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SustainableBusiness.com announces the 2005 SB20 list – The World’s Top Sustainable Business Stocks. The list is presented in the Progressive Investor newsletter, published by SustainableBusiness.com, which tracks stocks this emerging marketplace.
To choose the 20 companies that make up the list, SustainableBusiness.com asks five leading social/ environmental investment analysts to select the companies that stand out as the world leaders in terms of both sustainability and financial strength.
"Our goal is to create a list that showcases the top public companies leading the way to a sustainable society," says Rona Fried, Ph.D., SustainableBusiness.com CEO and Editor of Progressive Investor.
To be included in the list, companies must be a "model" of sustainable business – infusing sustainable practices throughout the "DNA" of the company – or its products/ services directly reduce environmental problems. On the financial side, a company must be have a history of healthy profitability, and be considered investable by our judges. Most, if not all of the companies, also stand out on the social side.
Electrolux, Herman Miller, Swiss Re, Novozymes are "household names" in sustainable business – whether it’s Electrolux devising industry-leading lifecycle analyses for appliances or Herman Miller in furniture, Swiss Re taking a public stand on global warming, or Novozymes replacing synthetic chemicals with benign enzymes in a legion of industry sectors – they take the lead and coax the rest of their industry to follow suit.
Many of the companies are transforming old-line industries by setting an example: Henkel in chemicals; Chiquita in bananas; Green Mountain Coffee in coffee; Baldor in motors; and East Japan Railways in railroads.
East Japan Railway, the world’s largest passenger railroad, incorporates a wide range of sustainable business practices from green procurement and efficient engines, to experimenting with wind and solar energy to run its trains.
Whole Foods Market is the darling of the natural foods industry. Besides integrating organic and natural products into the mainstream, the company uses green building practices in new stores and generates over 20% of its total power load from green energy. Timberland employees get an unheard of 40 hours paid time off each year to do community service.
With the renewable energy sector growing by leaps and bounds, Vestas (the world’s largest wind company), is joined this year by German solar leader SolarWorld, the world’s largest pure-play solar company.
Japan’s Sharp Corporation also joins the list this year. The world’s leading producer of solar photovoltaics (PV) panels for the past five years, Sharp grew its solar business by 64% in fiscal 2004 alone. Going forward, Sharp views its solar and LCD (energy-efficient displays) businesses as its primary directions for growth.
Also new to this year’s list is our first Latin American company – Natura Cosmticos, the largest personal care manufacturer in Brazil – and our first Australian company, Sims Group, one of the largest recyclers in the world.
All the judges are excited to find a company that, as Patrick McVeigh, Lowell Blake & Associates puts it, "opens the door to another part of our world on sustainability issues." Natura is greening its product lines, and recently launched its first all-natural line, Ekos, composed of ingredients harvested from the Amazon rainforest.
The Sims Group is one of the world’s largest steel recyclers and is expanding rapidly into appliance and electronics recycling. Terry Foecke, Materials Productivity says, "Sims is a very appealing near-closed-loop model. It is building the infrastructure necessary for high volumes of recycling, setting the stage for significant product takeback."
The judges like Power Integrations because when its chips are incorporated into standard appliances, they eliminate huge amounts of wasted energy – without depending on people to "change their values" or "pay more to be green."
Lastly, Umweltbank AG is a tiny German bank that sets a great example of what banks can do. This bank only lends to environmentally-beneficial projects and companies such as wind parks, solar plants and green buildings.
Precious Woods is included as an Honorable Mention. This small, profitable company is the only publicly-traded sustainable forestry company in the world (based in Switzerland), but U.S. investors cannot purchase stock.
The SB20 List for 2005 – Alphabetical Order
Baldor Electric Co. (NYSE: BEZ)**
Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ)**
Chiquita Brands International (NYSE: CQB)****
East Japan Railway (Tokyo: 9020)**
Electrolux AB (Stockholm: ELUXB)****
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq: GMCR)****
Henkel (Berlin: HEN.BE )****
Herman Miller (NYSE: MLHR)****
Natura Cosmticos SA (Sao Paolo:NATU3.SA)
Novozymes A/S (Copenhagen: NZYMb.CO)****
Power Integrations (Nasdaq: POWI)**
Sharp Corp. (Tokyo: 6753)
Sims Group Ltd. (Australia: SMS.AX)
SolarWorld AG (Berlin: SWV.BE)
STMicroelectronics NV (NYSE:STM)****
Swiss Re (Geneva: RUKN:SWX)****
Timberland Co. (NYSE:TBL)***
Umweltbank (Berlin: UBK.BE)
Vestas Wind Systems AS (Copenhagen: VWS.CO)****
Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI)****
Honorable Mention: Precious Woods (Geneva: PRWN: SWX)
** Denotes the number of years companies are on the list.
The SB20 Judges:
Terry Foecke: Managing Director, Investment Research, Materials Productivity LLC
Patrick McVeigh: VP Investment Research, Lowell, Blake & Associates
Carsten Henningsen, Co-Founder & Principal, Portfolio 21 mutual fund
Matt Patsky: Managing Director; Elizabeth Levy, Research Analyst, Winslow Management Company, Green Growth Fund
Max Deml, Editor & Publisher, Oeko Invest Publishing Ltd
About Progressive Investor
Progressive Investor is a monthly sustainable investing newsletter, provides on-going analysis of clean technology investment opportunities: renewable energy, green building, organics and more. http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/progressiveinvestor/index.cfm
About SustainableBusiness.com
SustainableBusiness.com, now entering its 10th year, is the online community for people interested in sustainable business: Daily Sustainable Business and Investor news, Green Dream Jobs, Progressive Investor, and Business Connections. www.sustainablebusiness.com
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