Sep. 23--A pair of East Tennessee companies were named to Newsweek magazine's list of the 500 Greenest Companies in America.

Insurance company Unum Group based in Chattanooga was ranked 52nd and specialty chemicals maker Eastman Chemical Co. based in Kingsport, Tenn. was ranked 95th.

Also, Memphis-based package delivery company FedEx Corp. was ranked 93rd.

The list is in the Sept. 28 issue of the magazine and is available online at greenrankings.newsweek.com.

The rankings are based on each company's greenhouse gas emissions, toxic waste emissions, corporate environmental policies and other criteria.

On Unum, Newsweek said: "A large provider of disability and life insurance products, Unum Group has used green building and energy efficiency measures at some sites and started the process of monitoring its GHG emissions. Unlike many in the insurance industry, Unum reports on these emissions and other sustainability activities. Nevertheless, information on the company remains limited."

On Eastman, the magazine said: "Unlike many of its peers, has largely avoided environmental controversies. Has also done an excellent job reporting on emissions and waste and has set concrete targets and goals to reduce air, GHG, and hazardous waste emission levels."

The top five greenest companies on the list are Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Johnson & Johnson, Intel and IBM.

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