A coffin maker has won the first ever Sunday Times list of the Top 50 Best Green Companies. Let me just put you at ease: they don't recycle coffins, but they do burn the off-cuts of the coffins to heat and power their organisation. They also have solar panels and are so energy-efficient that they even sell back power to the National Grid.

Interestingly, far from the usual suspects of the greenwashing kind who publicise every can they recycle, the list proves that companies of all shapes and sizes are doing their bit and customising their environmental best practises to suit their organisation.

Bank HBOS came 6th, behind construction groups Carillion (2nd) and Skanska UK (5th). Surprisingly, the Co-op – known as the ethical bank – came third. And various companies that use the environment as their unique selling point such as environmental advisors Greencare H20 and Renewable Energy Systems came 19th and 24th respectively.

Other big companies to make the list included Total E&P UK, one of the largest operators in the North Sea supplying the UK with 10% of its oil and gas; it ranked 11th, showing that big players responsible for getting hydrocarbons out of the ground can still get on top of the environmental agenda.

PricewaterhouseCoopers came 15th with Deloitte - the only other accountancy firm in the list - just barely scraping in at 42nd.

Having said all this, the ranking wasn't concerned with the industry of the organisation that took part nor the size of their carbon footprint, but what lengths the company was going to to reduce its impact on the environment.

For example, Total E&P UK proved that they go beyond regulatory requirements with various environmental implementation such as expanding its use of nitrogen to minimise carbon emissions.

This list goes some way to prove that legislation that forces companies to become environmentally friendly is not always the best solution. Instead, the government should be supplementing that with best practice codes of practice.

Rachael Singh