Climate Counts, a nonprofit environmental group funded by organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm, uses publically available information to create its Climate Counts Company Scorecard, a ranking of the environmental efforts of 60 top consumer companies in several market sectors. Climate Counts encourages shoppers who care about climate change to avoid buying products from companies that don't.

In the group's second annual ranking of big-name companies, Apple placed last among its peers in the electronics industry with a score of 11 out of 100. The low score reflected Apple's lack of publicaly available information on efforts to cut its greenhouse gas emissions or carbon footprint, as well as its lack of a public policy to address climate change.

Climate Counts branded Apple as "a choice to avoid for the climate-conscious consumer" and said it is not yet taking meaningful action on climate change.

Which isn't to say Apple isn't improving its green stance: the company did boost its score by 9 points over last year.

Among the 12 companies ranked in the electronics sector, IBM placed highest with a score of 77, followed by Cannon at 74 and Toshiba at 70. Those three companies, plus Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Motorola, Hitachi, Samsung and Siemens, garnered the group's designation as best choices for climate-conscious customers. Dell and Nokia got an honorable mention as good choices. Apple was the only electronics company not recommended as an eco-friendly choice for consumers.

Climate Counts also rated five Internet/software companies. Among them Google placed No. 1 with a score of 55 and was the only company in the sector to be named as a best choice for climate-conscious customers. Google was also singled out as the overall company with the most improved score compared to last year, up 38 points. Google has started to measure its companywide impact on global warming and supports public policy that addresses climate change, according to the scorecard results.

Microsoft placed second among Internet/software companies with a score of 38, with Yahoo just behind with a score of 37. Both are designated as good choices for consumers. Amazon.com and eBay both earned a score of 5 and were not recommended.

Across all sectors, Nike scored the highest at 82, while Burger King, Darden Restaurants (owners of chain restaurants such as Red Lobster and Olive Garden), Wendy's International and Jones Apparel Group (which includes clothing and footwear brands such as Jones New York, Anne Klein New York, Nine West and Gloria Vanderbilt) all placed at the bottom with a score of zero.