America’s Greenest Companies

Industry Sector: Information Technology & Services
NEWSWEEK Green Score: 74.0%
Environmental Impact: 78.6%
Environmental Management: 78.9%
Transparency & Disclosure: 31.6%

Accenture is a management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company, with offices in more than 200 cities around the world. Over 80 percent of the company’s carbon emissions come from office energy use and business travel. In 2009, the company reduced (PDF) its per-employee carbon footprint by 25 percent, largely by increasing employees' environmental awareness. Accenture has also made an effort to reduce nonessential business travel, using Telepresence to hold virtual conferences around the world. In the U.S., the company launched the Smart Work program, which helps employees reduce noncritical travel. In Tokyo, Accenture started a program to encourage employees to seek alternatives to taxis, resulting in a 13 percent drop in taxi use in 2009. Accenture is working with Xcel Energy to launch the world’s first “smart grid (PDF)” city in Boulder, Colorado. They are pairing the entire city’s electric grid with technology to use energy more efficiently. A reduction in electricity usage by a mere 2.5 percent would allow Xcel Energy to reduce carbon emissions by more than 1 million tons each year. In 2010, Singapore’s Energy Market Authority hired Accenture to design the first phase of its Intelligent Energy System pilot project. As a consulting firm, Accenture offers its client companies advice on how to become more sustainable as well.