Just published — State of Green Business 2008

In this landmark report, Joel Makower and the editors of GreenBiz.com answer the question: How are U.S. businesses doing in their quest to be greener and more environmentally responsible?

It introduces the GreenBiz Index, a set of 20 indicators of progress, tracking the resource use, emissions, and business practices of U.S. companies: carbon, materials, energy, and toxics intensity, clean-tech investments, e-waste recovery, paper use, employee commuting, and more.

You can get a free copy here by completing the quick questionnaire, or you can skip the questionnaire and go straight to the file here. Either way, it’s well worth the read.

FYI Here is a break-down of the contents.

• Introduction
• Top Green Stories of 2007
  • • Climate Commitments Heat Up
  • • Car Companies Finally Get into Gear
  • • The Greening of Transport Gathers Speed
  • • Green Marketing — and Greenwashing — Make a Comeback
  • • Companies Get Deadly Serious about Toxics
  • • Computing Loses Its Bite
  • • The Big Dogs Flex Their Muscles
  • • Green Building Elevates Expectations
  • • The Greening of Banks Earns Interest
  • • ‘Zero’ Becomes the New Black
• The GreenBiz Index
  • • Alt-Fuel Vehicles
  • • Building Energy Efficiency
  • • Carbon Intensity
  • • Carbon Trading
  • • Carbon Transparency
  • • Clean-Technology Investments
  • • Clean-Technology Patents
  • • Corporate Reporting
  • • Employee Commuting
  • • Employee Telecommuting
  • • Energy Efficiency
  • • Environmental Management Systems
  • • E-Waste
  • • Green Office Space
  • • Green Power Use
  • • Packaging Intensity
  • • Paper Use and Recycling
  • • Pesticide Use
  • • Quality of Management
  • • Toxic Emissions
• Indicators We Wish We Had
• The Best of 2007: Editors’ Picks
  • • Tools and resources, reports and research, sustainability initiatives, books and websites, and more.