Advice provided by: Claire Moloney, LEED Green Associate, Cornell University

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The Corporate Knights, a Toronto-based media, research and products firm, released its annual "Global 100" List of the most sustainable companies in the world.

In 2012, Novo Nordisk of Denmark, Natura Cosmeticos of Brazil, and Statoil of Norway topped the list. A total of 8 U.S. companies made the list, including Life Technologies Corp. at 15th and Intel Corp. at 18th.

The Corporate Knights ranked the companies based on a variety of criteria that truly captured the "triple bottom line" of people, planet and profit. The criteria included energy, greenhouse gases, water, waste, innovation, financial sustainability, safety, diversity, and "clean capitalism".

Companies are showing an increasing commitment to sustainability, as shown by these 100 companies' efforts. As I mentioned in previous articles, both Google and Apple are also making efforts to improve their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability efforts.

Green Companies in the U.S.: Salaries for Green Jobs

Though only 8 companies from the U.S. made Corporate Knights' Global 100 List, studies have shown that American businesses are increasing their sustainability efforts.

In 2011, GreenBiz released its Salary Survey, which reported that the number of U.S. companies with sustainable budgets between $100,000 and $10 million increased a combined 11 points in 2011 from the previous year. Additionally, 86 percent of large organizations have a full-time sustainable professional on staff, while 75 percent have assigned an executive to those responsibilities.

The report added that 48 percent of companies have between one in five staff members on "green teams," which are devoted exclusively to sustainability. Ultimately, the report aligns with other recent studies that show corporations are taking environmental concerns more seriously.

For instance, a 2011 survey from KPMG International said that corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting has become an "imperative" for companies looking to save money and resources through sustainable practices.

Green MBA and Sustainable Jobs in CSR

Corporations are making it clear that there's a demand for executives and staff devoted to identifying sustainability solutions, more environmental jobs may became available for well-qualified professionals.

Education in the sustainability executive field can be found at a number of major universities and colleges. Many offer a Green Masters of Business Administration (Green MBA), a program that blends traditional MBA courses with a lessons about managing environmental and social sustainability.

The Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina (UNC) offers an MBA with a concentration in Sustainable Enterprise. Similarly, the Presidio Graduate School has an MBA in Sustainable Management.

Some schools, such as Walden University and Franklin Pierce University, offer Green MBA programs that are 100 percent online. Others, such as Marlboro College and Bainbridge Graduate Institute, offer hybrid programs, which combine both online components and on-campus residencies.

Related Advice:

• New Green MBA and Sustainability Education Programs for Green Jobs in Sustainable Business



• Developing Sustainability through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)



• Is Google a Green Company?