Business Directory Business Directory Product Directory Automobiles Car Directory Community News and Articles Green Resources and Tips About Us Buy the Guide
Albuquerque Detroit Phoenix
Austin Honolulu Portland
Baltimore Kansas City San Diego
Boston Los Angeles San Jose
Chicago Miami Seattle
Columbus Minneapolis San Francisco
Dallas New York St. Louis
Denver Philadelphia Washington D.C.
More Cities...

What We Do

Greenopia provides consumers with high quality information to help them reduce their impact on the environment through their daily purchasing decisions. Greenopia publishes extensive green business directories, product directories, and brand directories, as well as offering a growing community, news articles, blogs, and tips to help everyone eat, shop, and live green.

Our Directories

Greenopia's directories guide consumers to the businesses and products to help lead a more sustainable lifestyle. All listings are independently researched, rated, and ranked using unique sets of life cycle based and category-specific criteria, ensuring that each business and product meets precise qualifications. We never accept payment for listings.

Our Ratings

The Greenopia Leaf Award allows consumers to easily assess the overall greenness of a business or product. Four-Leaf Rated listings meet our most stringent criteria while One-Leaf Rated listings meet our minimum qualifying standards. The Greenopia Scorecard allows consumers to easily see the specific areas of greenness in the product’s or brand’s life cycle.

Our Community

Greenopia's community provides a place for people to engage in sharing their favorite listings, meeting other people, sharing their eco-interests, blogging, discussing green topics, and much more. Our newsletters provide an opportunity to stay up to date with compelling articles, press releases, exclusive opportunities, and the newest, hottest, and greenest listings.

divider
Merchant Marketplace
Merchant Marketplace
Merchant Marketplace
Merchant Marketplace
Overall Rank: #2

(how's this calculated?)
Sunoco
Category: Brand Ratings -> Oil Companies -> Sunoco

      Sunoco

Revenue: $44.00 billion

Category Ranking
Environmental Reporting
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Production Efficiency
Oil Spill Efficiency
Pursuit of Alternative Fuels
Stance on Climate Change

Overall
1
1
1
6
4
3

2

Greenopia Environment Achievement:

Environmental Reporting

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Production Efficiency


Oil Spill Efficiency

Pursuit of Alternative Fuels

Stance on Climate Change





The Commendable:
Sunoco has, without a doubt, the best sustainability reporting of any major oil company. Sunoco works with CERES for its transparency and reports both the good as well as the bad (which is rare). Sunoco provides a plethora of easy to understand, high quality data. Every important environmental metric is accounted for in Sunoco’s report. Sunoco has greatly improved its emissions from its baseline year of 1990 and emits about 14.5 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent each year. Sunoco is also extremely efficient in its water consumption and waste production. Sunoco uses about 11 billion gallons of water each year, which sounds like a lot, but when normalized shows that Sunoco is one of the most efficient in the industry. Sunoco only generates about 7000 tons of hazardous waste each year which is also considerably lower than its competitors. Sunoco has been an industry leader in its efforts in Biofuels and other clean fuels and has a proactive stance on climate change.

The Questionable:
One thing that jumps out from Sunoco’s reporting is its decrease in overall energy efficiency. Sunoco shows that this is because of one project in particular and that the rest of the company has been getting more efficient, but still this overall trend is not acceptable. Sunoco also had a large number of oil spills in 2007, especially when you normalize their production against someone like Exxon. While the volume of oil spilled was in the middle of the road, the number of incidents was a bit alarming. It is fair to note, however, that Sunoco does recover a large amount of this oil and has been showing steady improvement in the number of spills each year. One other area we would like to see some changes is in its renewable portfolio. Biofuels still have some questionable merits and technologies like solar and wind are much more renewable in a life cycle sense than biofuels. Many of the other top oil companies are looking at greener fuel sources and so should Sunoco.

Spills Happen:
Sunoco has recently had a spill in its Midwest pipeline which released thousands of gallons of oil into nearby areas. This event took place in February of 2009.

Second Opinion:
The Sierra Club’s Environmentalist’s Guide to Gasoline had Sunoco as one of the top 2 major companies applauding their alliance with CERES and stance on climate change. The only issues they noted were Sunoco’s 2000 spill in Philadelphia and a fine from 2005.

Greenopia Verdict:
Sunoco has incredible reporting and is the most transparent oil company we came across. Sunoco should be commended for allowing itself to be scrutinized. Its overall environmental efficiency is good, with a few areas that could be improved.



Explore Greenopia
Wed 2/9/2010:
August Green Wednesdays... more »
Rudy's Garden Club--a workshop sereis... more »
How to be Greener Guides

Critter Care
As members of the family, don't pets deserve the healthiest care you can give them? And don't forget: Exposing your pet to toxins means exposing yourself to them, too, every time you pet or hold the...
read more »

Eco-Friendly Furniture
Your home should be a haven - a safe place for you and a tribute to the world you live in. Unfortunately our homes contain some of the most polluted air we breathe- and some of those toxins come from...
read more »

Greenopia Community... View more members    
BaseyK community profile
BaseyK
Recommendations:
Last Child in the Woods,
read more »
EcoLarry community profile
EcoLarry
Recommendations:
Too many...I'll think more
read more »
zen community profile
zen
About Me:
Permaculture, Sustainable
read more »
lotusconnections community profile
lotusconnections
Journey:
Though my own conscious
read more »
nowgreen community profile
nowgreen
Journey:
Looking at different "green"
read more »

Get the latest green product and merchant ratings from Greenopia. Our monthly newsletter keeps you informed.            GO »