The German company scored A+ while the three American companies scored B+ in Claremont McKenna College's Entertainment Sector Analysis of sustainability. Ten others scored B- to D+. But even the top performers have a long way to go.

Lead analyst Bukola Jimoh warns, "The entertainment sector lags behind most others in corporate environmental and sustainability reporting...although we score on the curve, and therefore awarded [Bertelsmann] a grade of A+, its reporting is mediocre compared to the high scorers in many other sectors."

The report focuses on a broad set of environmental criteria and not on industry-specific green e-media technologies and practices. I trust that the weak sector performance will encourage individual entities to be more aggressive in sustainability efforts and not be an excuse to cut back.