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Over at Greenbiz.com, they've got a terrific story about how companies are maximizing their sustainability efforts:

ATT - The Dallas-based telecommunications company sees a great market opportunity to help its customers save energy and money, citing a 2008 study concluding that information and communications technologies have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by as much as 22 percent by 2020.

Ball - One of the largest packaging companies in the world, Ball has worked to reduce the weight of its products and boost recycling. Its efforts led it to increase the amount of post-consumer recycled content in its PET bottles by 6.5 percent in 2009 and embark on a new lightweighting project that will reduce the avoid the use of roughly 6.5 million pounds of PET resin each year, Ball said in its 2010 Sustainability Report.

Ball managed to improve its net earnings by 21.4 percent in 2009 while also reducing electricity use by 5.7 percent. Between 2007 and 2009, Ball has trimmed electricity use by 11 percent, due in part to the $36 million it has spent on energy saving projects over the two-year period.

Baxter - Nearly 40 percent of its total greenhouse gas emissions reside in its supply chain, the medical products giant Baxter explained it its 2009 Sustainability Report. In response, the company launched its Global Supplier Sustainability Program last year to help aim its procurement practices toward products and services that help it reduce its environmental footprint while also strengthen its supply chain and reduce costs.

EMC - For its direct operations, EMC has a series of intensity targets for greenhouse gas emissions, including emissions per square footage of its U.S. facilities, and emissions per U.S. dollar or revenue for years 2012, 2015, and 2050. By 2009, the company reduced emissions per square foot of its U.S. facilities by 21 percent, well beyond its Climate Leaders goal of an 8 percent reduction. It also cut emissions intensity by 11 percent, putting it on track to meet its 2012 goal of a 30 percent reduction.

SABMiller - The brewer, maker of Miller Genuine Draft, Pilner Urquell, and other brands, has reduced the amount of water it uses to make beer by 4 percent, the company said in its 2010 Sustainable Development Report. The company has set a 2015 goal of reducing water use per hectoliter of beer by 25 percent between 2008 and 2015, or 3.5 hectoliters of water used for ever hectoliter of beer produced.

Bottom line: these are just a few of the many, many Fortune 500 companies that are re-vamping the way they do business in order to capture the savings inherent in sustainability. Next time you have a chance, tell the company with whom you're involved (customer, employee, marketing partner, etc.) that you support sustainability efforts. It's good business and good for the environment!

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