Location: Palo Alto
Year founded: 1939
Revenue: $91.7 Billion
Employees: 156,000
Silicon Valley's longtime industry leader in eco-sensitivity. High tech is falling all over itself to go green. It may be that Prius-driving engineering types are more eco-sensitive than the rest of us, or maybe they're simply battling for competitive advantage. The fact is, as more of modern life goes digital, the environmental impact of those computers and gadgets has gone from negligible to considerable. Hewlett-Packard has done the most to mitigate that. HP owns massive e-waste recycling plants, where enormous shredders and granulators reduce four million pounds of computer detritus each month to bite-sized chunks - the first step in reclaiming not just steel and plastic but also toxic chemicals like mercury and even some precious metals. HP will take back any brand of equipment; its own machines are 100 percent recyclable. It has promised to cut energy consumption by 20 percent by 2010. HP also audits its top suppliers for eco-friendliness, and its omnibus Global Citizenship Report sets the standard for detailed environmental accountability. --Oliver Ryan
