text: Intel Comes Out on Top in Green Governance Rankings | GreenBiz
  Image CC license by Flickr user Engin Erdogan
  Intel, Weyerhaeuser and Merck have the strongest environmental governance and policies, according to a study that looked at the practices of the largest publically traded firms in the U.S.
  The latest company evaluations done with the Governance and Environmental Management Strength (GEMS) Rating found firms that are performing strongly in ever major sector, but also found a large chunk of companies that are severely lagging.
  The GEMS Rating gives companies a score on a 100-point scale, based on their ability to anticipate and manage environmental issues that offer risks and opportunities to their operations. The GEMS Rating assesses companies depending on the presence or absence of 49 indicators in five categories: governance, policy, infrastructure and systems, performance results and transparency and accessibility.
  The top 10 firms, and their scores, are:
  Weyerhaeuser - 75
  Merck & Co. - 71.5
  Lexmark International - 71
  Ford Motor Co. - 70.5
  Dell - 70.5
  Johnson & Johnson - 70
  Xcel Energy - 68.5
  Owens Corning - 68.5
  Xerox - 68
  The GEMS Rating was created by Soyka & Company and IW Financial, which used the rating system to assess 962 companies from the Russell 1000. Research on the companies' practices and disclosure was provided by IW Financial.
  Of those companies, 448 received a score of less than 10, and 170 received a zero, meaning they did not disclose any information related to the 49 indicators. To any outside party or shareholder, that essentially means that the companies have no environmental governance, do not measure their environmental results and have no policies on the environment, climate change or health and safety.
  Although not all of the 12 major sectors are represented in the top 10, Soyka & Company and IW Financial note that there were strong performers in every sector. For example, the ratings found 17 companies that are in the overall upper quartile, but also have scores that are more than twice their closest peer company.
  The leading sectors include consumer staples, materials and utilities. Four companies from this sector - which includes food processing, personal hygiene products, soft drinks and food retailing - are in the top 25, and the sector as a whole stands out from the others in that none of its companies received a zero score, and only five companies got a score below the median of 10.3. Lagging sectors include real estate and telecommunications services.