For the fifth year in a row BMW has won the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World award for Greenest Automaker of the Year. It’s odd since when most people think of green cars, their minds probably don’t jump to BMW, but in the eyes of Dow Jones, when you look at the full life cycle of BMW vehicles (from production to end of life recycling), along with their renewable energy applications in factories and transport, BMW comes out on top.

The index, which was only created in 1999, has never had another car manufacturer on the list.

Despite the constant acclaim from Dow Jones, is BMW really the “most sustainable automobile company worldwide”?  In the US it might be hard to imagine considering that BMW doesn’t really have much to offer in the four-cylinder category, let alone hybrid or electric vehicles.

If we can take anything away from this it’s that if BMW really is the greenest automaker in the world, the automaker’s of the world still have a very long way to go to improve their environmental standards. Not that BMW doesn’t make a great car. We’re still drooling over the BMW Vision (pictured above). With it’s ultra-efficient turbo-diesel engine, twin electric motors and 400-mile range, the Vision blends power and speed with top-of-the-line environmental technology.