Is your favorite company STUCK, STARTING, or STRIDING?

Looking for new ways to help preserve the environment? Here’s an idea: Support companies with good environmental records. Now, there is an organization that is working to make it easier for environmentally conscious consumers to make those very choices:

As more consumers look for ways they can help fight climate change, there's a growing interest in what different companies are doing as well. Beginning today it will be easier to figure that out. A group called Climate Counts is ranking some of America's most popular companies based on their response to global warming. – American Public Media

According to Climate Counts, we have the ability, not only to make a difference in our own lives, but also to influence the way in which major companies address climate change, based on our spending choices:

Everyone's talking about global warming, but what can you personally do about it? Companies and the things you buy from them have a huge impact on climate change. When you make climate-conscious choices, you're sending a message to companies that climate change matters to you. Some companies understand their impact on global warming and want to reduce it. But other companies aren't even talking about it, and they should be. Without urgent action from business, stopping climate change may be next to impossible. – Climate Counts

Climate Counts has developed a scorecard that informs consumers about the actions that various companies have taken to address climate change. The scorecard helps to measure each company’s commitment to fighting global warming, allowing consumers to make qualitative comparisons between competitors within the same sector. Sectors represented include Apparel/Accessories, Beverages-Beer, Electronics, Food Products, Food Services, Household Products, Internet/Software, and Media. According to the scoring system, the higher the score, the more serious the company is about stopping global warming:

Climate Counts use a 0-to-100 point scale and 22 criteria (PDF) to determine if companies have:

• MEASURED their climate "footprint"
• REDUCED their impact on global warming
• SUPPORTED (or suggest intent to block) progressive climate legislation
• Publicly DISCLOSED their climate actions clearly and comprehensively - Climate Counts

In closing, I should note that while schemes like this one can be helpful for environmentally conscious consumers, these results are “self-reported” by the companies listed, and therefore, possibly not individually authenticated. This objective verification by a third party is absolutely vital for ensuring that the companies listed are actually following through with what their respective public relations departments project to the world. That being said, this system can still be useful for choosing between competing companies. Hopefully, if enough people make purchasing decisions based on the environmental stewardship of companies, more businesses will take the necessary steps to address climate change.

For additional information on how various companies are doing, you might also try one of the following (if you have links to additional corporate accountability sites, let us know via a comment below and we'll add them to the list):

• Ceres
• Do the Right Thing
• SustainLane
• The Green Providers Directory
• Greenpeace
• Ecofirms
• J. D. Power and Associates
• EPEAT

Here’s where you come in. What do you think of the services provided by sites like these? Do you find them useful? If only 10% of people have confidence in big business when it comes to global warming issues, what would you like to see to help improve corporate transparency and consumer confidence?