Green Checklists

Think you're green?  Think you've got a green company? 

Here's a checklist of some common green assets as seen on a variety of company web sites, in trendy Sustainability Reports and, of course, in mainstream advertising: 

_ Solar Panels

_ Office Recycling and Water Bottle Program

_ LEED Certified Buildings

_ GHG Emission Targets

_ Smaller, Lighter Packaging

_ Organic

_ Composting

_ Carbon Offsets 

So let's say that you check all of thee items within your company...and maybe even a few more.  Are you "Green?"  There's certainly no shortage of folks that think they are. 

Did you know that in certain consumer studies, one of the companies that usually appears at the top of list of what consumers believe to be the most green companies is Exxon?  Wal-Mart is close behind.  OK, so maybe consumers don't quite get it yet, so let's look to some so-called experts, like the Dow Jones Sustainability Index which includes GE as one of the top 320 most sustainable companies or the Global 100 by Corporate Knights/Innovest which includes the Walt Disney Company (full disclosure: PIXAR, one of my favorite movie companies, is now owned by Disney).

Blisterin' Barnacles.  What are we thinking???  Is being "green" really that easy -- completing a form?  Don't get me wrong; many of these checklist items are important, yet to be considered one of the most sustainable companies in the world, don't we need a bit more than ticking off a few boxes on a checklist? 

I guess that it all comes down to which checklist you choose to use. 

Which do you use?