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Global Movers & Shakers

This section is intended to help environmentally-conscious consumers more easily identify eco-friendly companies, personalities, cities, authorities and governments.

GreenQuest's quest to find the green champions around the world is never ending, so we welcome your help and feedback to keep this page accurate and relevant.

To the best of GreenQuest’s knowledge the following lists indicate some of the best in caring (or not) for the environment. All have won awards or accolades in their fields. The approach taken to improve the environment differs around the world (as it should to account for local factors), but they all help raise awareness on things that matter.

The Independent gives Britain's Top 100 Environmentalists.

Note that an entry on this list is solely credit to environmental performance, not other ethical issues, and we welcome your requests for changes.

Choose the section that takes your fancy: businesses, hotels & tourism, environments, celebrities, cities, retailers and finally The Non-Green.

Please use Ctrl-F (find) to search.

Corporations

1% for the Planet endorses businesses which donate 1% of sales to the natural environment.

Check out their extensive lists of companies who give green.

These are the business movers & shakers in their respective sectors:

  • Man Group (automotive, trucks & buses)
  • BMW are developing a hydrogen-fuelled sedan (Hydrogen 7)
  • Ford and Toyota are winners for their management contribution at their automobile plants.
  • Barclays (banking)
  • Bank of America (banking)
  • Barclays Bank won the EDF Energy Environmental Leadership Award
  • HSBC (banking) - thanks to Stephen Green
  • Interface Inc (& Bentley Prince Street) (carpets)
  • Lafarge Group (cement award)
  • DuPont (chemicals, Teflon)
    • FedEx reducing emissions
  • FedEx (courier)
  • ParcelForce (courier)
  • Windsave (energy), an award-winning provider of wind power systems
  • ScottishPower Renewables (energy)
  • Good Energy Generation (Wiltshire, UK) (energy)
  • Warner Bros (entertainment)
  • The Co-operative Group are 2007 winners of BCE awards
  • Marshalls are creating sustainable landscapes and are also 2007 winners of BCE awards
  • Goldman Sachs (financial)
  • JPMorgan (financial)
  • Royal & Sun Alliance (financial)
  • Swiss Re (financial)
  • Kraft (Food) brands include Kenco & Maxwell House coffee, Dairylea, Philadelphia & Kraft cheeses, Toblerone, Milka, Suchard & Terry’s chocolate, Oreo, Ritz and Chips Ahoy! Biscuits.
  • Google (internet)
  • IBM (IT, computing)
  • Sharp (IT, electronics, camcorders)
  • Sony (IT, electronics, camcorders)
  • United Parcel Service (logistics)
  • BBC (news)
  • BSkyB (news)
  • News International (news)
  • Tetrapak (packaging)
  • BP Solar (petrochemical, USA)
  • ConocoPhillips (petrochemical) biocrude venture with ADM
  • Shell (petrochemical, with exception of Shell in Nigeria) have invested $1 billion since 2000 in alternative energy
  • Hambleside-Danelaw (roofing) have won many awards for reducing their carbon footprint in roofing manufacture
  • Corus (steel)
  • O2 (telecom)
  • National Express (transport)

Even English football is in on the act with championship side Ipswich Town becoming the UK's first carbon-neutral football club!

For more, see our Business page.


Tourism & Hospitality

For global lists of green hotels, try leading hotels, www.allstays.com or Environmentally Friendly Hotels.

If you are a hotelier and want to make your hotel greener, please read here.

Others:

  • For a great UK site with world-wide recommendations, try Little Earth.
  • Looking for an eco-friendly retreat? World-wide holistic spas could be the answer.
  • Cruise liners: Six Royal Caribbean International and three Celebrity Cruises ships (awarded by Kuoni Travel Group Green Planet award under "Save the Waves" program).
  • Royal Celebrity Tours (environmental stewardship), Alaska.

Built Environments

  • Peterborough Environment City Trust (PECT) is a leader in the UK and has the awards and unique website to show for it (East of England).
  • Britain’s first Environment City, Leicester & Leicestershire are building sustainable communities through joint environmental action (East of England).
  • Oriental Bay, Wellington, New Zealand (beach redevelopment)


Celebrities

Green Guys

Actors, Musicians & Entertainers

  • Barenaked Ladies (band, Canada)
  • Jack Black (actor)
  • Bono (activist & musician)
  • Pierce Brosnan (actor)
  • Cloud Cult (band, USA)
  • Coldplay (band)
  • Johnny Borrell (singer of Razorlight)
  • George Clooney (actor)
  • Leonardo Dicaprio (actor) (check-out his documentary The 11th Hour.
  • Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction)
  • Green Day (band)
  • Guster (band)
  • Jack Johnson (singer)
  • Paul McCartney (singer)
  • Moby (D-J, pop)
  • Willie Nelson (singer)
  • Pearl Jam (band)
  • Red hot Chili Peppers (band)
  • Robert Redford (actor/director)
  • The Roots (band, hip-hop)
  • Sting (say no more)
  • Justin Timberlake (singer)
  • Robin Williams (singer)
  • Thom Yorke (singer of Radiohead)

Politicians

  • Peter Ainsworth (Conservative environment secretary)
  • Rocky Anderson (Salt Lake City, USA)
  • Tony Blair (statesman)
  • David Cameron (Conservative leader)
  • Stavros Dimas (European Commissioner)
  • Stephane Dion (Canada)
  • Peter Garrett (ex-Midnight Oil & politics, Australia)
  • Al Gore (statesman)
  • Jonathan Porritt (London)
  • Ken Livingstone (London)
  • David Miliband (UK Secretary of State for Environment)
  • Greg Nickels (Seattle, USA)
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger (Governor of California - who still drives Hummers!)
  • Xie Zhenhua (China)

Others

Prince Charles with Al Gore
  • Richard Branson (entrepreneur, UK)
  • Bob Geldof (activist)
  • Jamie Oliver (celeb chef)
  • Dr Jonathan Pershing (shaping US policy on climate change)
  • Prince Charles (large carbon-neutral household!)
  • Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark (patron of an environmental prize)
  • Zhang Yin (entrepreneur, China) vaulted to the number one spot when Nine Dragons Paper, her company, was listed in Hong Kong in March 2007, according to the Hurun Report rich list. Ms Zhang's listed company, buys scrap paper from the US and processes it in China for sale as supermarket boxes etc. Will the US waste paper be converted into cartons for Dell computers and shipped back as a green packaging? Or will it just drive the waste to the next highest bidder? What happens when Bill Clinton's friends out-bid Nine Dragons for the waste paper, planning to use it as feedstock to make ethanol for fuel? These, and so many other questions, hang unanswered. Bookmark this site for the next episode!
  • Shi Zhengrong (entrepreneur, China) of Suntech Powersolar, the panel parts maker, has amassed riches from an environmental business and ranks fifth on the Hurun Report rich list with $1.95bn.
  • Yang Yongqing (chairman of Beijing Solar Photoelectric, China, patent holder)

Green Gals

Actors, Musicians & Entertainers

  • Jessica Alba (actress)
    • Scarlett Johansson
  • Sheryl Crow (singer)
  • Laurie David (eco-crusader)
  • Sarah Harmer (singer,Canada)
  • Scarlett Johansson (actress)
  • Sienna Miller (actress)
  • Alanis Morissette (singer)
  • Pink (singer)
  • Maggie Q (actress)
  • Bonnie Raitt (singer)
  • KT Tunstall (singer)
  • Oprah Winfrey (talk-show host)

Politicians

  • Jane Davidson (Welsh Environment Minister)
  • Barbara Boxer (US Senate)
  • Helen Clark (New Zealand)
  • Wangari Maathai (Kenya)
  • Marina Silva (Brazil)
  • Margot Wallström (ex-EU, now European Commission)

Angela Merkel (Germany)? The jury's still out!


Checkout Grist celebrity page for up-to-date articles.

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Cities

Green Cities putting environmentalism on the map:

Africa? Cape Town is making strides towards being the first green city of the continent.


Retailers

To view profiles showing social and environmental impact of many corporations, visit the co-op's responsible shopper.

If you feel we have omitted anything, we’d love to put it right! Please send us details at our contacts page.



The Non-Green

Some definite no-nos have been committed by these carbon emitters. Tut-tut, you should know better!

The Guzzlers

  • Jennifer Aniston (endorser of bottled water!)
  • George Bush (too little, too late)
  • Nicholas Cage (owns 13 houses and flies to all of them!)
  • Clint Eastwood (tree felling for golf!)
  • Paris Hilton (eco-enemy socialite)
  • Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie (charities, fine; the rest, pure extravagance)
  • Lindsay Lohan (another lifestyle loser)

The Oilers

The Developers

  • Sarah Palin has gone head first developing Wasilla, Alaska for businesses at the expense of the local environment. Salmon fisheries and Lake Lucille have been polluted as she preferred a gold & copper mine and malls. With oil companies contributing the largest percentage of the state's greenhouse gases, Palin's Global Warming committee set no goal for reducing emissions. Once the most stunning state of the USA, Alaska has a Governor who is threatening its wildlife and environment all to bring in the Taxes.

  • Wilmar International refine crude palm oil after destructing peatland forests in Riau, Indonesia so as to supply feedstock to new biodiesel refineries. This destruction releases vast stores of carbon, hastening climate change. Wilmar is owned by Robert Kuok, the richest man in South-East Asia! More...



Try the UK’s leading ethical consumer organization looking at the companies behind the brand names. They have well-researched lists recommending who/what to boycott.

We welcome your suggestions on this list! Please send us details at our contacts page.

Note that an entry on this list is solely credit to environmental performance, not other ethical issues.


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