These top European firms are stepping up their sustainable growth

Over the past two decades, the European Union has positioned itself as a global leader in sustainability. From carbon-pricing mechanisms to corporate sustainability reporting legislation, the EU has championed ambitious sustainability-focused business policies that have been — until recently, anyway — poised to set global standards.

But as its member states confront political headwinds at home, the EU has opted to dilute some sustainability efforts while putting others at risk. Some business leaders have supported the deregulation push and encouraged doubts over whether competitiveness and sustainability goals can co-exist. But other public companies have committed to their sustainable business efforts and found the answer: sustainability isn’t just a moral imperative, but a winning strategy.

Now in its second year, Corporate Knights’ 2026 Europe 50 list identifies the big European publicly traded companies that are thriving and setting the tone for global sustainability efforts. In 2024, these companies collectively generated US$1.2 trillion in revenues, with sustainable products and services contributing an average of 56%. Of the companies that made the cut, 33 also made Corporate Knights’ 2026 Global 100 list.

“From Danish wind turbines to Spanish renewables infrastructure and Turkish circular-economy appliances, the Europe 50 shows that sustainable business is not a niche — it’s the mainstream growth story across sectors and geographies,” Corporate Knights CEO Toby Heaps said in a statement. “These companies are not waiting for policy certainty. They are writing the playbook.”

The top company

When it comes to energy companies, it’s no surprise that ERG (#1) took the top spot on this year’s list — and is also number one on this year’s Global 100 list. Headquartered in Genoa, Italy, the company announced the sale of its final fossil fuel asset in 2023 and is now purely a wind and solar energy company. Between 2022 and 2024, ERG’s power generation grew by 40%, from 4,956 to 6,959 gigawatt hours, which is enough capacity to fully charge 670 million electric vehicles.

The fast track

The European companies with the highest compound annual growth rate of sustainable revenue.

Industria de Diseño Textil (#16), parent company to fashion brands Zara, Massimo Dutti and several others, used a total of 73% of “lower-impact” materials (like organic cotton or certified-European linen) and recycled fibres in its products. The company, which has its headquarters in Arteixo, Spain, grew its revenue from eco-certified products, including Global Organic Textile Standard and Recycled Claim Standard. Overall, its sustainable compound annual growth revenue grew 121.5%, with sustainable revenue making up more than half of the company’s total revenue.

Home appliances company Arçelik (#23) had even higher sustainable revenue momentum, at 167.7%. The company, which is based in Istanbul, had a global turnover of €10.6 million (US$16.8 million), and Beko Europe, the European arm, is a major player in the European appliances market. While sustainable revenue makes up only 15.5% of total revenue, the company more than doubled the total number of its refurbished products between 2022 and 2024. With refurbishment centres operating in Turkey, Italy, the United Kingdom and Romania, the company has ambitions to increase the amount of reconditioned products it sells, though it hasn’t committed to a specific target.

Vonovia (#32) – Headquartered in Bochum, Germany, Vonovia owns and manages more than one million residential units across Europe. It is the continent’s largest real estate company and had one of the fastest-growing shares of sustainable revenue, at 127.8%, which came from energy-efficient homes, according to Corporate Knights methodology. Across Vonovia’s entire portfolio, the company decreased energy consumption from 5.5 million megawatt-hours in 2022 to 5.2 million in 2024 — the equivalent of switching off 3.4 million LED bulbs for a year. At the same time, it increased energy from renewable sources from 10% to 19% over the same period.

The come-from-behind corporation

A company with a small percentage of sustainable revenue but high sustainable compound annual growth rate.

While 3.2% of total sustainable revenue is small, BNP Paribas (#40), a multinational bank and financial holding company, has managed to grow this share by 94.7% since 2022. Based in Paris, the bank has stepped up its financing for low-carbon energy from €28.2 billion to €38.3 billion and has grown its portfolio of standardized sustainable products, such as bonds, investments and loans.

The pure-play behemoth

Large-cap pure-play companies with high sustainable revenue and investment.

Novonesis (#4), based in Bagsværd, Denmark, is a biosolutions company that emerged from a 2024 merger with a total market capitalization of €25.6 billion (US$40.6 billion). By using microbes and enzymes to transform consumer products, Novonesis finds alternatives to petrochemicals or synthetic chemicals in more than 30 sectors, from baking to carbon capture to textiles. Novonesis’s revenue was €3.8 billion in 2024 and was listed as 100% sustainable, according to Corporate Knights’ methodology.

The enablers

Banks with high sustainable revenue and investment.

The Turkish bank Turkiye Sinai Kalkinma Bankasi (#21) had 4.25 times more — an absolute total of 20.4% — sustainable revenue than the other banks on the list. The Istanbul-based institution is a private development and investment bank that provides financing to projects that promote both environmental and social sustainability, such as gender equality initiatives that support women’s employment.

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Waste-to-wealth winners

European company at the forefront of the circular economy.

Séché Environnement (#17), based in Paris, is a waste management company that handles a variety of waste streams — hazardous, household, medical — and also cleans up industrial, natural and urban sites. Instead of disposing of solid non-hazardous and non-recyclable waste, the company converts it into solid recovered fuels, or SRF, which can act as a replacement to fossil fuels in furnaces or kilns for industries or urban heat networks. Nearly all of Séché Environnement’s investments were directed toward sustainability, which earned it a sustainable investment ratio of 91.5%, using Corporate Knights’ methodology.

2026 Europe 50