Of the 6,720 companies the Corporate Knights team analyzed for our 2023 Global 100 ranking of the world’s most sustainable corporations, a select few stand out. Here are a handful leading the pack on six key indicators.
Most sustainable investments: Iberdrola
Called the “Exxon of green power” by The New York Times, Spanish electricity company Iberdrola led all other Global 100 companies in terms of sustainable investments in 2022. It pumped €8.6 billion into green assets, such as renewable energy and EV charging, as well as energy storage and hydrogen production.
Most gender-diverse executives: Xerox
Xerox has prided itself on its efforts to hire a more racially diverse staff dating to the 1970s, and now the Connecticut-headquartered document management company is a leader in gender diversity, in part thanks to the efforts of former CEO Ursula Burns. More than 58% of its execs are women, up from 43% last year.
Most racially diverse executives: HP
In 2020, under the leadership of its new CEO, Enrique Lores, HP announced a goal of doubling the number of its executives who are Black and African American by 2025. The multinational IT corporation is already well on its way to diversifying its leadership, as 58% of its executives are racially diverse, up from 43% in 2021.
Lowest gap in CEO-to-average-worker pay: Storebrand
Even though Norway’s Storebrand CEO Odd Arild Grefstad’s compensation increased to 9.32 million kroner in 2022 from 9.03 million in 2021, his financial services company leads when it comes to the ratio of CEO-to-worker pay: 6.5 to 1. The total compensation of the Norwegian company’s employees rose to
2.73 billion kroner in 2022.
Highest % taxes paid: Commerzbank
Some companies are notorious for their ability to avoid paying taxes, but Commerzbank is not among them. The German bank had the highest ratio of cash taxes paid over the 2017 to 2021 period of any G100 company, at 30% (down from 34.63% in the previous period). Of the top 10 companies in this category, five others were from Europe.
Highest growth in sustainable revenue: Intesa Sanpaolo
The Italian bank had the largest growth in sustainable revenue – skyrocketing 234% over last year. Intesa Sanpaolo also ranked first in total sustainable revenue in Corporate Knights’ 2022 Sustainable Banking report, with US$3.68 billion, thanks to environmental lending, lending through high-impact social loans and underwriting green bonds.
