Toyota named greenest brand in the world

By Gemma Charles, marketingmagazine.co.uk, Wednesday, 27 July 2011 10:01AM

Toyota has been named the greenest global brand in a major study by Interbrand that spans the 10 biggest consumer markets.

The research, called Best Global Green Brands, combines public perception of environmental sustainability with performance on publicly available information and data. It covers the US, Japan, China, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Brazil, Spain, and India.

The report said: "Its [Toyota's] high perception score is in large part due to the iconic status of the Prius, which has become synonymous with hybrid vehicle. And yet, even beyond the Prius, Toyota has made an effort to enhance its eco vehicle development reputation, as demonstrated by its 2010 partnership with [electric car manufacturer] Tesla.

"Additionally, on an internal level, it continues to embark on company wide initiatives to improve environmental performance each year."

The stationery company 3M took second place, while Siemens came third.

The survey also found that for a number of brands, there were large gaps between performance and perception.

L'Oréal, Nokia, and HSBC all scored significantly higher in performance than perception, suggesting that while they are doing effective programmes internally in terms of environmental sustainability, they are still not communicating their efforts to consumers.

Conversely, McDonald's, GE, and Coca-Cola all scored significantly higher in perception than performance.

The foundation of the ranking is Interbrand's 2010 Best Global Brands report, as these brands have a global presence and a demonstrated record of delivering value to stakeholders.

Jez Frampton, global chief executive officer at Interbrand, said: "As corporate citizenship increasingly becomes the norm, green initiatives may be among the most visible and easiest to claim and yet, can be the most challenging to deliver performance against.

"We believe the strongest green brands lie at the intersection of performance and perception: their ability to build stronger connections with consumers as a result of actionable and credible environmental practices."

Ranking	Brand Name	Sector	Scores	Gap*
1	Toyota	Automotive	64.19	-7.64
2	3M	Diversified	63.33	0.74
3	Siemens	Diversified	63.08	6.44
4	Johnson&Johnson	FMCG	59.41	2.35
5	HP	Electronics	59.06	12.88
6	Volkswagen	Automotive	58.9	1.82
7	Honda	Automotive	58.85	-11.11
8	Dell	Electronics	58.81	11.08
9	Cisco	Business Services	57.66	15.07
10	Panasonic	Electronics	57.32	12.68
11	Hyundai	Automotive	57.18	11.28
12	BMW	Automotive	56.81	4.9
13	Apple	Electronics	56.43	-0.48
14	Danone	FMCG	56.15	1.39
15	L'Oreal	FMCG	55.84	22.68
16	Mercedes-Benz	Automotive	55.24	2.63
17	Nike	Sporting Goods	54.94	7.83
18	Sony	Electronics	54.73	4.84
19	IBM	Business Services	54.68	13.93
20	Ford	Automotive	54.67	-13.61
21	Allianz	Financial Services	54.55	-0.13
22	Nokia	Electronics	54.51	17.26
23	Adidas	Sporting Goods	54.48	7.48
24	GE	Diversified	54.24	-23.17
25	Samsung	Electronics	54.06	11.76
26	Intel	Electronics	53.89	10.63
27	Coca-Cola	Beverages	53.38	-19.61
28	Canon	Electronics	53.13	7.46
29	Pepsi	Beverages	53.04	-1.98
30	Microsoft	Computer Software	53.02	-8.69
31	Xerox	Electronics	52.61	14.27
32	Philips	Electronics	52.58	9.88
33	Shell	Energy	52.47	4.07
34	Caterpillar	Diversified	52.08	-6.06
35	Campbell's	FMCG	50.94	6.9
36	Kellog's	FMCG	50.81	-16.14
37	Avon	FMCG	50.36	0.92
38	SAP	Business Services	50.16	-0.2
39	IKEA	Home Furnishings	49.32	-16.64
40	Santander	Financial Services	49.26	-5.7
41	AXA	Financial Services	48.39	-2.72
42	Starbucks	Restaurants	47.99	-13.01
43	Nintendo	Electronics	47.78	8.23
44	Credit Suisse	Financial Services	47.07	6.25
45	McDonald's	Restaurants	47.06	-27.96
46	Citi	Financial Services	46.97	11.81
47	Barclays	Financial Services	46.9	7.13
48	HSBC	Financial Services	46.54	15.86
49	UPS	Transportation	46.12	-9.79
50	Accenture	Business Services	45.76	-13.18

Source: Interbrand

*between performance and perception

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk