Better training, greater awareness and improved communication on green issues characterise the 60 businesses included in the second Sunday Times Green List to be published next week.

Our unique survey of almost 21,000 employees shows how much they want to be green with a rise this year in the average employee green score to 73.4% from 69.8% in 2008.

“This is a significant shift,” says Will Ullstein, director of innovation with Munro Global, the market-research group and partner with The Sunday Times in producing the Green List. “Underpinning this overall rise in companies’ green scores are fundamental changes in corporate practice covering reducing waste, improved environmental training, encouragement of good green working practices and bosses willing to lead from the front.

“All the companies on the Green List have realised that you can’t achieve lasting change if you don’t bring your workforce with you.”

The employees of our greenest businesses say there is plenty of evidence this year of businesses changing long-established working practices. The score for companies not being perceived by employees to be producing too much waste is up from 56.5% last year to 63%, the 6.5 percentage point rise being one of the sharpest in year-on-year scores.

They say environmental issues are at the heart of how their companies do business, the 74.2% green score here representing a 4.3-point rise on 2008 — which is both encouraging and necessary with the Carbon Reduction Commitment due to come into force for up to 20,000 of Britain’s largest organisations from next year (see panel below).

More workers are being encouraged to car-share or use public transport to get to and from work, the score rising from 54.8% to 61.7%, up 6.9 points in the past 12 months with the same rise achieved for staff receiving adequate environment training, up from 63.3% in 2008 to 70.2% now. Internal communications about green issues are also improved, up 6.2 points on last year to give a green score of 78.8%.

Perhaps as a consequence of better training and communications, employees are showing a greater literacy with environmental issues, evidenced by a 5.6-point rise to give a green score of 65.8% for improved understanding of carbon footprints.

Richard Caseby, managing editor of The Sunday Times, said: “We might have expected staff interest with green initiatives to decline as they and their bosses coped with economic distractions. The reverse appears to be true.”

High levels of engagement are reflected in the total of 99 companies that registered for this year’s competition, which was open to all businesses in the UK. We received many more approaches from firms that considered entry but held back, perhaps put off by the level of detail required about corporate practices or the searching nature of the employee survey.

All the firms making the top 60 were subjected to rigorous data verification by Bureau Veritas to ensure they were achieving the levels of recycling and energy consumption claimed in their submissions, and that their environmental management systems were as described. Where discrepancies were found, scores were adjusted. Many were subjected to a site visit from Bureau Veritas environment consultants.

“It takes a brave chief executive to submit their business to the level of scrutiny required of this competition,” said Caseby. “Only the most scrupulous, making genuine changes to their environmental footprint, made the final cut.”