Leveraging Your NSF Certification: Now that you've received NSF Certification ... why not leverage the Mark to your advantage.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2009
CONTACTS: Greta Houlahan
NSF International
Phone: (734) 913-5723
Email: houlahan@nsf.org
NSF International and Trucost Helps U.S. Companies Reduce Costs by Becoming Sustainable
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – 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.
As part of the partnership, NSF International and Trucost recently released a carbon emissions report, examining the greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints of S&P 500 companies in several sectors that NSF International works with: aerospace, chemicals, food and beverage, green products, healthcare, industrial goods and services, personal and household goods, automobiles and parts and retail. This is essential, as many U.S. companies will soon have to pay for greenhouse gas emissions under the planned cap-and-trade program, an approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives to companies achieving reductions in pollutant emissions and adopting energy efficient business practices.
“The report provides a comprehensive look at how these companies could be impacted by future carbon costs relative to each sector,” said Koen Bontinck, NSF International Vice President of Sustainability Services. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure, which is why we’ve partnered with Trucost. Together, we can offer U.S. corporations a cost-effective approach to measuring and managing their carbon footprints.”
NSF International and Trucost are also offering a free webinar on Tuesday, September 29th, regarding the carbon emissions report. Topics will include understanding Trucost’s methodology, how carbon footprinting is measured, and an overview of NSF International and Trucost’s sustainability services. A question and answer session will complete the webinar.
NSF International and Trucost’s sustainable business solutions include carbon footprinting, greenhouse gas verification, as well as standards development and certification for sustainable products. For more information about Trucost’s role in the Newsweek’s Green Rankings, visit www.trucost.com. To find out more about NSF International and Trucost’s sustainability services, visit www.nsfsustainability.org.
Additional Information
About NSF International & Trucost Plc: NSF International and Trucost Plc formed a global partnership in 2008 to provide new environmental measurement, management and reporting products and services by combining Trucost’s unique, patented methodology with NSF’s environmental certification, verification and auditing services. NSF International (www.nsf.org) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that develops public health standards for food, water, dietary supplements and consumer goods, and certifies products to minimize adverse health effects. Trucost Plc is a world-leading environmental research organization, which helps companies and investors understand the environmental impacts of business activities (www.trucost.com). Trucost provides data and analysis on company emissions and natural resource usage in financial, as well as quantity terms to help investors, fund managers and analysts understand how environmental issues could affect companies' future earnings. NSF International & Trucost’s sustainable business solutions include carbon footprinting, greenhouse gas verification, as well as standards development and certification for sustainable products.
1 Stern, Andrew. "Energy-gulping U.S. buildings ripe for savings| Reuters." Reuters.com - World News, Financial News, Breaking US & International News. Thomson Reuters, 2 Sept. 2009. Web. 17 Sept. 2009.
