16 Aug How Green Was the Olympics? And Who Are the Austin Winners?

With the University of Texas being a cornerstone of greatness within Austin, we can take pride in celebrating that ten former UT student-athletes won 13 medals, including 6 gold medals at the 2102 London Olympics. As Texas Sports cited, “If these athletes were competing as a separate country, Texas would have ranked in a tie for 13th place among all nations in the number of gold medals earned and tied for 18th in the number of total medals won.” Yet in addition to the Olympic Games being the greatest sports venue that occurs every four years, we can also conclude that the London Olympics was one of the most green and environmentally sustainable events in history.

While no venue is perfect, there were some notable milestones that set sustainability apart from all previous Olympics:

• Nearly 11% of the London Olympics’ energy was derived from renewable sources;
• Carbon emissions for the Olympic park were reduced by more than 50%;
• 70% of the waste generated from the Games was recycled;
• Many of the buildings constructed were innovative architectural feats of sustainability (see National Geographic slide show).

So if we were to view similar (green) criteria for some of the largest Greater Austin companies (500+ employees), who would win the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals?

According to the last Newsweek rankings (which will be refreshed in October), the Greenest Companies in Greater Austin are:

Gold = IBM. Think of their eye-catching and environmentally-impacting Smarter Planet campaign.

Silver = HP. This world leader has revolutionized printing with eco-efficient apps available on smartphones and recyclable printer cartridges.

Bronze = Dell. What other company would give prizes away to people who recommend new green products for Dell to design, develop and deliver?

Honorable mentions are awarded to AMD, Cisco, AT&T, Applied Materials and Apple who are in the Top 50 Greenest Companies, yet rank lower than the three above.

According to Interbrand, the best Global Green Brands among the largest companies located in Greater Austin are:

Gold = HP

Silver = Dell

Bronze = Cisco

Honorable mentions are awarded to 3M, Apple, IBM, Samsung and Intel who are also in the Top 50 Green Brands, yet rank lower than the three above.

Unlike the Olympics, these companies continue to compete with each other year after year to capture mind-share and market share of consumers’ and clients’ purchases using sustainability as a key differentiator. So while we have the experts’ sustainability rankings for the largest employers in central Texas, to whom would you award the Gold medal for being the greenest in the Greater Austin area?