The Model S may be the favorite vehicle among environmentally-aware drivers right now, and Tesla Motors is considered to be the auto industry’s leader when it comes to corporate sustainability, but the latest ranking of the most eco-conscious companies in the world shows that that’s not the case. Newsweek has released it’s annual list of Top Green Companies in the World, according to which, Elon Musk’s company is only the 8th greenest car maker, which definitely comes as a bit of a surprise.
Newsweek has compiled a list of 500 of the greenest companies in the world, which includes several automakers. Surprisingly, Tesla’s environmental impact is overshadowed by a couple of car manufacturers, including some that are far from enjoying the same success in the electric car market, such as General Motors and Ford. According to Newsweek, BMW is the greenest automaker in the world, or the 26th greenest company overall. The German manufacturer is followed by Toyota, which ranked 35th in the world, and Nissan, coming in at 152.
As for Tesla, it was only ranked as the 431st greenest company, with Ford (178), General Motors (289), Hyundai (306) and Honda (316), ranking better than the California-based electric-car maker.
Newsweek took several indicators into consideration to determine which the greenest company in the world is. They include: combined energy productivity, combined GHG productivity, combined water productivity, combined waste productivity, green revenue, sustainability pay link, sustainability board committee, and audited environmental metrics.
Some of these indicators measuring environmental performance sound a bit too complicated, but they basically show how much energy companies consume, how they handle their waste, how much revenue they generate through the sale of products that have a positive impact on the environment, and whether they have a specific mechanism in place to ensure that their sustainability efforts are being properly realized.
This means that even though the Model S is one of the best-selling electric cars in the world, Tesla still has a lot of work to do to improve its environmental performance. The company’s manufacturing process needs to become much cleaner, with lower greenhouse gas emission levels, as well as water use, and the amount of waste recycled and reused probably needs to be increased.
Although some of the companies that ranked better than Tesla on this list lag far behind it in electric-car sales lists, it turns out that they fare much better when it comes to corporate sustainability and the impact they have on the environment.