Apple ranks among top 50 'green' brands in 2015 survey of US shoppers

For the 2015 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, shared on Wednesday by Forbes, survey participants aged 18 to 65 were asked to judge 550 different brands. Although the top 50 green brands weren't compared against each other — since they operate in radically different categories, and according to varying public and environmental demands — only a selection of high-technology companies made the list apart from Apple.

These included Acer, Amazon, AT&T, Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, HP, IBM, Konica-Minolta, Samsung, and Zappos. Some of the major non-tech brands ranged from Adidas and Coke through to United Airlines and Walmart.

April 22 is Earth Day, a fact Apple has been promoting heavily both online and at its retail stores. In the latter case, Apple has tinted the leaves in its signs green, and made clerks change their shirts to the same color. Online the company has put up a special section at the iTunes Store, and CEO Tim Cook posted a Twitter link to a webpage touting the company's environmental efforts.

On Monday Apple published its annual Environmental Responsibility report. The company admitted that its carbon footprint has increased, but also called attention to its recycling and renewable energy efforts, and overall improvements in efficiency.