| |
|
|
GreenMoney Journal - publishing since 1992
Fall 2010 issue
Socially Responsible Investing – Better Companies, Better Communities
|
| |
The 2009 SB20: World's Top Sustainable Stocks
by Rona Fried, SustainableBusiness.com
Leading Green Portfolio Analysts Serve as Judges: Calvert, Winslow, CleanTech Index, Triodos
SustainableBusiness.com recently announced its 2009 Sustainable Business 20 (SB20) List: The
World's Top Sustainable Stocks.
The 8th Annual SB20 List consists of 20 public companies
that are leading the way to a sustainable economy. The list is presented in the Progressive
Investor newsletter, published by SustainableBusiness.com, which tracks and analyzes green stocks.
To choose the 20 companies, SustainableBusiness.com works with a group of judges, who are
among the most respected green stock analysts in the world.
"Our goal is to create a list
that showcases public companies that, even over the past most difficult year, have made substantial
progress in either greening their internal operations or growing a business based on an important
green technology," says Rona Fried, Ph.D., SustainableBusiness.com CEO and Editor of Progressive
Investor.
Read about the selection criteria and background on the SB Judges below.
What differentiates the SB20 List from the many others? You'll find small companies as well as
the usual large ones - and from most regions of the world, not just the USA. The selections are
made from the deep knowledge and experience of our judges, not numerical formulas.
Judges
select companies across the range of green business sectors - solar, wind, geothermal, smart grid,
water, food, agriculture, green building and transport.
In addition, over a third of the
companies populating this year's SB20 List are "Corporate Pioneers" - companies with conventional
products and services that are greening their product lines.
Every company on the 2009
SB20 List has continued to grow their business during the recession, dominating their particular
industry niche. Corporate pioneers have continued innovating on the green side despite the
recession, an aspect which is increasingly viewed as a sign of management excellence and stronger
financial performance.
Read our snapshots of all the SB20 Companies below
The 2009 SB20 List
First Solar
Vestas Wind Systems
Gamesa Corporacion Technologica
Ormat Technologies
Telvent Git, SA
Novozymes A/S
Westport Innovations
Pure Technologies
Naturex
SA
United Natural Foods
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Plant Health Care
plc
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank
Novo Nordisk
Google
IBM
Herman Miller
Koninklijke Philips Electronics
Timberland
(Additional information on the companies including their stock ticker symbol and market they
trade on, their sector, and the country their based in is available on
http://www.sustainblebusiness.com )
SB20: The World's Top Sustainable Business
Stocks Company Snapshots (in Alphabetical order)
Bendigo and Adelaide
Bank Ltd.
In sharp contrast to the 'too large too fail' banking industry, Australian
community bank Bendigo offers a much more sustainable model. Local communities operate Bendigo
franchised branches; Bendigo shares revenue with them and provides banking support. Bendigo offers
green personal and home loans at discounted interest rates when people renovate or build with green
features such as solar hot water or grey water systems.
Chipotle Mexican Grill,
Inc.
Chipotle, a chain of 860 restaurants in the U.S., is revolutionizing the fast
food industry by sourcing from organic farms. It serves 100% free-range chicken and pork, about 60%
beef, rBGH-free dairy products, and organic produce and beans. The goal is to offer a completely
sustainable menu as soon as they can build the supply chain to meet their demand.
First Solar, Inc.
First Solar is responsible for bringing thin-film solar
into the mainstream. The largest thin film producer by far, it produces the highest efficiency and
lowest cost modules in the industry. FSLR now manufactures modules at $0.98 per watt, edging closer
to its 2012 goal of $0.70 per watt - when solar PV will be competitive with conventional
electricity sources.
Gamesa Corporacion Technologica
Gamesa is the
world's third largest wind turbine manufacturer with a 16% market share. It also develops wind
parks. GAM puts a strong emphasis on corporate responsibility, with a high level corporate
responsibility committee and annual Sustainability Reports.
Google Inc.
As in their search engine business, Google leaves no stone unturned on their green initiatives.
Over the past couple of years they've been more active than most firms are in a decade. Their
efforts include Renewable Energy Cleaner than Coal, RechargeIT, Climate Savers Computing
Initiative, Google Power Meter and going Carbon Neutral, in addition to Google Maps on renewable
energy and climate change.
Herman Miller
One of the early pioneers
that launched sustainable business practices, furniture manufacturer Herman Miller has reduced is
environmental footprint an astounding 79% since 1994, when "green" was far from fashionable, and
designs all its products using the Cradle to Cradle design protocol.
International
Business Machines Corp.
Sustainability is becoming an increasingly core driver for
IBM's business. In addition to greening its own and customers' data centers, it has launched a
suite of consulting services that help clients reduce their carbon footprint.
Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV
Philips, which created the compact
fluorescent bulb in 1980, is the world leader in lighting technology. They have been steadily
increasing the energy efficiency of internal operations, products and supply chain for many years,
while eliminating toxic chemicals. Increasingly innovative green products account for 23% of total
revenues, on their way to 30% in the next three years.
Naturex SA
Based in France, Naturex is a small company that makes core ingredients used throughout the
food and supplement industries - flavorings, colorings, preservatives - from plants extracts
instead of chemicals. The company provides a sustainable alternative for these ubiquitous
ingredients, which are also GMO-free and not tested on animals.
Novo
Nordisk
A corporate pioneer in the pharmaceutical industry, Novo Nordisk leads not
only in diabetes care and biopharmaceuticals, but in its sharp focus on being a sustainable
company. The company leads in sustainability reporting, in its initiatives to reduce its carbon
footprint and in using alternatives to animal testing, which sets it apart from industry peers.
Novozymes A/S
Another core SB20 company, on the List for all the
years, Novozymes is the world leader in "green chemicals," replacing synthetic ingredients across
industries with environmentally benign enzymes derived from microorganisms. It is also a key player
in the development of enzymes to break down cellulosic ethanol for fuel, cutting the cost to make
it economically viable.
Ormat Technologies, Inc.
Ormat is an
Israeli-US company and the world leader in geothermal energy. Besides building geothermal plants in
geothermally active regions of the world - which are often in developing countries - it provides
services to recover waste heat from energy intensive operations like cement production. The
geothermal market is just taking off with boundless potential for Ormat.
Plant
Health Care plc
Plant Health Care is a development stage company focused on providing
sustainable solutions for agriculture, commercial landscaping and reclamation. Its innovative
biological technologies offer viable alternatives to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.
Pure Technologies, Ltd.
Canada-based Pure Technologies is a small cap
stock whose acoustic technology senses real time conditions of water, wastewater pipes, pipelines
and bridges. The technology prolongs the life of critical infrastructure, reduces losses in
pipelines, and prevents the uncontrolled release of wastewater, chlorinated water and hydrocarbons
into the environment.
Telvent Git, SA.
Spain-based Telvent is a
leader in the smart grid space, an area that is finally receiving serious attention. It develops
intelligent systems that increase efficiency and lower emissions in agriculture, energy,
transportation and water. The company is growing rapidly and has a corporate culture focused on
sustainability.
Timberland
This global apparel manufacturer has long
been a social leader through its extensive employee volunteer programs around the world, and now
has joined the ranks of environmental leaders with comprehensive efforts to reduce its carbon
footprint and the materials it uses to make its products.
United Natural
Foods
United Natural is the largest wholesale natural foods distributor in the U.S.
The company has been focused on reducing its own environmental footprint through a wide array of
initiatives, including a new 260,000 LEED Gold- certified distribution center that runs completely
on solar. It's been expanding into foodservice operations for several years, and is now developing
its own private-label and packaged food brands.
Vestas Wind Systems AS
Vestas, which has graced the SB20 List each of its eight years, began making wind turbines in
1979 and still holds its title as the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world - with a 19.8%
market share. It is instrumental in the industry's growth, pushing down the cost per kilowatt hour
of electricity from wind power and setting the industry standard for efficiency and durability.
WaterFurnace Renewable Energy, Inc.
WaterFurnace is North America's
leading manufacturer of geothermal and water source heat pumps, enabling residential, commercial
and institutional customers to save up to 70% on heating, cooling, and hot water costs, while
significantly lowering emissions. The company is on a strong growth trajectory with important
partnerships in Europe, China and Korea.
Westport Innovations
Westport Innovations is a development stage company whose technologies allow medium and heavy
duty vehicle engines to run on natural gas or hydrogen. It provides an important alternative for
fleets that typically get very low gas mileage and have high emissions.
More
Details on the SB20:
2009 marks the eighth year for the SB20, which is presented
in our green investing newsletter, Progressive Investor. Each year, we work with a group of judges
who are leading green stock analysts to select the companies.
The purpose of the SB20 -
the Sustainable Business 20 - is to showcase the most innovative, model companies that have the
potential to greatly impact our ultimate goal of reaching a sustainable economy.
The
challenge we give our judges is to nominate, discuss and then vote on 20 companies that, through
their products or initiatives, are contributing substantially to the advance of a sustainable
economy.
To be on the list, companies must be strong on both the green and financial
sides. It is not a "buy" list, but because the companies are strong financially, their stock may
well be worth be buying at some point based on stock market positioning. We strive to choose
companies of various sizes, industries and parts of the world, but the list doesn't constitute a
diversified portfolio.
Over the years we've found the exercise of choosing only 20
companies has enabled us to zero in on the truly outstanding companies that stand head and
shoulders above the crowd. We do it based on the deep knowledge and experience of our judges,
rather than by using numerical formulas. We've been able to choose small, medium and large
companies from every region of the world. So here's how we do it and who we do it with:
SB20 Criteria
Our judges decide on the 20 companies that make the
list based on the following Sustainability and Financial criteria:
Sustainability
Criteria:
The most exciting companies in terms of how they are conducting their
business, or in the disruptive green technologies they are advancing that solve our environmental
problems and lead us to a sustainable society. In particular, they have a very strong GREEN story,
with the ability to have widespread influence.
Companies must have made major
announcements and/or significant progress in meeting targets over the past year.
Financial Criteria:
Companies are preferably profitable with strong
management and balance sheets. Development stage companies must have revenue and be on track to
profitablity. Each company would enhance an investment portfolio although it may not be in buying
position today.
The 2009 Judges
Our judges are some of the most
respected green portfolio analysts in the world:- Jules Frieder, Environmental Analyst,
Calvert Group
- Rafael Coven, Managing Partner, Cleantech Indices LLC
- Matt
Patsky, Managing Director, Winslow Management Company
- Elizabeth Levy, Environmental
Analyst, Winslow Green
- Ton Rennen, Senior Sustainability Analyst, Triodos Bank
- Arthur van Mansvelt, Sustainability Analyst, Triodos Bank
About Progressive
Investor
Progressive Investor, is a monthly online newsletter that guides
investors and analysts toward green investments. It covers all green business sectors including
renewable energy, green building and healthy lifestyle.
About
SustainableBusiness.com
SustainableBusiness.com, online for 12 years at
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com , provides global news and networking services to help green
businesses grow: Daily Sustainable Business and Green Investor news, Green Dream Jobs, Business
Connections and Progressive Investor.
Source: http://SustainableBusiness.com
|
|
|
Home | Archives
| Sponsors |
Links | Calendar
| Contact Us |
Advertising
| SRI News
MISSION
STATEMENT
The GreenMoney Journal encour-ages and promotes the awareness of socially
& environmentally responsible business, investing and consumer
resources in publications & online.
Our goal is to educate and empower individuals and businesses to make
informed financial decisions through aligning their personal, corporate
and financial principles.
“Responsibility from the Supermarket to the Stockmarket.”
The material presented in this news letter is for educational and
informa-tional purposes only. The GreenMoney Journal does not endorse
or recommend firms, products, funds or advertisers.
GreenMoney is a registered trademark.
Copyright 1995-2010 by the
GreenMoneyJournal ®
Green Money is a Registrated Trademark
of The GreenMoney Journal / Cliff Feigenbaum
|
|
|
|
