What Are the World’s Most Sustainable Companies?
Corporate Knights is a publication that claims to be the clean voice of capitalism. Recently, it released its annual ranking of the world’s most sustainable companies—ones that have made a legitimate effort to alleviate their environmental impact beyond corporate greenwashing. The ranking is based on an evaluation of 6,914 public companies that report more than $1 Billion (USD) in revenues. After reviewing this ranking, I researched the six most sustainable companies that scored an A+ or A in an effort to understand what they’ve achieved and will continue to achieve.
1. Vesta Wind Systems A/S, Denmark – A+
Vesta is the undisputed global leader in Wind Energy. The company’s greatest sustainability impact is the decarbonization of global energy demand. Its technology avoids a huge sum of emissions from the electricity sector. 532 million tonnes of CO2e were avoided over the lifetime of turbines produced in 2021, which equates to 96.6 million homes’ electricity use for one year and 2.64 million square km forest’s carbon sequestering in one year. To truly mitigate the climate crisis, Vesta’s goal is to massively scale up the production of existing sustainable energy solutions and innovate to decarbonize non-electric energy demand faster than ever before.
A sea of windmills in the Palm Springs, CA Vestas wind farm. Source: Recharge News
2. Chr. Hansen Holding A/S, Denmark – A
Chr. Hansen is a global bioscience company focused on microbial and fermentation technologies. The pandemic has triggered a renewed focus on immunity, healthy living, and climate-smart agriculture and food production. Chr. Hansen’s technology platforms have extensive potential to address these issues. The company enables healthier living by reducing the overuse of antibiotics and enables healthier living by supporting immune health. Its pioneering microbial science helps improve food, health, and productivity for a sustainable future. Over 80% of the company’s revenue contributes directly to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
3. Autodesk Inc., United States – A
Autodesk is a software leader in architecture, engineering, construction, product design, manufacturing, media, and entertainment industries. In addition to creating technology that helps other businesses meet their sustainability goals, Autodesk also leads by example with its own operations. The company has reached net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its business and value chain; likewise, its buildings, data centers, and cloud services are powered with 100% renewable energy. The goal behind Autodesk’s sustainable design technology is to empower people to design, collaborate, build, and fabricate in ways that improve productivity, while also reducing waste, saving money, and staying competitive.
4. Schneider Electric SE, France – A
Schneider Electric drives digital transformation by integrating world-leading processes and energy technologies to realize full efficiency and sustainability opportunities for businesses. The company provides an endpoint to cloud integration connecting products, controls, software, and services. Schneider Electric is a changemaker for sustainability. As an impact company, its sustainability and business impacts converge to act for a climate-positive and socially equitable world. It lives by a unique sustainability strategy and operating model, built to deliver positive impacts in the long run. Schneider’s 2030 pledges include a carbon pledge towards net-zero CO2 emissions operations, efficiency with resources that have no net biodiversity loss, and access to green electricity for 100 million people.
5. City Developments Ltd., Singapore – A
City Developments Limited (CDL) is a leading global real estate company with a network spanning 104 locations in 29 countries and regions. CDL has developed over 48,000 homes and owns over 23 million square feet of gross floor area in residential, commercial, and hospitality assets globally. In 2020, CDL completed a comprehensive goal benchmarking process that led to the adoption of two new environmental goals, and a refinement of a third focused on three key topic areas: Energy & Emissions, Climate Variability/Water Supply Resilience, and Water Use & Efficiency. CDL is proud to be one of the companies which have committed to a zero-carbon future, as sustainability integration is critical in the company’s strategy to create long-term value. In the face of global climate, health, and economic challenges, its early adoption of ESG integration has enabled CDL to remain steadfast as a responsible business.
6. American Water Works Company Inc., United States – A
American Water is a public utility company that, through its subsidiaries, provides water and wastewater services in the United States to approximately 1,700 communities in 14 states. For American Water, environmental Leadership means delivering safe, clean, reliable, and affordable water and wastewater services. American Water plans to invest $22 to $25 billion in capital from 2021 to 2030 to continue to maintain the quality and reliability of its water and wastewater systems, increase the resiliency of critical assets as well as increase energy conservation efforts. The company aims to reduce energy consumption and emissions through improved water use and efficiency.
While reading these companies’ sustainability reports, I’m inspired by their continued commitment to our planet and the people living on it. It’s so good to see that environmental stewardship and corporate development can successfully go hand in hand.
