Here at the GA, one of the most important services we offer our partnering businesses -- and the customers that frequent them -- is our GA Toolkit. Consisting of an extensive 40-question Evaluation, resulting Report Card, and publish-ready Green Story, the Toolkit is a way of systematically and objectively evaluating businesses and their green credentials.

While we've been proud to say there isn't another evaluation out there like it, last week we were informed by one of the nation's largest publications that they had undertaken their own massive evaluation -- only instead of local businesses, this one had its sights set on some of the country's largest corporations.

In a project that took 18 months to complete, Newsweek Magazine this week will be publishing their first ever "Green Rankings" -- an extensive and incredibly detailed snapshot of where every corporation on the S&P 500 stands in terms of green initiatives, environmental impact, and overall "reputation". The three categories were weighted as follows: 45% for environmental impact; 45% for green policies / initiatives; and 10% for reputation.

Included on Newsweek's impressive advisory panel was Climate Counts executive director Wood Turner, who also happens to sit on the GA Board of Director's and who was himself enormously influential in crafting the GA's own sustainability Toolkit.

The calculus -- rigorous to say the least -- incorporated over 700 individual metrics to come up with a composite score, including some that took into account the no-doubt daunting task of comparing businesses across industries.

To read Newsweek's complete list of green rankings, click here. To read the entire article summarizing the project, click here.