Clean200 list shows sustainable companies on path to dominate global economy

“Drill, baby, drill” may be the new mantra out of the Oval Office, but the bottom line tells a different story. If speed is an indicator of success, then the clean energy economy is showing its muscle through robust growth, regardless the sector or corner of the world.

California-based shareholder advocates As You Sow and Corporate Knights today released the new cohort of the Carbon Clean200, a global list of 200 publicly traded companies leading the sustainable clean energy economy.

From China to France, the United Kingdom to the United States, this crop of industry-leading companies generated $2.5 trillion in revenue from services and products that reduce demand for fossil fuels and water while offering investors more than double the returns of the fossil-fuel-heavy MSCI ACWI Energy Index. They also beat the global benchmark MSCI ACWI by 30% from July 1, 2016, to January 29, 2025.

Clean200 data show that for the large companies that make up 80% of global market capitalization, sustainable revenues and capital expenditures are growing more than twice as fast as all other revenues over the past five years.

This trend holds across sectors and regions and puts sustainable companies on a path to dominate the global economy by the end of the next decade, despite political attacks. (All figures in PPP, purchasing power parity, which is based on the rate at which the currency of one country is converted into that of another country to buy the same amount of goods and services in each country.)

Key findings include:

• The top 10 companies on the list by revenue include Apple, Contemporary Amperex Technology, Microsoft, Tesla, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Volkswagen.
• Thirty-five countries are represented in the Clean200, including the United States (41), China (21), Japan (18), Germany (14), and France and Canada (11 each).
• Clean200 companies earned more than $2.5 trillion in sustainable revenue in 2023 (the most recent year for which full-year results are available).
• Clean200 companies generated a total return of 190.9% on a sustainable-revenue-weighted basis, outperforming the MSCI ACWI index (162.0%) and the MSCI ACWI/Energy Index of fossil fuel companies (76.7%) on Total Return Gross – USD Basis from the Clean200 inception of July 1, 2016, to January 29, 2025.
• $10,000 invested in the Clean200 on July 1, 2016, would have grown to $29,090 by January 29, 2025, versus $17,670 for the MSCI ACWI/Energy benchmark for fossil fuel.
• The industrial sector accounts for 52 companies on the list, followed by information technology (32), and consumer discretionary and materials (29 each). IT companies had the highest total sustainable revenue, a cumulative total of more than US$687 billion.

The 10 companies that contributed the most to the Clean200’s performance over the past year were from China (3), the United States (2), France (2), Taiwan (1), Germany (1) and the United Kingdom (1). They include sustainably certified tech hardware, electric vehicles and electric rail equipment.

“In 2016, we created the Clean200 in response to investors saying, ‘If we divest fossil fuels, there is nothing to invest in,’” says Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow and co-author of the Carbon Clean 200 report that accompanies the ranking. “The Clean200 has consistently demonstrated that the ‘clean energy’ future of eight years ago is now the clean energy present. This year, the scale and global diversity of leading companies continue to expand and redefine the term ‘cleantech’ to be any company with products and services that will reduce demand for fossil fuels and water.”

“It is telling that clean energy stocks generated more than double the returns of fossil fuel stocks since 2016, despite political headwinds, underlining that stock markets care more about economic materiality of the parabolic growth in clean energy than the political leanings of the day,” says Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights and co-author of the report.

The Clean200 utilizes the Corporate Knights Sustainable Revenue database, which tracks the percentage of revenue companies earn from sustainable economy themes ranging from green power to electric vehicles to plant protein and smart buildings.

The list excludes companies that are flagged on Corporate Knights’ list of “red flag” companies and As You Sow’s Invest Your Values suite of mutual-fund transparency tools that identify companies involved in fossil fuels, deforestation, the prison industrial complex, weapons and tobacco, as well as the exclusionary screens that form part of the Corporate Knights Global 100 methodology.

“We will continue to track and share the emergence of the clean energy economic powerhouse,” Behar says. “There is clear financial evidence showing a broad spectrum of companies defining this economic transformation away from an extractive economy and into a regenerative economy based on justice and sustainability. The job growth and resilience demonstrated by these companies are our greatest hope in controlling climate change and achieving a safe, just and sustainable world that benefits all.”

Methodology

The Clean200 are the largest 200 public companies ranked by clean revenue. The ranking was first calculated on July 1, 2016, and publicly released on August 15, 2016, by Corporate Knights and As You Sow. The current list has been updated with data through January 29, 2025.

The Clean200 companies are ranked by their clean revenues in U.S. dollars. The data set is developed through assessment of a company’s revenue that aligns with the definitions laid out in the Corporate Knights Sustainable Economy Taxonomy, primarily sourced from Corporate Knights research. To be eligible, a company must earn more than 10% of total revenues from clean sources.

The Clean200 uses negative screens. It excludes carbon laggards in the cement industry, oil and gas companies and those found on the Global Oil & Gas Exit List, coal companies found on the Global Coal Exit List, all utilities that generate less than 50% of their power from green sources, the top 200 carbon reserve owners in the Carbon Underground 200 list, fossil-fuel financers found on the Banking for Climate Chaos list, fossil-fuel insurers found on the Insure Our Future list, companies involved in for-profit prison operations recommended for divestment by the Investigate project of the American Friends Service Committee, companies involved in severe environmental or human rights violation, and those which were involved in illegal activities where the ratio of fines, penalties or settlements over revenue for the most recent twelve months period exceeded 1.0%. In addition, the Clean200 excludes weapons companies, including major military arms manufacturers found on the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Top 100 arms-producing and military services list, as well as cluster munitions, nuclear weapons, and civilian firearm manufacturers screened on As You Sow’s Weapon Free Funds. The Clean200 also excludes palm oil, paper/pulp, rubber, timber, cattle, and soy producers that are screened on As You Sow’s Deforestation Free Funds; companies that use child or forced labor, are involved in the manufacture of harmful pesticides, and that engage in negative climate lobbying are not included.