Wipro, in its very first entry into the international edition of Greenpeace?s Guide to Greener Electronics, established itself as the greenest company globally. Not only is Wipro?s entry straight at the top remarkable, but so is the lead it has over the other companies. HP, for example, was at the top of the Guide last year, but this year came in second with 5.7 points out of 10 to Wipro?s 7.1. Now, with ?green? becoming a global byword for business models aimed at the future, Greenpeace?s Guide provides an in-depth analysis of what companies are doing to maintain and enhance their environmentally-friendly profiles. Wipro gained the most points for committing to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 44% by 2015 from a base year of 2008. It provided a detailed action plan to meet its annual reduction targets, including investments in renewable energy through generation and purchase. Incidentally, while this kind of transparency of policy won Wipro points, the lack thereof was one of the major reasons why Apple (4.5 points) languishes at 6th place. Wipro was awarded maximum points in the products category as well, with all of the company?s new products meeting the latest Energy Star compliance norms.
The third area of analysis, sustainable operations, is the most interesting as it takes into account how a company interacts with its consumers and induces them to be more eco-friendly too. Wipro scored the highest here as well?for an effective take-back policy of obsolete products and the recycling of post-consumer e-waste. Apart from simply ranking companies, however, the real value of the Guide is that it provides ideas for the future. Fine, so Apple lost out because it doesn?t have a take-back policy in India, but it can rectify that easily enough. Similarly, companies that want to make a change can take a leaf from HP?s book?it has banned suppliers who have any links to illegal logging.
