CARS

Ford Motor

Headquarters: Dearborn, Michigan

Revenue: $172.5 billion

Ford has contributed waste to 40 Superfund sites.

Ford set out to be a leader in greening the auto industry, becoming the first U.S. carmaker to offer a hybrid S.U.V., with its 2004 Escape. The company also recently announced a more fuel-efficient car engine. But the automaker had the second-worst fleetwide gas-mileage rating in both 2006 and 2007, according to the E.P.A. And in 2006, Ford withdrew its guarantee that it would manufacture a quarter of a million hybrid vehicles annually by 2010, opting instead to explore alternative energy sources. Ford recently created the world's largest living-grass rooftop on its Dearborn plant, but the lawn crowns a factory that produces one of the least fuel-efficient vehicles on the market, the F-150. Ford cleaned up its 500-acre Superfund site in Upper Ringwood, New Jersey, in 1994, but the E.P.A. relisted it in 2006—the only time the agency has relisted a site—when tests found that paint sludge still contaminated the area.

What the company says: Ford says it takes its environmental responsibilities seriously and is committed to creating a better and more sustainable world, whether by increasing fuel efficiency or working closely with local and state authorities on Superfund site cleanups.