There are many ways in which one can live a healthy and environmentally responsible lifestyle. On one hand, we should all strive to making sure that our homes are perfectly clean, well sanitized and healthy. On the other, we all live in a consumers society, in which we are heavily dependent on goods that are produced by big international companies. Namely those companies are among the main contributors to the production of greenhouse gases and Global Warming. Fortunately, more and more companies around the world are starting to employ green methods of production and are paying their due to the fight for keeping the balance in nature. The best way to encourage them to continue doing so is using the products that they are using. But first, in order to do that, we must know exactly which those companies are.
Some of the most environmentally responsible companies in the world
Many companies and corporations around the globe employ nature-friendly production and distribution methods nowadays. Naturally, it is impossible to list them all, but what we can do is give you some of the biggest names in the game, which include:
- Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems is one of the world’s largest producers of high-tech equipment. The main base of the company is in Santa Fe, California. The US branches of the company are using some 35% renewable energy for their yearly operation. This is impressive in its own right, but the more impressive thing is taking place in Europe actually. Cisco Systems facilities in France, Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom have recorded a hundred percent annual use of renewable energy for the past consecutive years. Now that is a real feat in our humble opinion!
- Johnson Control
One of the main challenges that stand in front of humanity in the coming century is the question how would we be able to reduce the use of fossil fuels, which have already proven to be the main contributor to the production of greenhouse gases, among many other problems on a global level. Johnson Control is a company dedicated to this very important mission. The manufacturer has began producing batteries for plug-in cars for major car-production companies such as Ford. Johnson Control is actually a forerunner in the field, having in mind that the company actually founded the first plant for lithium-ion car batteries in the world. The main commitment of Johnson Control for the near future is to actually reduce the energy that is being used by automobiles by 50 per cent – a task that is looking more and more plausible with the recent advances that have been made in the field.
- Starbucks
You might think of Starbucks only in the terms of your morning coffee on the way to work. The company has become a global leader in its field in the past decades, with shops all over the world – from the USA to UK to the Far East. What few people know however is the fact that Starbucks is actually one of the most environmentally responsible companies out there. All the paper that is used in the coffee shops is recycled, and at the same time the coffee that they use is organic, shade-grown. Recently they even managed to implement green building standards in all their branches around the world. There are several complaints that Starbucks is actually guilty of severe water waste, but having in mind what they have already accomplished, we think that they deserve some credit – and hope that they are going to keep up with the good work they are doing.
- Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers is a leading pharmaceutical company and as such they are trying to aggressively reduce the quantity of greenhouse gases that are being produced by their day-to-day production operations. They are not doing it out of good faith however. Actually the company faced some pretty serious criticism back in 2001 about the very environmentally irresponsible methods of production, but at least they have faced the issue head-on and are scoring some major progress in the field. Bearing in mind how large the conglomerate actually is, they have the potential to make some serious impact.
- Nike
Nike is everyone’s favorite sport-shoes producing company. It is known for their unique designs and interesting marketing campaigns, but the company has become pretty serious about protecting the planet as well – and they have been such from the start of the movement for fighting global warming. One of the biggest investments that Nike is making in the past decade or so is in renewable energy. Furthermore, Nike has 650 factories that are located in as many as 52 countries around the globe. All those companies have been required to write environmental policies to be implemented in the production process.
- IBM
IBM has been a leader in the production of personal computers and forerunner in the modern technology in many respects. Few people know however that IBM has had environmental protection policies implemented since as early as 1971. The philosophy of the company is to build a smart business – one that is making tons of money and turning the planet into a sustainable system – we can say without much ado that they are doing very well on both fronts from what we have seen thus far.
- Hewlett-Packard
There is little to no surprise in the simple fact that the leading companies in the fight against greenhouse gas emission and global warming are related to the IT sector. Several very prestigious publications have pointed out that Hewlett-Packard might be the best in their lot thus far. The reasons cited for that vary from their very strict recycling policies to the so-called war on greenhouse gases that the company declared recently – they plan to reduce the emission of such gases into the environment (as a result of their production process, naturally) to nearly a zero. How it is going to pan out, we are still about to see.
