosure Project, a global survey of large companies' responses to the issue. President and CEO Sørensen, an avid cyclist, won the 2005 SAM/SPG Sustainability Leadership Award for his greening efforts.
Photo: Al Messerschmidt/ WireImage.com
Immelt has been at the helm during GE's recent high-profile drive toward greenness, ensuring that the company keeps "ecomagining" a world fueled by a cleaner, greener economy. GE's legacy is still tainted by its pollution of the Hudson River, and the company continues to push its nuclear and coal-power technology, much to the chagrin of environmentalists, but it's also aggressively selling wind turbines, efficient appliances, and cleaner locomotives. In fact, Immelt recently announced that in 2006 the company made $12 billion in revenues from "eco-products" and spent $900 million on cleaner-tech R&D. Immelt says GE launched its eco-strategy "not because it is trendy or moral, but because it will accelerate our growth and make us more competitive." Or, as he likes to sum up, "Green means green."
The dashing mogul shoots for the moon in everything he does, whether it's privatizing space travel or investing in the future of his home planet. In late 2006, Branson added Virgin Fuels to his wide-ranging Virgin Group, committing $3 billion to the development of alternative fuels. In February, he offered a (comparatively paltry) $25 million Virgin Earth Challenge to anyone who could figure out how to scrub greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. And he has endorsed such non-mogulish ideas as train travel, power-generating treadmills, and towing planes to runways -- all with an eye toward reducing emissions.
Photo: World Resources Insitute Staff via Flickr
As the head of this $34 billion holding company, Darbee has an opportunity to make some serious change in the energy industry -- and he's not wasting it. PG&E is a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which is pushing for a federal cap-and-trade emissions program; Darbee also helped push California to adopt its own ambitious climate plan. The corporation's eponymous utility company, serving 15 million Californians, boasts a power mix that's more than half clean energy, offers energy-efficiency subsidies to homeowners, and is introducing a ClimateSmart program this summer that lets customers offset their emissions through donations.
Courtesy of Marks & Spencer
Ranking among the world's greenest retailers, this British purveyor has left the paper-or-plastic debate in the dust with a 100-point "eco-plan" that includes cutting waste, powering stores with green energy, selling more fair-trade and organic products, and aiming for carbon neutrality within a mere five years. Says CEO Rose, "If you believe that all of us are going to have to espouse this green issue -- whether it is climate, waste, or whatever else -- then there is no alternative."
Courtesy of DuPont
It used to be easy to point accusatory fingers at this chemical corporation, but its achievements in recent years have added a new green sheen to its reputation. DuPont has cut its greenhouse-gas emissions a jaw-dropping 72 percent since 1990, and last year committed to doubling spending on R&D of eco-friendly products and services. CEO and Chair Holliday has also been one of the leading executives in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership and coauthored the book Walking the Talk, on the case for corporate responsibility.
Courtesy of ACCIONA
Under the leadership of Entrecanales, chair of the board, the energy division of Spanish conglomerate Acciona has become a global leader in renewable power, and won the Spanish section of the European Business Award for the Environment in 2006 for its contribution to sustainable development. This spring, Acciona christened the highest-producing photovoltaic solar plant in the world in Navarre, Spain; it has also patented the community-power concept of the huerta solar, or solar garden, and is a hefty player in the wind and biomass markets.
Courtesy of Xerox Corporation
The business-machine giant's environmental efforts date to the early 1990s, when it adopted a zero-waste policy that diverts 150 million pounds of electronic waste from landfills each year. Xerox has also committed to sourcing all of its paper from sustainably managed forests, and invested $1 million in a forestry management partnership with The Nature Conservancy in late 2006. Chair and CEO Mulcahy, who took over the struggling company in 2001 and has been credited with turning it around, says sustainability fits Xerox's legacy of corporate responsibility: "Experience tells us that sustainable business practices are not only socially responsible but financially smart."
Most Americans know this French company by its yogurt-lid translation, Dannon. Less well-known is the group's commitment to innovative greener packaging, integrated farming, energy efficiency, waste reduction, and recycling. Under the direction of CEO and Chair Franck Riboud, Danone has partnered with the Nobel Prize-winning Grameen Bank to bring nutritious food and renewable energy to low-income populations in Bangladesh. It also has a significant holding in natural-yogurt company Stonyfield Farm.
Courtesy of Wal-Mart
Nothing has made environmentalists' heads spin more in the last two years than the string of eco-announcements from Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. Once written off as a land-hungry behemoth that maltreated workers and represented the worst parts of globalization, it's now ... well, it's still those things. But it has taken decidedly green steps, earning praise for initiatives ranging from selling sustainably caught fish and organic baby clothes to increasing the fuel efficiency of its truck fleet and adding solar panels to its stores. CEO Scott, a convert to the cause both professionally and personally (he credits his new outlook in part to grandparenthood), boils the company's sea change down to this: "It is clearly good for our business."
Courtesy of Starbucks
Second only to Wal-Mart in the "They did what?!" department, the ubiquitous Starbucks has won converts in the green community by partnering with Conservation International to encourage ecologically sound coffee-growing practices, buying wind power, using paper cups and sleeves that contain post-consumer recycled content, and even providing tips on using coffee grounds for composting. Schultz, who built this $7.8 billion company from the grounds up in the mid-1980s and now chairs the board, still has a latte input into operations, and reportedly pressed the company to adopt its environmental mission statement.
Courtesy of Newscast
A company man since the early 1970s, French-born Cescau took the helm in 2005. While past decades have seen Unilever -- the multinational behind such food and hygiene brands as Lipton, Dove, and Ben & Jerry's -- criticized over pollution, deforestation, animal testing, and labor standards, the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate now seems to be cleaning up its act. It has adopted new standards for sustainable agriculture and human rights, phased out hydrofluorocarbons, and halved the water used in its manufacturing processes. In late May, the company announced that it will begin buying sustainably sourced tea -- no small matter, as it purchases 12 percent of the world's tea leaves.
Photo: Brian Ach/ WireImage.com
Under the watch of Nooyi, who took over as CEO last year, PepsiCo became the biggest clean-energy buyer in the U.S. and committed to fighting climate change via the U.S. Climate Action Partnership. The goal, Nooyi says, is to "proactively address the range of issues associated with climate change [and] help to create a better tomorrow than today." But the corporation still has some serious environmental issues to address, including persistent complaints in Nooyi's home country of India that Pepsi's bottling facilities suck up too much groundwater and its local products seem to be contaminated with pesticide residues. Nooyi says she regrets the way she's handled those controversies, but she hasn't yet resolved the underlying problems.
In some ways, this energy-company exec embodies both the angel and the devil perched on the shoulders of our planet. His company, Duke Energy, relies on coal for 70 percent of the power it supplies, and he is a supporter of nuclear energy as well. But CEO Rogers is well aware of the need to address climate change, and, as chair of the U.S. utility industry's leading trade group, he's convincing other utility leaders to take up the cause. He also played a key role in forming the U.S. Climate Action Partnership and is a board member of the Alliance to Save Energy, which lobbies for efficiency regulations. Why? "I think the probability that we'll get good solutions to climate change -- solutions that benefit both the planet and industry -- is higher if we face the problem now than if we bury our heads in denial," he says.
Courtesy of Dell Inc.
Computer company Dell Inc. has been a leader in greener business practices for years, from early participation in the U.S. EPA's Energy Star program, to initiating a comprehensive e-waste recycling program, to inviting customers to suggest ways to green Dell products. The company has also started a Plant a Tree for Me program, to let consumers offset the emissions related to their electronic gadgets. Founder and CEO Michael Dell has pledged to personally match any consumer donations to the program for the next three months, so now's the time to chip in and help shake him down for cash.
As one of the world's biggest commercial consumers of fossil fuels, UPS has good reason to want to be more fuel efficient. CEO and Chair Mike Eskew has been a clear leader in this area, overseeing the introduction of high-tech software that designs optimal delivery routes, which are expected to reduce by millions the total number of miles traveled by the company's big brown trucks each year. Under Eskew's leadership, UPS has also cut paper use, invested in renewable energy, and added a number of low-emission, alternative-fuel, and hybrid vehicles to its fleet.
While it was his predecessor, Hank Paulson, who put groundbreaking environmental policy into motion at Goldman Sachs in 2005, current CEO and Director Lloyd Blankfein has continued to take greening into the black. Under Blankfein's leadership, the company has kept on its green course, reflected in its commitment to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 7 percent by 2012, invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency, and curb investment in sketchy logging projects or destructive industrial operations in environmentally sensitive areas.
Do you think these business bigwigs deserve cheers or jeers? Are others more worthy? Tell us below in comments.
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