by Shane Henson — August 5, 2011—Toyota , 3M, and Siemens lead Interbrand’s new global report, Best Global Green Brands. In its first global report to focus exclusively on being “green,” Interbrand, a brand consultancy, combines public perception of environmental sustainability with a demonstration of that performance based on publicly available information and data.
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.
In completing the study, Interbrand conducted an evaluation of each brand’s consumer perceptions. Consumers in the 10 largest markets—US, Japan, China, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Brazil, Spain, and India—were asked how green impacts their purchase decisions and their overall understanding and awareness of the brand’s green activities as a whole.
The rankings developed by Interbrand are based, in part, on quantitative performance scores derived from an analysis of publicly available information. Deloitte was engaged to develop an environmental sustainability performance methodology based on publicly available data as an input to Interbrand’s overall scoring methodology. These performance scores were one of the many factors Interbrand considered when creating the final rankings. The finalized score is a combined metric taken from both a perception and performance calculation. Taken together, the resulting difference or gap between these two scores represents the potential misalignment between brand performance and consumer perception.
Key findings from the study include:
- Toyota is a leading example of making the environment a core management priority, while also engaging in a meaningful way with audiences around the world.
- The automotive industry and electronics category lead the way not only in their ability to implement sustainable practices across their organization, but also in their ability to communicate their efforts effectively to the public.
- A number of brands show 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 great things internally in terms of environmental sustainability, they are still not yet communicating their efforts to consumers as clearly as they could.
- McDonald’s, GE, and Coca-Cola, on the other hand, all scored significantly higher in perception than performance. This suggests that these highly visible brands enjoy the positive impact of being a well-known, powerful brand, with green perception matching general perception overall.
- The automotive industry and electronics category lead the way not only in their ability to implement sustainable practices across their organization, but also in their ability to communicate their efforts effectively to the public.
