The top 50 greenest companies in Britain are unveiled today in the inaugural Sunday Times Green List.

All the companies listed have made huge strides in improving their environmental performance. The overall winner, named Britain’s Best Green Company this week at an awards ceremony at the National Theatre, on London’s South Bank, was JC Atkinson and Son, a coffin manufacturer based in Tyne and Wear. The firm, which has a workforce of 70, supplies 10% of the UK market, and also won the category for small companies with high and medium environmental impacts.

The Sunday Times survey is unique in testing workplace opinion on green issues. Employees rated their companies’ environmental credentials through a 52-point survey that accounted for 30% of the final rankings.

The survey – devised with the environmental consultancy Bureau Veritas and market-research group Munro Global – awarded the remaining 70% of the marks to companies for their environmental policies and practices and for improvements in environmental performance.

The Green List, sponsored by Bank of Scotland Corporate and Eon, puts companies of all sizes and environmental impacts together in one league table, but the competition is divided into five contests to compare firms with others of similar size and carbon footprint.

Carillion, the West Midlands-based construction company, is the top big company with high environmental impact and ranks second overall in the Green List. Cooperative Financial Services scoops the award for big and mid-sized companies with medium environmental impact.

The National Magazine Company takes the top spot for big and mid-sized companies with low environmental impact and, succesfully flying the green flag for the younger generation, Loughborough Students’ Union takes the honours for small organisations with low environmental impact.

Read more at www.timesonline.co.uk/bestgreencompanies