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One of the more difficult things for sustainable investors to discern is which companies truly stand out in terms of their practices. Without knowing a company extremely well, by reading their sustainability reports, for example, it’s hard to separate the greenwash from serious efforts.
That’s why we go through the process of selecting 20 top publicly traded companies each year – to showcase the companies that have either made substantial progress toward driving sustainability through their business or are leading the way with a technology that can significantly contribute to a sustainable society
This year, twelve leading social/ environmental investment analysts nominated companies; four of them served as judges to make the final decisions.
The SB20 isn’t a “BUY” list, but companies must be strong financially as well as being sustainability leaders to make the list. It consists of companies of all sizes and from many regions of the world.
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is the hottest sustainable business sector this year; over half this year’s list consists of leaders in wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and efficiency.
We chose Conergy, REC and SunPower from the solar sector because of their unique contributions. Conergy (Germany) provides the full range of solar options: solar electricity, solar heat, solar hot water and solar air conditioning. It also can combine small scale wind and biofuels with solar, offering customers a complete renewable energy solution. REC (Norway) stands out as the most vertically integrated solar company, producing silicon, wafers, cells and modules. SunPower‘s (USA) solar panel is the most aesthetically pleasing, and the least expensive on the market.
Other companies on this year’s list that have a solar component, but are also involved in other renewable energy areas are Energy Conversion Devices, Sharp, Abengoa, Acciona and Gamesa.
Ton Rennon of Triodos Bank, summarizes the judges’ feelings about Energy Conversion Devices (USA): “For me, no company is more innovative in the renewables space. Both its solar and battery discoveries will have a huge impact on the market.”
Spain’s Abengoa and Acciona are in the process of transitioning from conventional business lines to a focus on sustainable products and services. Abengoa builds various types of solar plants, bioethanol, and desalination plants. It is the world’s second-largest bioethanol producer and a leading innovator in cellulosic biomass, currently building the world’s first commercial scale biomass plant.
Acciona is the world’s third largest wind project developer and is also a major player in solar project development, with emerging interests in biodiesel/ biomass and small hydro.
Ormat (USA) is the world leader in geothermal energy, with special strengths in energy recovery. On the wind energy side, Gamesa (Spain), the world’s second largest turbine manufacturer, also develops wind parks and has started a solar division. It is the only profitable wind company right now.
On the Energy Efficiency/ Storage side, Maxwell Technologies, Philips Electronics and Sharp Corp. made the list this year. Maxwell (USA) is the leading company commercializing ultracapacitors, an important enabling technology that stores energy produced by wind or solar, or in hybrid vehicles for later use.
What’s new for Philips (Netherlands), which has always been a sustainability leader, is its focus on LEDs, announcing breakthrough efficiencies for white organic LEDs this year. LEDs have the potential to revolutionize lighting efficiencies.
Sharp (Japan) is the world’s largest solar manufacturer, and is also an efficiency leader, currently working to make the ever-larger, more energy consuming LCD TV – where Sharp holds a 30% share – more energy efficient and with fewer toxic components. In fact, 74% of Sharp’s sales as a whole come from “Green Seal” products – a process the company developed to evaluate products based on life cycle analysis.
Natural Resources: Water, Forests, Land Development
BWT Water Technology (Austria) is the first water technology company we’ve come across that’s working to eliminate chemicals in water treatment. Many of its filters use no chemicals at all. JM, Sweden’s fourth largest real estate developer, builds on brownfields near mass transport, uses the most advanced efficiency appliances and windows, and was the first to develop a green building materials database that informs product selection. Precious Woods (Switzerland) is the only publicly traded sustainable forestry company, operating in primary Amazon rainforests and re-foresting degraded pastureland.
Natural Foods/ Natural Products
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Whole Foods Market have been on our list all five years. This year, Green Mountain, through its key partnership with Newman’s Own coffee, started supplying double certified coffee – organic and fair trade – to 650 McDonald’s stores in New England. “This is the start of bringing sustainable coffee to the masses,” says Patrick McVeigh, Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management.
United Natural, the largest natural products distributor in the U.S., moved to a regional warehouse model this year, reducing transportation costs and lowering fuel use. Whole Foods Market is now the largest corporate user of renewable energy, running on 100% wind.
Pharmaceuticals & Banks
Novartis joined the list this year because of the CEO’s outspoken advocacy on climate change solutions and the new Sustainable Wage Program. After surveying all its workers worldwide last year – asking whether they were being paid a living wage – those that weren?t got immediate pay raises. Suppliers are being asked to follow suit this year.
Wainwright Bank recently issued the first company-specific Certificate of Deposit (CD) in the U.S. – the Equal Exchange CD. The CD provides this employee-owned pioneering Fair Trade company a line of credit to help them expand.
The SB20 List for 2006 – Alphabetical Order
Abengoa SA (Madrid: ABG.MC)
Acciona (Madrid: ANA.MC)
Best Water Technology (Vienna: BWT.VI)
Conergy (Frankfort: CGY.F)
Energy Conversion Devices (Nasdaq: ENER)
Gamesa Corporation Technologica (Madrid: GAM.MC)
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq: GMCR)
Interface (Nasdaq: IFSIA)
JM Inc. (JM.ST)
Maxwell Technologies (Nasdaq: MXWL)
Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS)
Ormat Technologies (NYSE: ORA)
Philips Electronics NV (NYSE: PHG)
Precious Woods (Geneva: SWX: PRWN)
Renewable Energy Corp (Oslo: REC.OL)
Sharp Corp. (Tokyo: 6753)
SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR)
United Natural (Nasdaq: UNFI)
Wainwright Bank (Nasdaq: WAIN)
Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI)
Honorable Mention:
General Electric (NYSE: GE)
HSBC (NYSE:HBC)
ITM Power (AIM: ITM.L)
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STRONG>Rona Fried, Ph.D., is president of SustainableBusiness.com, the online community for green business: daily sustainable business and investor news, Green Dream Jobs, Business Connections and Progressive Investor.
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