By Patrick Avenell

Panasonic has trumped its technology company rivals in Interbrand’s Best Global Green Brands ranking for 2013. This result confirms Panasonic’s long-standing efforts to be a more environmentally responsible company, a directive housed under the banner “eco ideas”.

In addition to being the highest placed technology company, Panasonic placed fourth overall, beaten only by three car companies: Toyota, Ford and Honda. Another car company, Nissan, was at number five, while Johnson & Johnson, Volkswagen, Danone, Nokia and Dell completed the Top 10.

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Although the list is dominated by automobile companies, technology suppliers and providers comprise a large proportion. Sony, Samsung, Intel, Apple and Philips are all in the Top 25. As with Interbrand’s overall Top 100 brands report, no company with appliances as its primary function made the list.

“President Kazuhiro Tsuga set the tone this year with his 2013 CES opening keynote address highlighting Panasonic's commitment to offer innovative, eco-friendly, and smart solutions,” said an Interbrand spokesperson. “The focus is on products that are not simply green but also enrich lives, creating real value for customers around the world.

“The scale of the brand’s reach is shown by the recent opening of state-of-the-art factories in India, Brazil, and Vietnam.

“Meanwhile, in November, Panasonic unveiled a wide range of Eco Navi products, complete with ‘China Environmental Labeling Type II’, the highest environmental protection product certification issued by the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection.”

Panasonic globally has been investing considerable sums to improve its impact on the environment. In its native Japan, the company takes a lead role in the responsible disposal and recycling of all technology products, not just its own. Current.com.au once visited a technology recycling plant in Japan and observed first-hand how much more sophisticated these systems were to Australian practices.

Through its ownership of the old Sanyo company (which itself was an offshoot of sorts from Panasonic, having been founded by Konosuke Matsushita’s brother-in-law), is a leading innovator and supplier of solar technology. The epicentre of this research is the Panasonic Solar Ark, located at the geographic centre of Japan.

The learnings from Panasonic’s investment in green-ness are ploughed back into its products through energy efficiencies, which it likes to call ‘Eco Navi technology’.

Locally, Panasonic Australia has been comfortably the most vocal and visible major electronics brand in terms of promoting environmental causes and energy efficiencies, an investment now reaping benefits, according to Daniel Preiss, national marketing communications services manager at Panasonic Australia.

"This is a great achievement for Panasonic," Preiss said. "We have invested substantially into providing consumers with energy efficient products such as our ECONAVI range of home appliances. This ranking proves that our efforts have been successful and we look forward to improving our green performance in the future."   

Since at least 2010, Panasonic has supported Professor Tim Flannery, former Australian of the Year, in his campaigns to improve awareness of how human beings are affecting the planet. Local managing director Steve Rust has been a leading campaigner for product stewardship in Australia and has been a board member of several organisations dedicated to recycling end-of-life TVs, rather than letting them end up in landfill.

For more on Panasonic's green efforts, read these features:

Panasonic's recycling credentials will be invaluable to ANZRP: Part 1
Panasonic's recycling credentials will be invaluable to ANZRP: Part 2

Interbrand Best Global Green Brands

1. Toyota
2. Ford
3. Honda
4. Panasonic
5. Nissan
6. Johnson & Johnson
7. Volkswagen
8. Danone
9. Nokia
10. Dell

Selected other placings

11. Sony
12. HP
14. Nestle
16. Samsung
18. Siemens
21. Intel
22. Apple
23. Philips
25. GE
27. IBM
28. Cisco
29. Xerox
30. Canon
33. Ikea
35. Microsoft