Cisco, Google, Ericsson leads Greenpeace report

The Top 5 companies in sixth edition of Cool IT Leaderboard brought by Greenpeace includes: Cisco, Google, Ericsson, Fujitsu and Sprint.

The top3 companies have gained points, Fujitsu have lost points and Sprint is a new entrant to the Top 5 club. Google and SoftBank have put their money behind a renewable energy transition, with both making significant new investments into renewable energy deployment and advocating for policies that will incentivise greater investment in renewable energy.

Cisco returns to the top of the Cool IT Leaderboard with an updated set of targets for its operations, along with a performance-based commitment to move away from coal. Google's continued advocacy for clean energy and willingness to put its money where its mouth is helps keep it atop the CooI IT Leaderboard for the second year in a row, gaining 5 points from last year's total to earn a 1st place tie with Cisco.

Sprint demonstrate critical leadership in the passage of renewable energy legislation in the US. Ericsson continues to score very high for transparent and thorough methodology in measuring the energy saving impact of its IT solutions and for its efforts to measure and manage the environmental impacts of its products throughout their life cycle, including supply chain and product use.

In the 6th edition, the sector continues to show slow but steady improvement in offering energy solutions that have the ability to achieve significant scale, with companies demonstrating that they are willing to make major investments to drive clean energy deployment. In addition, a growing number of companies are increasing their commitment to power their operations with greater percentages of renewable energy, which is critically important given their rapidly growing electricity consumption.

There are promising signs. Wipro, Google, Sprint and SoftBank have prioritised changing the laws and policies governing their energy system, working to break down utility monopolies and incentivising investment in advanced energy efficiency technologies and renewable energy. 2013 will be a critical year in many countries to determine whether there will be a meaningful break in the status quo energy policies, Greenpeace will continue to update the advocacy leadership of IT companies throughout 2013.

As a result of recent evaluations of company leadership, Oracle and Tata Communication Services (TCS), which were included in the 5th edition have been dropped from this edition due to a significant decline in performance.

IT technologies have the potential to transform the way we use energy, breaking our dependence on dirty sources of power such as coal, gas, and nuclear. By developing technology that allows users to monitor and prevent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from everyday activities, IT companies can provide society with solutions to phase out fossil fuels and drive the necessary changes needed to mitigate climate change impacts.

Building on the contributions and leadership by companies such as Cisco, Ericsson, and Fujitsu, the sector has made significant progress in developing standardised methodologies for how IT energy savings solutions will be measured and evaluated on an ongoing basis and this helps in increasing the confidence of energy policy makers and the investor community to feel confident of the savings potential from IT solutions.

The Cool IT Leaderboard tracks the progress of the world's largest IT companies towards the achievement of economy-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions of 15 percent by 2020. All companies are evaluated for leadership in three key areas-- Efforts to offer economy-wide technological climate solutions that contribute to global greenhouse gas reductions (40/100); initiatives to reduce global warming emissions (25/100); and active engagement in political advocacy and support for science-based climate and energy policies (35/100).