Newsweek magazine today released their Green Rankings featuring the top American companies ranked by their impact on the environment. Trucost, an NSF International partner in sustainability and global provider of environmental data and analysis, provided Newsweek magazine with the quantitative environmental performance data to develop the rankings.

Aside from the cost savings that going green offers, companies can also obtain competitive advantages by implementing sustainable business practices. McKinsey  Co projected that U.S. investments of $520 billion in building efficiency through 2020 would yield $1.2 trillion in energy savings and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.1 gigatons annually -- the amount emitted by the entire current fleet of U.S. vehicles.1

Companies that implemented green business practices were ranked higher than their peers. Newsweek ranked the top 500 American companies based on their resource use and emissions, policies and strategies, and reputation among peers. The 500 companies included in the ranking were chosen according to their revenue, market capitalization and number of employees.

Malcolm Fox, NSF International/Trucost Alliance Director said, “Trucost maintains the most comprehensive data on corporate environmental impacts, which is why Newsweek selected us to help them unlock the most significant issue in creating a definitive environmental scorecard: the lack of corporate reporting of even the most basic environmental data.”

Trucost's comprehensive approach allows them to evaluate the environmental impacts of a company even when the company does not report on its environmental impact. NSF International, a public health and safety organization, has partnered with Trucost to combine this unique methodology with NSF International’s environmental certification, verification and auditing services, which provides companies not only with an affordable analysis of their current operations and exposure to carbon costs, but also helps them implement sustainable business practices.