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 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 breakout firm

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

A large-cap pure-play company 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 enabler

A bank 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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The waste-to-wealth winner

A 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

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The U.S. companies that make up Corporate Knights’ first-ever USA 25 Most Sustainable Corporations ranking brought in more than $1.15 trillion in revenues in 2024, of which an average of 61% came from sustainable products or services. That included companies like Nvidia, whose super-efficient chips power much of the world’s AI infrastructure, and Tesla, which has single-handedly transformed the U.S. electric vehicle market.

Perhaps more notably, however, sustainable revenues as a share of the total are growing, and sustainable investments are poised to accelerate the transition. Michael Yow, director of rankings at Corporate Knights, points out that the average sustainable investment ratio for S&P 500 companies is less than 11%; for companies in this ranking, it is more than 62%. “It illustrates how sustainability leaders are already rewiring their business models for a low‑carbon economy while the broader market lags behind.”

The top company

Leading the ranking this year is Fluence (#1), a company out of Arlington, Virginia, that creates utility-scale energy-storage systems. Founded in 2018 from a partnership between Siemens, the German tech giant, and AES, the largest U.S.-based global power company, Fluence is one of a select group of companies playing a pivotal role in the shift to renewable power in the United States. The grid-level battery company currently has 296 projects globally storing 28.9 gigawatts of renewable energy.

Fluence doubled its sustainability revenues between 2022 and 2024 and earned a perfect sustainable investment score by pouring all its capital expenditure and research and development into new energy-storage solutions and supporting technology. In early 2025, the company announced “breakthrough” modular stacks that can store 30% more power over the same footprint as previous generations of the technology. Additionally, Fluence – which also placed fourth in this year’s Global 100 ranking – is deploying AI-optimized software to help maintain its infrastructure and to assist with bidding in the notoriously complex and volatile wholesale energy market.

The fast track

The companies with highest compound annual growth rate of sustainable revenue

Among the companies with the fastest-growing share of sustainable revenues was
Prologis (#17), a San Francisco–based real estate investment trust.
Prologis owns more than 5,800 facilities, mostly warehouses and commercial spaces,
spanning 1.3 billion square feet across 20 countries. In the last year, the company
secured sustainable building certifications for all the eligible buildings and since
2021 has achieved 626 megawatts of solar power and storage capacity across its portfolio.

Sustainable revenues still account for only about 19% of the company’s total revenues, but since 2022 those revenues have grown 239% annualized. Yow points out that a significant share of the buildings that did not qualify under the Corporate Knights Sustainable Economy Taxonomy in 2022 now do, thanks to the company’s efforts.

Nvidia (#10), the world’s largest company by market capitalization, also had one of the fastest-growing shares of sustainable revenue. It saw a 124% increase over 2022 for total sustainable revenues of about $75 billion. Most of those earnings are attributable to the company’s ultra-efficient computer chips that now make up the majority of global AI data-centre infrastructure. These chips are up to 25 times more energy efficient per watt than traditional, general-purpose central processing units and up to 300 times more water efficient than air-cooled computing architecture.

There was one more company, Bristol-Myers Squibb (#25), that registered an even higher sustainable revenue compound annual growth rate, at 342%, but as Yow explains, its circumstances are unique. Revenues at pharmaceutical companies in the ranking are considered sustainable if they come from the sale of drugs included on the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines list. Bristol-Myers Squibb sells several of these medicines, but in 2022, a significant share of those revenues were not credited in full. This was because a significant portion of the cash flow from those revenues went toward share buybacks, dividend payments and senior executive compensation, rather than being reinvested in the company. Since 2022, the share of eligible revenues at Bristol-Myers Squibb has shifted, hence the increase.

Come-from-behind corporation

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

At Hologic (#16), a healthcare company out of Massachusetts, about 19% of its $4.03 billion in 2024 revenues were sustainable, representing an annualized increase of 50% since 2022. This change is attributable to the increased sales of its medical solutions for women’s health, particularly breast cancer. Many of Hologic’s systems, including those used for imaging and biopsy, have been classified by the World Health Organization as “indispensable” for quality healthcare delivery.

Transition majors

Companies with small sustainable revenue but high sustainable investment

American Water Works Company (#19) is a 140-year-old company and the largest regulated provider of water and wastewater utilities in the United States. Based in Camden, New Jersey, and delivering services to more than 14 million people in 18 states, its share of sustainable revenues was small relative to the scale of its operation, but its sustainable investments were significant. Last year, the company reportedly invested $3.2 billion in infrastructure improvements (in 2024, the company brought in $4.6 billion in revenue). This included pipe replacement and water treatment upgrades, as well as remediation for PFAS (known as “forever chemicals”) that have been commonly detected in drinking water.

Another one of the senior companies on the list, the 146-year-old automotive manufacturer BorgWarner (#21), operating out of Auburn Hills, Michigan, also earned high marks for its sustainable investments. The company has been focused on developing new parts for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, including motors, transmissions and battery systems.

The pure-play behemoth

A large-cap pure-play company with high sustainable revenue and investment, but also penalties

Given this year’s refocusing of the methodology on sustainable revenues, investment and growth, it should come as little surprise that Tesla (#9) remains a fixture on the list. Now based in Texas, the company recorded $97.69 billion in revenues in 2024, 100% of which was registered as sustainable in the Corporate Knights methodology. It should be noted, however, that the company did suffer several penalties related to a $1.5-million settlement over the alleged mishandling of hazardous waste, and another to a fatality at its Texas Gigafactory.

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Waste-to-wealth winners

Companies at the forefront of the circular economy

Enviri (#11) is a Pennsylvania-based waste-management firm that specializes in complex environmental challenges. Across three divisions, it has recycled nearly 440,000 tons of hazardous material, 3.1 million tons of contaminated soil and 85 million gallons of wastewater – in all, about 92% of the materials it collects. These materials are used to create the company’s “ecoproducts” such as cement additives, construction aggregate, asphalt and cost-effective alternatives to raw materials used in concrete and brick.

CMC (#22) is one of the primary suppliers of the steel rebar used to reinforce the concrete in buildings, bridges and roads across the United States. With 212 facilities, the Texas-based company boasts an impressive record in an industry that has, traditionally, had a large environmental footprint: 17 billion pounds of scrap metal saved from landfills, 82% less energy and 62% less carbon dioxide than traditional steelmaking, and 100% recycled steel in all of its products.

2026 USA 25 Most Sustainable Corporations

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The Asia Pacific 50 Most Sustainable Corporations ranking spotlights unique sustainability sectors throughout the eastern hemisphere: green finance and electric vehicles in China, wind power in India, hydroelectricity in New Zealand and advanced high-speed rail in Taiwan.

The average sustainable revenue among the companies on Corporate Knights’ Asia 50 ranking was 65.5%, notes Michael Yow, Corporate Knights’ director of rankings. By comparison, the iShares Asia 50 ETF, which tracks the S&P Asia 50 Index, had an average sustainable revenue of only 3.8%. “This disparity suggests that investors using conventional large-cap benchmarks may be significantly underexposed to companies generating revenue from sustainable economic activities, despite the growing materiality of sustainability-related risks and opportunities among Asian companies,” Yow says.

How the ranking was made

To compose the list, Corporate Knights researchers rank publicly listed companies with more than US$1 billion in revenue based on their sustainability performance. Three key questions guide their analysis: To what extent are a company’s investments geared toward sustainability? Where does its sustainable revenue come from? And how fast is its sustainable revenue growing?

To answer these questions, the Corporate Knights research group relies on three equally weighted indicators: the share of revenue from sustainable products and services; the share of investments directed toward sustainable projects; and what they call “sustainable revenue momentum,” which is the compound annual growth rate in sustainable revenue from 2022 to 2024. This last metric was introduced to the Corporate Knights sustainability rankings this year, to reflect the urgency of the energy transition and the shift to a green economy.

Companies can also earn a bonus of up to 5% for linking CEO pay to sustainability targets. Alternatively, they face deductions of up to 5% each for legal sanctions and workplace fatalities. Companies are benchmarked against industry peers across 64 groupings.

The top company for 2026

Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation (THSRC) tops this year’s Asia 50 ranking – and not only because nearly all its revenues come from its low-carbon, high-speed rail service. Over the past year the company stepped up investments in its electrified network, completing major extensions, replacements and upgrades. Its revenue rose from 37 billion Taiwan dollars in 2022 to TWD 53 billion in 2024, driven by its consistently strong performance in the operation and management of its rail lines.

THSRC has ranked in the top 5% of listed companies in the Corporate Governance Evaluation, an annual assessment by the Taiwan Stock Exchange, for eight consecutive years, and has been a persistent selection for the FTSE4Good TIP Taiwan ESG Index, which tracks Taiwanese companies with stronger-than-average environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance, since 2018. It has also become a regular presence on the Corporate Knights Global 100, placing fifth in 2025 and 2026 and fourth in 2024.

THSRC’s inherently low-carbon business model is only part of the story: it also uses measurable and improving environmental key performance indicators for its energy consumption, water conservation and waste recycling – reports transparently in line with global standards. Even though its trains are all-electric, Taiwan’s grid is largely powered by coal and natural gas, so THSRC discloses its greenhouse gas emissions with third-party verification and works to cut its carbon intensity. THSRC has also installed solar panels at some of its stations and depots to reduce the carbon footprint of its operations.

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But THSRC isn’t the only company that stands out from the list. Looking closely at the inaugural Asia Pacific 50 Most Sustainable Corporations, several stories emerge.

The fast track

Among the three companies with the highest sustainable compound annual growth rate (CAGR), one finances renewable-energy generation and the other two make electric vehicles.

1. Industrial Bank Co. Ltd. (#16), commonly known as CIB, significantly expanded its renewables portfolio over the past year, aggressively financing large-scale wind and solar projects under its “All-Green” strategy. Headquartered in Fuzhou, Fujian, CIB deploys green bonds and specialized credit lines to support China’s carbon-neutrality goals. The bank’s green loans are growing faster than traditional corporate loans, reflecting a strategic pivot toward sustainable infrastructure. As China’s first bank to adopt the Equator Principles for environmental and social risk management, CIB has prioritized clean energy over high-emission industries and integrated ESG metrics into its core credit-approval process. CIB’s sustainable revenue momentum stands out because while its sustainable revenue ratio is only 7%, its CAGR is 132%.
2. Seres (#26) is part of China’s new crop of automotive stars, even though it was founded almost four decades ago. Based in Chongqing, the company started out making components for shock absorbers and household appliances. But in the mid-2010s, its parent company, now known as Seres Group, launched a vehicle-manufacturing arm, and in 2019 Seres rolled out its first EV, the SF5. Although that debut met with only muted market response, Seres has since partnered with Huawei Technologies to co-develop better-selling Aito-branded EVs. Seres saw its revenue increase in 2024 by more than 300%; this past year brought more strong performance, with higher margins and increased investment in research and development.
3. Li Auto Inc. (#10) is coming off a hard year, which saw the pioneering EV company deliver 19% fewer vehicles than 2024. The downshift followed several years of high demand for its extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), which carry small gas-powered engines to top up the battery, and where the carmaker had been an early leader. But as competition heats up and technology improves for more affordable battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), Li Auto is fighting to retain its leadership position. The company plans to double down on EREVs while still transitioning to BEVs.

The waste-to-wealth winner

Among companies at the forefront of the circular economy, the Australian supply-chain logistics company Brambles Ltd. (#9) stands out for its “share and reuse” system for pallets, crates and containers. This model eliminates the need for customers to purchase and manage their own equipment, instead allowing them to borrow standardized platforms and then return them for reconditioning and redistribution. The company’s pooling approach also offers a sustainability advantage: shared assets reduce the total number of pallets and containers in circulation, thereby cutting down on waste, deforestation and carbon emissions compared to traditional pallets and crates.

The transition enabler

Looking at banks with high sustainable lending, Taiwan’s Chang Hwa Commercial Bank Ltd. (#42) is exceptional, with a CAGR of 48% thanks to its marked increase in lending to renewable-energy, circular‑economy and low‑carbon-manufacturing projects. Chang Hwa has set a target to phase out investment and financing for coal and unconventional fossil fuels by 2040. Notably, this 120-year-old bank also ranked 42nd on the World’s Safest Banks 2025: Emerging Markets Top 50 by Global Finance, thanks to its strong balance sheet and conservative risk profile.

The long-game player

We looked for companies with small sustainable revenue but high sustainable investment to see who’s leaning hardest into the green shift. StarHub (#50) showed that targeted, long-term investment – not revenue growth alone – defines value. The Singapore-based telecommunications company has channelled capital into cloud transformation, renewable energy and cybersecurity, and backed this up with science‑based climate targets, long‑term renewable power-purchase agreements and executive pay tied directly to ESG performance.

The pure-play behemoth

When you’re near the ocean, you keep an eye out for whales. Likewise, on a ranking like this, it’s interesting to look out for the big pure-play companies with high sustainable revenue and investment. One major standout in the clean-energy revolution is LG Energy Solution (#14), the battery arm of LG Corp., which has grown its manufacturing business by securing long-term supply agreements with major global automakers including General Motors, Stellantis and Hyundai. LG now boasts joint-venture gigafactories in North America and Europe alongside Asia to meet surging demand. The company has also capitalized on the rapid global build-out of grid-scale and commercial energy storage, emerging as one of the leading suppliers for utilities and renewable projects.

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Corporate Knights trained its lens on a wide universe of corporations to produce its first-ever Latin America–specific ranking. Using the Global 100 benchmarks of sustainable-economy performance indicators, it assessed 55 companies based in the region with more than US$1 billion in annual revenue.

Corporate Knights’ director of rankings Michael Yow said Brazilian companies are more forthcoming than other companies in the region with their disclosure, which helps explain why so many made the top 10 list.

1. Alupar Investimento

One of the largest energy companies in Brazil, Alupar’s transmission lines extend across Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Peru and generate roughly 800 megawatts from power plants it operates. The company has adopted various policies that bolster its environmental bona fides, such as “replacement and recovery of native forest vegetation” and “maintenance of biodiversity of fauna and flora” in areas where Alupar has lines or power plants. Alupar also “conducts periodic assessments of water quality downstream and upstream” of its assets and offers certified carbon credits for buyers of emissions offsets.

2. Neoenergia

Wind is a key component of energy production in Brazil, accounting for 20% of the country’s needs. Neoenergia, which provides electricity to some 37 million Brazilians, has leaned into the renewable resource, with 44 wind farms across seven states. In 2023, it launched its first wind and solar hybrid project, capable of producing up to 600 megawatts in the northeastern state of Paraíba – enough to power more than one million homes. Also, the Neoenergía Institute develops community-based programs that include funding environmental research and cultural activities.

3. Energisa

Brazilian electricity company Energisa is actively decarbonizing its operations and putting its energy transition in practice. The company claims to have avoided the production of 539,000 tons of carbon dioxide in 2024 by closing diesel- and oil-fuelled thermal power plants in the Amazon region. The company has contributed to the restoration of Usina Maurício Reserve, a 300-hectare private reserve in the Minas Gerais state, with tree planting.

4. Enel Américas

Based in Chile but belonging to Italy’s Enel Group, Enel Américas is one of Latin America’s main energy producers and distributors. In 2023/2024, the company increased its renewable-energy capacity to 12,600 megawatts – around 98% of its portfolio. In 2023, the company reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by around one-third compared to the previous year thanks to more renewable-energy production and less fossil fuel generation. Enel also subscribes to a biodiversity policy of “no net loss,” with a mandate that aims to avoid having a negative impact on the environment where the company operates.

5. CEMIG

Brazilian CEMIG operates around 5,000 kilometres of transmission lines across the country and a massive distribution network spanning more than 500,000 kilometres of lines, mostly in the state of Minas Gerais. It generates electricity through dozens of power stations, mainly hydroelectric but also wind and solar. CEMIG has significantly increased its internal use of renewable energy and decreased non-renewables over recent years. It has pledged to cut non‑renewable energy consumption by 40% by 2027 while increasing the share of renewables in its own energy use.

6. Engie

Engie’s gas network is Brazil’s largest, crossing about 4,600 kilometres of territory, but almost 100% of the energy the company generates itself comes from renewable sources like wind, hydro and solar. The company has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 41% since 2017 and also reduced its waste generation and water use. The company touts multiple sustainability awards, including placing 21st on the 2025 Corporate Knights Global 100 ranking.

7. Sabesp

The Company of Basic Sanitation of the State of São Paulo (Sabesp) provides comprehensive sanitation services, including drinking water supply, sewerage and final disposal of wastewater for nearly 30 million people. Last year, Sabesp took part in IntegraTietê, a sanitation program centred in São Paulo city’s Tietê River. Among some 50 initiatives is its Partners for Impact program, which includes environmental management policies around waste and emissions, along with inclusion and social development with communities, such as job creation and education partnerships.

8. Telefônica Brasil

Through its subsidiary Vivo, Brazil’s largest telecommunications company has launched a long‑term forest‑restoration project in the Amazon that will, over 30 years, restore and protect about 800 hectares of degraded land, with the planting, regeneration and conservation of more than 900,000 native trees in one of the most deforested areas of the forest. The company uses 100% renewable energy in its operations and has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2035.

9. Paranaense Energy Company

Brazilian Paranaense Energy Company (Copel) is the main electricity distributor in Paraná state and operates in nine other states in Brazil. It was the first Brazilian electricity company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, in 1997. Copel has committed to reaching carbon neutrality among its Scope 1 emissions by 2030 and, after divesting from coal‑ and oil‑fired thermal plants, now generates 100% of its electricity from renewable sources, mostly hydroelectric power. It has tapped into Paraná’s major chicken-producing industry with pioneering biogas projects that repurpose poultry waste into electricity, and others that convert biogas into renewable hydrogen.

10. Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM)

Chilean Chemical and Mining Society is a major producer of lithium, potassium nitrate, iodine and industrial chemicals, with most of its resources and plants in the northern Atacama Desert in northern Chile, a region rich in minerals. In early 2026, it entered into a major partnership with Ivanhoe Electric for a copper exploration project. The company has come under significant scrutiny for its water usage in a highly arid region, in particular from local Indigenous communities and environmental groups. The company says it is committed to responsible practices and in 2024 invested US$33 million in areas such as environmental evaluations, environmental monitoring and mitigation measures, industrial waste management, and hazardous substance management. That year, according to its last report, the company did not receive fines or sanctions from environmental law enforcement.

Latin America Top 10 Ranking

The post 10 companies leading Latin America’s energy transition appeared first on Corporate Knights.

It should come as little surprise, then, that in Corporate Knights’ inaugural Europe 50 ranking, the top company, Schneider Electric, also achieved the highest marks in the 2025 Global 100 ranking. The French company is the only one to have topped the Global 100 twice (the other time back in 2021), and it has played a unique role in electrification efforts across a wide variety of sectors, from manufacturing light switches to pioneering new software and clean energy solutions for data centres and smart cities. Today, 74% of its €54 billion in annual revenue comes from sustainable sources, and nearly 80% of its sizeable investment portfolio has been directed into sustainable solutions.

For a company with offices in more than 100 countries and a 180-year history, these movements are a bellwether for the rest of the world. Last year, Schneider Electric joined luxury fashion group Hermès and cosmetic giant L’Oréal as one of the five largest companies in France. Its shares jumped 58% in 2024, and its market capitalization peaked in January at €152 billion.

But for Corporate Knights publisher Toby Heaps, the most interesting thing about this rise is the inflection point it represents: Schneider Electric’s valuation leapfrogged France’s largest oil and gas producer, TotalEnergies, for the first time.

“A few years ago, the sustainable economy was a niche thing,” Heaps says. “Now it’s the main game, and it’s going to determine who wins and loses, who rises and falls.” If you want to know how that game is playing out, Europe is a telling indicator.

50 companies, 31 industries, 14 countries

In many rankings of how companies perform on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, there is a tendency for “pure play” clean energy companies – or those with a sole specialization in renewables – to dominate. In the Corporate Knights methodology, revenue from sustainable sources and sustainable investment together account for half of the total score that then determines rankings. But critically, the evaluation criteria are relative. “We do not compare the performance of a bank against the performance of a mining company; we compare it against other banks,” explains Michael Yow, the director of ratings for Corporate Knights.

In the Global 100, as in other indices like the MSCI ACWI index, there are also a designated number of industry-specific spots. This not only helps avoid overrepresentation; it also makes the rankings a useful point of comparison.

The Europe 50 ranking has no industry allocations, however; it is a straight ranking. Even so, the list exhibits exceptional diversity. “I would be concerned if there were 12 or 15 companies from one industry, but that’s not the case,” Yow says.

Power generation does appear most often, with six companies making the ranking, including highly rated companies from the 2025 Global 100 like Vestas, the Danish wind-power generator, which earned the top spot in the Global 100 in 2022. But there are 30 other industries represented on the Europe 50, including retailers, a wide variety of manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, real estate companies, IT companies and more.

Take Mercedes-Benz, the only auto manufacturer on the Europe 50, which has made exceptional strides in electrifying the luxury vehicle market. Or Puma, the German sports apparel giant whose products are made, on average, of 22% recycled materials. Or Outokumpu Oyj, the Finnish steel manufacturer, which produces nearly 90% of its stainless steel sustainably and has made significant investments in new sustainability initiatives.

Other notable placements from the ranking include Pirelli, the Milan-based tire manufacturer, and Pentair, the London-based metal products company; both scored highly for the racial diversity of their boards. Unilever, the multinational consumer goods company, earned a high score for the racial diversity of its executives. Severn Trent, the U.K. wastewater treatment company, scored highly for female representation at both the executive and board levels.

The European outlook

What explains the outsized influence of European companies amidst this shift toward sustainability in global affairs? How do we make sense not only of the outsized presence of European companies on the Global 100 ranking, but also the tremendous diversity of companies on the Europe 50? There are a few key factors, Heaps suggests. The first is the regulatory environment. Rules around disclosure of sustainability performance simply do not exist to the same extent anywhere outside of Europe.

Regulations on what kinds of labels can be used, and even what kinds of products can be manufactured, for example, extend to performance, Yow explains: “Companies have to perform well on sustainability because it’s the law.”

Another key factor is leadership. Denmark has a population of just six million people, yet seven Danish companies won positions on the Europe 50. Only the United Kingdom had as many companies represented, and its population is more than 10 times that of Denmark’s. “They always punch above their weight,” Heaps says.

As of 2021, 25% of Denmark’s largest 100 companies – and 60% of the country’s stock market capitalization – are controlled by “industrial foundations,” a unique feature of the Danish economy. The controlling interest of these companies is focused not exclusively on profits, but on fostering societal advancements, innovation and long-term thinking. These companies are, in other words, operating on different time horizons by design. While the dominant Western paradigm has focused exclusively on shareholder returns to the exclusion of “externalities” like planetary and human health, the European approach is achieving a broader range of benefits and still paying off.

“Over the past five years, sustainable revenues of European companies are growing at twice the rate of all other revenues,” Heaps says. Corporate Knights will be tracking the financial performance of the Europe 50 on a go-forward basis.

The unstoppable shift toward more sustainable business models is driven primarily by sound business practices, which also happen to prioritize the planet and its people. These European companies are lighting a path that is not only more sustainable and sensible, but also more rewarding.

Tristan Bronca is a writer and editor in Newmarket, Ontario.

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Worldwide, there are more than 95,000 private companies with annual revenues over US$100 million, compared to only 10,000 public companies over that threshold, according to a 2023 report from investment management firm Hamilton Lane. Private market assets grew to US$9.7 trillion in 2022, thanks to an increasing number of private equity funds and assets, up from about US$600 billion in 2000. And while private equity markets declined the past two years, McKinsey’s Global Private Markets Report for 2025 shows that a rebound is underway, with 30% of respondents saying they plan to increase their allocations. 

Historically, private companies are more, well, private. They don’t have the same regulatory requirements to disclose information that public companies do, especially when it comes to revenues and profits. But with sustainability, there are reasons to be more forthcoming. Private companies are increasingly eager to report on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and their sustainability investments amid the public’s growing appetite for companies that are trying to be good corporate citizens. For example, a McKinsey study found that products making ESG-related claims grew on average 8% faster than those that don’t.

It’s these companies that Corporate Knights has chosen to focus on in its inaugural Private 25 Most Sustainable Corporations ranking.

Private companies can play an outsized role in setting the pace of the sustainability transition.

-Toby Heaps, co-founder and CEO of Corporate Knights

Toby Heaps, co-founder and CEO of Corporate Knights, says the ranking was a natural next step, given how eager many companies are to report on their ESG progress. “The really interesting thing about privately held companies is that their governance creates more space to make big bets and pivot to the future – in this case a sustainable future,” Heaps says.

The global list includes companies in a range of industries, from consumer goods and transportation to forest products, energy and power distribution. Companies in Europe and the United Kingdom dominate the ranking, although a few are from Canada. No U.S. companies are on the list, which Heaps says could be due to liability concerns: “U.S. corporate disclosure is subpar for public companies, and this holds for private companies as well.”

The ranking includes key performance indicators (KPIs) in areas such as energy, water, and waste, and governance factors like gender diversity. It also includes sustainable revenue and investment categories. 

The top-ranked companies scored high on sustainable KPIs and revenue/investment. For example, the first-place Netherlands-based Accell Group, which makes bicycles, e-bikes and parts and accessories, scored 100% in both the investment and revenue categories. It also scored 70% in both energy productivity and carbon productivity.

Heaps says the new annual ranking is a benchmark for private companies to improve their sustainability practices and gives consumers more information about what brands are doing to help society and the planet. “Because of their governance structure, private companies can play an outsized role in setting the pace of the sustainability transition – and this ranking shows which companies are leading the way.”

1. Accell Group NV

Purpose-driven bicycle maker

Netherlands-based Accell Group makes bicycles and e-bikes that are sold in more than 80 countries. Its stable of brands includes Haibike, Raleigh and Babboe. The purpose-driven company says it doesn’t just build bikes: “We’re creating experiences that move the world forward,” supporting healthy citizens, livable cities and a healthier environment. “We are convinced that sustainable production and products will ultimately add value to our company, which will in turn create new opportunities.”

2. Dolomiti Energia Holding SpA

Italian renewables powerhouse

Dolomiti Energia Holding is an Italy-based company that distributes electricity, natural gas, heat and water through its multiple subsidiaries. It also has business in electric mobility and environmental services. The company says it generates an average of almost 4,000 gigawatt hours of electricity, 98% from certified renewable sources, mostly hydroelectric power. It also says it has installed capacity of around 28 megawatts of wind power and is developing photovoltaic plants with a planned capacity of approximately 58 MW.

3. Amprion GmbH  

Grid transition enabler

Amprion is one of four transmission system operators in Germany. Its 11,000-kilometre-long high-voltage network transports electricity from the North Sea to the Alps, covering a population of 29 million people. Amprion says it’s “paving the way” for Europe’s energy transition to provide a climate-neutral, safe, secure and efficient energy system. A new project to transport wind energy to the Ruhr region “will make an important contribution to the security of supply in Germany and Europe in the future” as early as 2030, Amprion CTO Hendrik Neumann says.

4. Adevinta ASA

Circular-consumption champion

Norway-based Adevinta is an online classifieds group behind many popular digital marketplaces: Kijiji in Canada, leboncoin in France and Subito in Italy, among others. Through these platforms, Adevinta promotes “circular consumption” for individuals and businesses worldwide. The company’s “second-hand effect” conserves energy and raw materials, reduces greenhouse gases and minimizes waste. 

5. Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG

Sustainable development bank

Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB) – or Austrian Control Bank – is a special-purpose financial institution owned by Austria’s main banks. Part of its activity is carried out on behalf of the Austrian government and backed by the state budget. OeKB focuses on five service areas: export, capital markets, energy markets, development financing and tourism. Its development bank provides concessional loans, or so-called soft loans, for sustainable projects that are implemented by Austrian companies in less developed countries. “Orientation towards the [UN] Sustainable Development Goals is a lived reality at OeKB,” board member Angelika Sommer-Hemetsberger says. 

6. Énergir 

Greening power distributor

Énergir is a Canada-based distributor of renewable and conventional gas, solar and wind power, and hydroelectricity for 525,000 customers in Quebec and Vermont. Last year, it attracted $575 million in investments to help it roll out its decarbonization plan and announced that all new customers will be powered by 100% renewable energy. “We have made promising commitments for the future, further extending our willingness to be part of the solution,” president and CEO Éric Lachance said.

7. BGIS

Eco-friendly facilities management

Heating and cooling buildings accounts for about 33% of greenhouse gas emissions globally, which is why driving down those emissions is central to BGIS (Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions) – a Canada-based facilities management and real estate services company. The company promotes sustainable practices that reduce energy use, conserve water and reduce waste. “On an annual basis, we identify 15,000 metric tons of [carbon dioxide equivalent] savings for our clients,” BGIS says.

8. Heathrow SP Ltd

Pursuing low-carbon air travel

Flying is notoriously carbon intensive, but Heathrow SP Ltd., the company behind London’s Heathrow Airport, is working on cutting up to 15% carbon “in the air” by 2030 (using waste-based aviation fuels) and at least 45% carbon “on the ground” by 2030. Since 2019, it has cut air carbon by 7.5% and ground carbon by 15%. “Even during a traditionally quiet month for aviation in February, we saw sustained and growing demand to fly and export through Heathrow,” CEO Thomas Woldbye says. “Reaching net-zero as we grow remains vital.”

9. Motability Operations

Electrified mobility backer

London-based Motability Operations runs the Motability Scheme, a U.K. program to help people with disabilities lease new cars, scooters or powered wheelchairs. The company aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement, largely by helping its customers switch to electric vehicles. The company says it has transitioned more than 70,000 customers to date. It is also helping to address barriers to shifting to EVs by covering the cost of insurance and servicing and by providing a charging card that facilitates powering up at more than 50,000 charge points. 

10. Go-Ahead Group Ltd

Net-zero-aligned transporter

Go-Ahead is a U.K.-based bus and rail operator for public transport. It runs a fleet of more than 6,000 electric buses across England and a quarter of the buses for London’s transport network. Internationally, the company operates buses in Singapore, Ireland, Sweden and Australia, as well as rail franchises in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway. Go-Ahead aims to become a net-zero business by 2045 and has outlined clear milestones along the way, including decarbonizing its bus fleet and eliminating all remaining diesel trains from its networks by 2035.

11. Kruger Products Inc

Responsible paper products

Kruger Products is a maker of well-known tissue, paper and packaging products such as Scotties, Purex and Sponge Towels. The Canadian company says it recycles thousands of tonnes of paper and paperboard and works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at its plants across North America. The company says it is committed to sourcing only third-party certified fibre and has a large portfolio of offerings certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

12. Biffa PLC

Conscientious waste management

U.K.-based Biffa is an integrated waste-management business that also provides technology-driven energy-generation services for commercial, industrial and public-sector customers throughout the United Kingdom. Biffa has a partnership with Company Shop Group to collect and redistribute surplus food. The company also does environmental work with WasteAid, an independent charity working with communities in low-income countries to share simple, low-cost ways to cut back on waste. Biffa says it has reduced carbon emissions by 70% since 2002 and aims to be net-zero by 2050. 

13. Voith GmbH & Co KGaA

Industrial sustainability leader

The Voith Group is a major Germany-based technology company operating in the energy, paper, raw materials, transport and automotive sectors. Voith’s biggest sustainable claim to fame: a quarter of the energy generated worldwide from hydropower is produced with turbines and generators from Voith Hydro. “Industrial sustainability is our business model,” former CEO Toralf Haag said. “In this way, we make a decisive contribution to a climate-neutral industry and at the same time secure our growth.” Jan Lüder, incoming CEO of Voith Hydro, is poised to grow the company’s hydro operations to capitalize on the growth opportunities of the global energy transition.

14. Tod’s SpA

Conscious Italian footwear

The Tod’s Group is an Italian luxury footwear, leather goods and clothing company, behind its brands Tod’s, Roger Vivier, Hogan and Fay. The company says that 100% of its energy for its Italian operations comes from renewable sources and that about 6,000 recovered leather goods and linings were included in upcycling projects. It also aims for gender diversity: 58% of managers are women. It has a particular interest in fostering the local economy, with 99% of its raw materials for its Italian operations purchased from local suppliers.

15. Robert Bosch GmbH 

Sustainable tech solutions

The Bosch Group is a Germany-based technology and services company best known for its appliances, but it also has activities in mobility, industrial technology, and energy and building technology. By 2023, Bosch reported that 99% of its electricity requirements were met by green energy. The company says that it plans to spend more than a billion euros on heat-pump technology and that it will invest roughly €2.5 billion in hydrogen technologies between 2021 and 2026. It has committed to investing €1 billion to increasing energy efficiency by 2030.

16. Sofidel SpA

Low-impact paper producer

Italy-based Sofidel is a global manufacturer of tissue paper whose best-known brand is Regina. The company has committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Some of the actions underway include using new technologies to boost energy efficiency, moving to electrification, and using more renewable energy, bio-based fuels and green hydrogen. The company has also committed to employing more forest management practices, reusing and reducing packaging with renewable materials, and exploring carbon-removal technologies. 

17. Ikea

Eco-savvy furniture maker

Founded in 1943, popular home-furnishing company Ikea has committed to halving its value-chain emissions by 2030 and reaching net-zero by 2050. The company says it has already shrunk its total climate footprint by 22% compared to 2016 – with half those reductions made in the last year alone. The company is focusing on using only “responsibly sourced renewable or recycled materials.” More than 9,500 of its products have been assessed for circularity, and more than 23 million assembly parts were offered to customers in 2023 to extend the life of their products. 

18 Topsoe A/S

Carbon-reduction innovator

Denmark-based Topsoe, founded in 1940, makes emission-reduction technologies, helping to turn renewable resources into fuels and chemicals. Some of its early technologies included solutions to reduce sulfur and other pollutants from fossil fuel emissions to environmentally safe levels. Today, its products support the energy transition by using feedstock and used cooking oil to decarbonize fuel. Some of its recent projects include lending its technology to China’s Chuangui New Energy company to help it avoid an estimated 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by using sustainable aviation fuels and renewable diesel.

19. Assemblin Caverion Group AB 

Smart building services

Sweden-based Assemblin Caverion Group is a northern and central European technical-service and -installation company formed in 2024 from the merger of Assemblin and Caverion. Its main activities include building services such as mechanical, electrical, plumbing, HVAC and building automation, as well as smart technologies and digital solutions. In 2023, Assemblin boosted its proportion of electric and hybrid vehicles to 24% and decreased its carbon footprint per employee by 6.7%. 

20. Domtar Corp (formerly Paper Excellence Group)

Paper products powered by renewables

Paper Excellence Group is a forest-products company rebranded as Domtar Corp. in 2024. Domtar has dual headquarters in the United States and Canada, and it produces more than nine million tonnes of pulp, paper, packaging and tissue and about three billion board feet of lumber and other wood products. The company’s 2023 sustainability report says that it used 66% renewable energy in its pulp and paper mills and that 59% of the electricity in its mills was self-generated. 

21. Tetra Pak AB

Packaging innovator 

Switzerland-based Tetra Pak, known for its food and beverage packaging, also makes processing equipment, filling machines, distribution equipment and spare parts. The company says it used 89% renewable energy across its operation in 2023 and reduced emissions across its value chain by 20% compared to its 2019 baseline. Tetra Pak gets 6% of its revenue from making plant-based packaging and has plowed roughly one-third of its investments into collection and recycling projects, as well as solar power. 

22. Lego A/S

Greener toys 

The Lego Group is the company behind the famous Lego bricks. Based in Denmark, with manufacturing facilities worldwide, the company has a target to reduce  emissions by 37% by 2032, compared to 2019, and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. That means reducing waste and water usage and eliminating single-use plastic from all its products. The company says that in 2025 it will have doubled its spending on sustainable initiatives compared to 2023. In February, it announced it was introducing Lego pieces containing recycled materials from engine oil and fishing nets.

23. ContourGlobal Ltd 

Transition-forward power producer

U.K.-based ContourGlobal is an independent power producer that manages about 6.2 gigawatts of installed capacity in 18 countries. Its sustainability strategy covers four areas: decarbonization, performance optimization, development and partnership growth, and portfolio innovation in emerging clean technologies. The company recently closed a green bond offering that will help it transition to predominantly renewable sources of power. To do that, it’s working on accelerating renewable-energy development and scaling up battery storage.

24. Imperial Logistics Ltd

Responsible logistics

Imperial Logistics provides logistics and supply-chain management services across industries, mostly in Africa and Europe. Its supply-chain control-tower services leverage data analytics and automation to improve efficiency throughout supply chains. Imperial is also piloting more efficient truck technologies and working to reduce water consumption and manage hazardous chemicals and waste. In 2022, Imperial became a wholly owned business of DP World.

25. Celulosa Arauco y Constitución

Ethically produced paper 

Also known as Celco or Arauco, Celulosa is a Chilean wood, pulp, engineered wood and forestry company. It says it is the first forestry company in the world to be certified as carbon-neutral. It uses cellulose and the pulp of pine and eucalyptus trees to produce sustainable fibres for textiles, packaging products, hygiene products such as diapers, and a wide range of engineered wood planks. In its 2023 sustainability report, the company said that it had planted 131.6 million trees in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, harvested 19.7 million and purchased 6.5 million cubic metres of timber.

Brenda Bouw is a freelance writer and editor based in Vancouver.

Read more: The 2025 Public 25 most sustainable public-sector companies in the world

*N/A: Not applicable. Banks, asset management and insurance peer groups are not assessed on the sustainable investment KPI. The weight of this KPI has been reweighted to the sustainable revenue KPI.

Methodology

Our methodology for the new Corporate Knights Private 25 and Public 25 rankings uses a mix of fixed- and variable-weight ESG and sustainable-economy KPIs to score companies against their peers. We measure the share of revenues and investments that are included in the Corporate Knights Sustainable Economy Taxonomy and percent rank those ratios against the company’s CKPG (Corporate Knights Peer Group). We then give equal weight to the ratios and the percent ranks in awarding up to 25 points for sustainable revenue and up to 25 points for sustainable investment, for a total of 50 possible points.

The other 50 points are allocated to 10 ESG KPIs, including productivities for energy, carbon, waste and water, along with board and executive gender and racial diversity, taxes paid and injury rate. In addition, penalties are levied against overall scores for a number of factors, including injuries and fatalities.

The post The 25 most sustainable private companies in the world appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Canadian public-sector companies represent an outsized share of the effort, representing more than half, or 13, of the top 25, in addition to companies from across Europe and Australia.

From the ranking leader Hydro-Québec’s $155-billion green-energy expansion plan, to 12th-place Bpifrance bank’s financing solar and wind power loans, the inaugural list shows how investments in renewable energy pay off. There’s a continued push toward innovation, such as that displayed by the Royal Canadian Mint (#4) and the purchase of equipment that boosts the amount of material it recovers from its silver bullion blanking process. While the United Kingdom’s Network Rail Ltd. (#7) has drawn revenue by electrifying routes, Farm Credit Canada has seen returns on “women entrepreneur loans” totalling more than $2.9 billion.

1. Hydro-Québec

Hydro-Québec has been a leader in clean hydroelectric energy for the last 75 years, the exports of which have enriched the province to the tune of $4 billion in 2024 alone. Now, the company is boosting its investments in windenergy. Already, 44 wind farms generate more than 4,000 megawatts (MW), and that figure will climb to 10,000 MW as part of Hydro-Québec’s Action Plan 2035. This future power output – enough for about two million households – is a critical element of its strategy to decarbonize sectors like transportation and building heating. This all part of the utilities program to invest between $155 and $185 billion in green energy by 2035.

2. Toronto Hydro

Toronto Hydro is the final leg of electricity delivery to nearly 1.7 million households in Canada’s largest city. By 2040, the company has pledged to reach net-zero emissions in its operations, which will expand in an effort to help the city reach its own net-zero goals. Toronto Hydro estimates it will invest $10 billion in climate infrastructure across the city – EV charging, equipment renewal, etc. – before 2050, and 75% of the city’s net-zero strategy relies on these investments. Toronto Hydro reported that in 2022, there was an 8% reduction in its emissions over the previous year, representing a 40% reduction over 2018.

3. Statnett

“We are facing an increasingly challenging threat landscape,” says Statnett CFO and executive vice president Cathrine Lund Larsen, referring to geopolitical tensions in Europe and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events. Despite these challenges, the owner-operator of Norway’s transmission grid recorded 1.7 billion kroner in profit for 2024. The company plans to more than double its investment in the country’s power systems over the next 10 years. It will do so under new sustainability reporting requirements, with carbon dioxide pricing on construction contracts, and with a focus on minimizing the impact on Norway’s natural areas.

4. Royal Canadian Mint

In 2023, Canada’s coin producer released its inaugural Impact Report and committed to making its manufacturing carbon-neutral by 2030. To meet this goal, the Royal Canadian Mint has taken major steps, including a massive investment in new geothermal power infrastructure at the Winnipeg Mint. In 2023, the Mint offset 491 tonnes of emissions, and it is now pioneering more sustainable methods of gold refining and mineral sourcing. Today, thanks to the Mint’s sustainability and recycling efforts, 88% of coins in circulation are recirculated, dramatically curbing the demand for new coin production.

5. Alectra

Alectra is a utilities company that services more than one million homes and businesses around the Greater Toronto Area. Since the inception of its Green Energy and Technology Centre – described by Brian Bentz, the company’s president and CEO, as “the think tank, collaboration hub, and ground zero for innovation” – Alectra has launched new initiatives to modernize the grid, use AI for infrastructure management and explore multiple pilot projects for incorporating new technology. Since 2016, the company has achieved about a 17% reduction in its own emissions and has pledged to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

6. Société de Transport de Montréal

The Société de Transport de Montréal has been a force for economic growth and sustainable development in Quebec. The service transports 1.1 million people on average on a business day, and its ridership has been growing, with 2024 seeing a 9.2% increase over 2023. According to its Sustainable Development Plan 2030 and a 2016 study, roughly 20 tonnes of emissions can be saved for every one that STM emits. STM is currently electrifying its fleet and implementing new improvements to its bus and rail infrastructure; currently, 48.6% of its bus fleet is either hybrid or electric. Two of STM’s projects have been LEED Gold-certified, and two major infrastructure projects have received the Envision award.

7. Network Rail

Network Rail owns, operates and develops more than 20,000 miles of track; 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts; and thousands of transit stations across the United Kingdom. The company is aiming to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its operations by 2050 and has taken major steps toward achieving that goal, including electrifying the busiest parts of its system, purchasing more renewable energy and trialling new hydrogen and battery trains. These sustainability plans also require building more resilient infrastructure to account for increasingly severe weather events, and the creation of biodiverse havens across 52,000 hectares of land occupied by its rail networks.

8. Export Development Canada

Export Development Canada is a crown corporation that strategically invests to help Canadian companies expand internationally. Since pledging to reach net-zero emissions in 2050, EDC set a number of interim targets that it has achieved ahead of schedule. In 2023, EDC provided a record $12.2 billion in support for cleantech businesses, beating its target of $10 billion by 2025. The corporation also reduced its exposure to its most carbon-intensive sectors – including upstream oil and gas – by 69% over 2018, exceeding the original 45% target. This year, EDC introduced a new framework to classify, track and report on the sustainability of all its investments.

9. Fingrid

Finland has a famously clean energy system. Last year, 95% of the country’s power production was emission-free thanks to the preponderance of nuclear and wind power. Now that the country’s energy needs are rising quickly, Fingrid, the public company that administers the country’s grid, has risen to meet the challenge. The amount of energy produced by wind energy is expected to rise to 9,500 MW, up from just 1,800 MW five years ago, and the company is now offering green bonds to help finance €4 billion in investments to help the country meet its net-zero targets by 2035.

10. Statkraft

Statkraft is Norway’s energy producer and the largest generator of renewable energy in Europe, including hydropower, wind power – with a portfolio that has expanded to include projects in South America and India – and solar. In total, about 97% of the energy Statkraft generates comes from renewables, and 100% of its profits are reinvested in renewables, both in own operations and across a wide range of initiatives in biofuels and green hydrogen.

11. Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board

Manitoba Hydro has been quantifying and reporting its own greenhouse gas emissions for the last 30 years. The crown corporation is one of the largest integrated electricity and natural gas utility companies in Canada, serving more than 600,000 electricity customers and nearly 300,000 for natural gas. Nearly all of Manitoba’s electricity – an estimated 99.6% – comes from renewables. The company had set a voluntary threshold for emissions on its operations of 520 kilotonnes (kt) based on stepwise reductions from 1990 levels. In 2023, it came in at just 128 kt: 75% lower than its target.

12. Bpifrance

Bpifrance is a French public-sector bank that bills itself as a “one stop shop for entrepreneurs.” The bank has more than €100 billion in assets and strategically invests in initiatives to promote a “more inclusive and sustainable French economy.” That now includes €7.6 billion in financing for projects powering the country’s ecological and energy transition, and a commitment to exclude coal, gas and oil from its investments. Bpifrance has also committed to reducing its own emissions by 55% before 2030 and has received exemplary assessments from five separate ESG ratings agencies.

13. EPCOR Utilities

“The ironic thing about sustainability is that it’s hard to sustain” – it’s an odd sentiment to hear in a sustainability report, but it’s one that underscores EPCOR’s commitment to getting its strategy right. Formerly the Edmonton Power Corporation, EPCOR manages the city’s water, wastewater, natural gas and electricity distribution. It also operates in other Canadian provinces and in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The utility spent years fine-tuning its sustainability strategy to ensure that it made sense long-term. That evolution has resulted in reductions in EPCOR’s gas emissions, a 95% wastewater reuse rate in parched regions of the United States, and $4.9 billion in economic value delivered across multiple jurisdictions.

14. Vygruppen

The Vy Group is the largest land-based transport group in the Nordic countries. Owned by the Norwegian government, it operates rail passenger services, bus fleets, freight services, as well as in various tourism capacities. Last year, the company transported 213 million passengers, an emissions savings of about 400,000 passenger vehicles. Vy has developed a set of guidelines aimed at saving the country one million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by the end of this year. In pursuit of this goal, it has already electrified nearly half of its fleet of buses and continues to expand less carbon-intensive forms of transport.

15. British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority

BC Hydro services 95% of British Columbia’s population – more than five million people. The company boasts some of the cleanest power generation anywhere in North America, with 91% of its power coming from hydroelectric sources. Its subsidiary, Powerex, is a net exporter of clean energy to Alberta, Washington State, Oregon and California. Though BC Hydro contributes less than 1% of the province’s total emissions, by 2023 the company had already achieved a 61% reduction in emissions over its baseline. New studies and programs are underway to help the company better deal with climate-related risks, including fires, drought and storms.

16. NBN

NBN is Australia’s broadband provider, a company tasked with building and operating the network that connects the island continent. About seven in 10 homes and businesses in rural and regional Australia are currently served by fixed-line technology, but by the end of this year, NBN’s network upgrades will ensure that 1.6 million more Australians have access to fibre connections. In a country that is uniquely vulnerable to climate risks, NBN’s goal is to “operate a climate-resilient, resource-efficient network.” In 2024, the company lowered its emissions 19% compared to its 2021 baseline and pledged to implement 100% renewable-energy use for its own operations by the end of this year.

17. Alliander

Alliander is the developer and operator of the Netherlands’ energy networks. Last year, the Dutch company’s operations were carbon-neutral, a feat it achieved by greening its fleet of vehicles, reducing energy use in its buildings and IT systems, and limiting grid losses. But there is more work to be done. Electricity accounts for about 18% of the country’s total energy use, but that figure is expected to rise to 50% by 2050. Last year alone, the company invested €1.8 billion in its infrastructure, and there is now additional focus on eliminating supply-chain-related emissions.

18. European Investment Bank

The European Investment Bank is the European Union’s investment bank and one of the largest financial institutions in the world. It is also one of the biggest green financiers globally. It was the world’s first financial institution to issue green bonds, back in 2007, and in 2019, it announced that it would stop funding fossil fuel projects – a move that accompanied a promise to invest €1 trillion in climate and environmental projects by 2030. Most recently, those projects include a major hydroelectric project in Spain and renewable-energy initiatives in Chile, among many others. In 2024, the bank invested an estimated €44.8 billion in climate action and environmental sustainability, which was about 60% of its total financing.

19. Farm Credit Canada

With the global population expected to increase to 9.7 billion by 2050, Canada remains one of very few nations capable of meeting the projected demand for agricultural production. Facing unprecedented natural threats, Farm Credit Canada has mobilized new resources to support a wide range of producers – from Quebec’s maple syrup sector, whose yields suffered from unseasonable warmth in 2023, to B.C. winemakers whose vines were destroyed by the 2022 winter, to Alberta farmers affected by record-breaking wildfires. Last year, FCC invested $2.2 million in new agricultural tech and awarded more than $825,000 to promote new sustainable farming practices.

20. PostNord

PostNord is a logistics company jointly owned by Sweden and Denmark. In 2023, it delivered 243 million parcels across a network that spans virtually all the countries in the world. PostNord has taken steps to make its fleet emissions-free by 2030. This effort began with its “green corridors” initiative. PostNord’s routes between its largest cities and terminals are now fossil-fuel free, a move that has already saved more than 3,000 tonnes of emissions. As a result, today about 40% of deliveries to Swedish recipients – about 3.9 million parcels – are made sustainably.

21. Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation

SaskTel is Saskatchewan’s telecom company. It operates the province’s landlines, mobile networks and internet services. Since 2008, it has been publicly recognized as “one of Canada’s greenest employers,” not only for its work reducing emissions in its operations, but for minimizing waste and for its employee-driven community initiatives. In total, SaskTel donated $2.9 million in not-for-profit and charitable sponsorships last year, recycled more than 143,000 phones, and raised additional funds to support new biodiversity projects.

22. Electricity Supply Board

Ireland aims to decarbonize its electricity system by 2040. The Electricity Supply Board, which is owned and operated by the Irish government, supplies electricity and gas to almost 1.9 million customers across the island. In 2024, it connected 534 MW of new renewable electricity generation to the grid. By 2030, the company aims to meet 80% of demand from renewables, including not just wind and solar, but dedicated zero-emission gas-fired power generation from biomethane and hydrogen. These efforts also include a plan to actively restore ecosystems affected by ESB’s projects – both on land and offshore.

23. Ontario Power Generation

Ontario Power Generation administers approximately 160 power stations, including more than 150 hydroelectric stations, thermal stations, solar facilities and wind generation stations. But almost half of the 18,000-plus MW of power generated comes from just three nuclear power plants. Now, the Darlington plant is the first in North America to develop small modular reactors.

24. Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (Codelco)

The mining industry has a sustainability problem, says Codelco CEO Rubén Alvarado Vigar. In a 2023 letter, the head of the largest copper producer on the planet wrote that his “obligation is to trigger a profound break so that we become a sustainable industry that cares about the environment.” The company has made six commitments to this end, including implementing a clean electrical matrix, reducing inland water use, recycling 65% of non-hazardous waste, introducing new controls around tailings facilities, and improving air quality.

25. Canada Post

As of early 2024, there were fewer than 10 companies globally in the logistics and transportation sector to have a net-zero target recognized by the Science Based Targets initiative; Canada Post was one of them. In 2023, the Crown corporation delivered 168 million carbon-neutral shipments, alongside several other environmental achievements, including a 18.9% reduction in emissions and the diversion of 67% of waste from landfills. The company continues to pursue its goal of reaching net-zero emissions across its entire value chain by 2050.

Tristan Bronca is an award-winning magazine writer and editor based in Toronto. 

Read more: The 2025 Private 25 most sustainable private companies in the world

*N/A: Not applicable. Banks, asset management and insurance peer groups are not assessed on the sustainable investment KPI. The weight of this KPI has been reweighted to the sustainable revenue KPI. 

Methodology

Our methodology for the new Corporate Knights Private 25 and Public 25 rankings uses a mix of fixed- and variable-weight ESG and sustainable-economy KPIs to score companies against their peers. We measure the share of revenues and investments that are included in the Corporate Knights Sustainable Economy Taxonomy and percent rank those ratios against the company’s CKPG (Corporate Knights Peer Group). We then give equal weight to the ratios and the percent ranks in awarding up to 25 points for sustainable revenue and up to 25 points for sustainable investment, for a total of 50 possible points.

The other 50 points are allocated to 10 ESG KPIs, including productivities for energy, carbon, waste and water, along with board and executive gender and racial diversity, taxes paid and injury rate. In addition, penalties are levied against overall scores for a number of factors, including injuries and fatalities.

The post The 25 most sustainable public-sector companies in the world appeared first on Corporate Knights.

With the costs of renewable energy now falling below the price of most fossil fuels, this day of reckoning is coming closer. But it’s not here yet – which is why Corporate Knights is publishing its second annual dashboard measuring the transition-readiness of Canada’s largest investors: its giant pension funds. Our new report, produced in collaboration with the Ottawa-based Smart Prosperity Institute and funded by the Trottier Family Foundation, finds that pension managers’ support for the green transition is growing but still nowhere near the pace required to meet global net-zero-carbon targets.

The good news in the second Canadian Pensions Dashboard for Responsible Investing, released March 22 and based on 2021 data, is that our pension funds are starting to embrace sustainability. The new report analyzes 14 funds, which represent more than 50% of Canada’s total pension fund assets. This year, the number of large Canadian funds that have committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 rose from just two funds to nine – representing $1.8 trillion, or 81% of the total pension assets under evaluation. The amount of these pension funds’ actual investments labelled as “sustainable” rose to $276 billion in 2021, up from just $163 billion a year earlier.

The dashboard shows that sustainable investments composed nearly 13% of the pension funds’ total assets of $2.2 trillion, versus just 7% of $2.1 trillion at the end of 2020. This jump brings the Canadian industry within shooting distance of the 20%-of-assets threshold – which analysts believe marks the point at which a country’s pension funds play a significant role in its energy transition.

But it’s early in the transition, and these numbers are still soft, notes Matt Malinsky, research manager for Corporate Knights and lead author of the report. Since there is still no Canadian standard for determining the true sustainability of any investment, companies can make all the claims they like. A group of finance experts tasked with developing a definitive taxonomy of sustainability for Canadian investors has just filed a preliminary roadmap, but they likely won’t publish a detailed taxonomy until 2025.

The goal of the Canadian Pensions Dashboard for Responsible Investing isn’t just to rate the pension industry’s progress – but to spur progress, says Malinsky. “These professionals control a vast amount of capital. They have a big role to play in facilitating the transition to a low-carbon economy.” If Canada’s pension fund managers don’t take sustainability seriously, he adds, “they could get caught with stranded assets, which will cost their pensioners a lot.”

Malinsky says that since Canadian pension funds haven’t been as climate-focused as their counterparts in Europe, “we didn’t go into this expecting them to be leaders.” The overall results, he says, “reinforced our preconceived notions that they weren’t hitting a number of the best-practice indicators yet – but I think we’re starting to see the pressure grow.”

Read the full report.

The new dashboard provides glimpses of progress. For instance, in 2021, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan managed to reduce the carbon intensity of its investment portfolio by a hefty 32%. Other top performers were OMERS (the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System), which decreased its portfolio’s carbon intensity by 26%, and AIMCo (Alberta Investment Management Corp.), down 18%.

Another good sign: sustainability values are increasingly being “baked into” the pension industry. Ten large funds (up from four the previous year) now tie their executives’ compensation to the achievement of sustainability targets – although the details, including the percentage of executive pay tied to these targets, have not been disclosed.

The report also reveals a marked increase in the environmental and social (E&S) competencies found among pension-fund board directors. Qualitative research into fund directors’ backgrounds, publications and LinkedIn profiles revealed that the percentage of E&S-competent board members more than doubled over the previous report, reaching an average of 34%. Leading the pack are five boards – including the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board – that now include 50% or more directors truly qualified to understand what’s at stake.

But pension funds showed scant progress on diversity measures. In its assessment of both gender and racial diversity for the funds’ top management and their boards of directors, the new report rates the average fund’s diversity quotient at 26% – virtually the same score as the previous year.

The report includes a number of recommendations, written with the Smart Prosperity Institute, to help governments and pension funds continue to make progress. Given the fragmented regulatory structure governing pension funds, the report urges the federal and provincial governments to take “a coordinated approach” to developing policies that will prod the industry to do better.

The report also calls on pension funds to provide more transparency on how they define “green” investments, to track international sustainability standards, and to keep pressuring the businesses in which they invest to improve their own disclosures. The report suggests that pension funds develop portfolios of sustainable investments that represent at least 20% of their total assets under management – to ensure they’re doing their part to build a better planet.

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How one company cut more carbon than any other on the planet

BY Naomi Buck

How Europe’s largest utility managed to shrink emissions by more than half over the last decade while growing

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No longer. In an era of increased electrification and decarbonization, electric utilities are playing a decisive role in shaping the clean economy of tomorrow. Enel, Europe’s largest utility and the second-largest power company in the world, is leading the charge when it comes to slashing carbon emissions, as its top ranking on the Corporate Knights Carbon Reduction 20 list suggests.   

Established in 1962 as Italy’s National Electricity Board (Ente nazionale per l’energia elettrica) and privatized in 1992, Enel now operates in more than 30 countries, running the largest electrical distribution network in the world. It is the main power provider in several countries, including Italy, Spain and Chile. In the last decade, the utility has pursued what Salvatore Bernabei, the CEO of the company’s renewable subsidiary Enel Green Power, calls a “consistent plan of closure,” shuttering most of its coal plants and replacing them with a lot of wind and solar (and a little geothermal and natural gas), thereby reducing its total greenhouse gas emissions by more than 73 million tonnes – a larger reduction than any other company in the world. Kudos aside, Enel is still the fourth-largest producer of carbon emissions in Europe. But its reduction in the last decade is exceptional, as is its revenue growth over the same period – an increase of 38% to €115 billion in 2022 – which has moved it into turf otherwise occupied by the oil giants and allowed it to call itself, in a snub at those, a “renewable supermajor.”   

Bernabei, an engineering manager by training, ascended Enel’s ranks in positions across Europe and South America before being named head of Enel Green Power in 2020. He attributes Enel’s successful decarbonization journey to a combination of enlightened leadership and economic common sense.  

“It was very pragmatic and needed,” he says on a call from Enel’s headquarters in Rome, citing 2013 as a turning point when, for the first time, Enel bid on renewables – wind, solar and hydro – rather than coal at auctions for baseload power capacity in Chile. “The Chileans thought we were joking,” he says. It was no joke; renewables were finally cost-competitive with coal. “Coal just didn’t make economic sense anymore,” Bernabei says.  

Affirming this view was Enel’s new CEO, Francesco Starace. A nuclear engineer who started his career developing oil-fired generation plants for global power giants, Starace announced bold plans when he took the helm at Enel in 2014. The utility would be leaving the business of large-scale centralized power generation: closing all its coal plants by 2027 and tripling its renewable energy capacity by 2030. Ninety percent of the €17 billion Enel planned to invest in growth between 2016 and 2019 would go toward renewables and grid modernization.   

Enel’s new direction went over well in climate action circles. Greenpeace, which had been targeting Enel’s Italian coal plants for years – blockading them, spray-painting their chimneys – changed its tune entirely. In 2015, Giuseppe Onufrio, executive director of Greenpeace Italy, lauded the company’s new business model and projected that Enel was on track to become the “first truly green energy giant.”  

Closing coal plants makes sense in an era of climate change, but that doesn’t make it easy. According to Bernabei, less than ten of the 50 coal plants that Enel was running in 2016 are still in operation. Some closures have involved major write-downs. But Bernabei says that persuading Enel’s shareholders – the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance is the main one, at 24% – of the necessity of closures hasn’t been difficult, as the economic arguments are “obvious.” Far more challenging has been selling these closures to local communities that fear for their livelihoods, and systems operators and engineers who, as he puts it, “are much happier managing three coal plants than 3,000 photovoltaic installations.”  

Nonetheless, Enel has remained steadfast in its closure schedule – and its commitment to address social impacts by retraining employees to work in the renewables sector. Bernabei says that typically, at the time of closure, half of the plant employees are reaching retirement age and the other half can be reskilled to work in renewables or industries associated with them, like electric mobility.  

Enel is determined to demonstrate that the end of coal represents other beginnings.  In September, the company completed closure of its last coal plant in Chile, Bocamina II, the first power company in the country to exit coal entirely. In the years leading up to its decommissioning, Enel signed contracts with local cement companies, agreeing to supply them with the plant’s gypsum and ash by-products, reducing both plant waste and the emissions generated in the procurement of those materials. The former coal plant site has been renaturalized and is home to an outdoor art gallery featuring wall murals by local artists. 

Bernabei acknowledges that Enel’s retreat from coal has been facilitated by the fact that most of its operations are in countries where coal is being imported, not mined, and that the challenge is much greater in countries with major coal industries, like Germany. Regardless, he’s adamant that coal’s days are numbered: “Either you shout about it or you just do it,” he says.   

But twice in recent years, Enel has opted to sell rather than decommission coal operations – at Reftinskaya in Russia in 2019 (Russia’s largest thermal power plant) and Novaky and Vojany in Slovakia in 2016 – eliminating their emissions from its own but not the global balance sheet. And as Russia strangles its supply of natural gas to Europe, Enel says it’s keeping some coal plants running to “provide energy security in this emergency phase.”   

Furthermore, critics point out that 30% of Enel’s total capacity is still derived from natural gas. At the Fusina power station in Italy, coal is being replaced by natural gas. And in light of Russia’s recent pipeline closures, Enel is considering reviving its Porto Empedocle LNG terminal project in Sicily though it reiterates that its overall strategy does not include LNG-related activities. The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change affirms the critical importance of reducing, not augmenting, fossil fuel installations, which, by definition, lock in emissions in the medium-term.

But with its plans to phase out natural gas by 2040, Enel is still ahead of most. Bernabei considers coal and gas necessary and legitimate backup options that, over time, will be rendered superfluous by a combination of market forces and improvements in storage technology.  

A green lab for a gas-free future  

Italy’s sun-kissed Mediterranean island of Sardinia serves as an example of just how quickly this can happen. Since the Italian government’s 2017 announcement of a nation-wide phase-out of coal by 2025, Enel had been planning to replace its coal plant on Sardinia with a gas-powered one. But on closer examination, it became clear that by linking Sardinia to the Italian mainland by cable – a process currently underway with the construction of a “Tyrrhenian Link” that will connect Sicily and Sardinia to the national grid – and boosting the island’s production of solar, wind and hydroelectric power, the gas phase could be skipped and the transition to renewables achieved right away. Bernabei says that by 2027, Sardinia will be powered by wind, sun and water alone.   

It makes for excellent marketing – the popular tourist destination can now boast sustainability on top of its legendary Costa Smeralda – and thousands of new jobs in the electrification sector. It also makes for a better bottom line. Bernabei says that from the utility’s standpoint, renewables plus storage is now a cheaper solution on Sardinia than gas and that this argument will soon pertain in more contexts as technologies, particularly in gravitational and thermal storage, improve.  

While Sardinia is exceptional in its abundance of wind and solar power, these are the energy sources that Enel is relying on most heavily in the decarbonization of its network. Hydro and nuclear power are, in Bernabei’s words, “not expedient,” both involving massive investment over long periods of time, unlike solar and wind, whose plants are smaller and can be built on more flexible business plans. Furthermore, Europe is running out of locations for new hydro installations.   

Of Enel’s total power production, renewables now make up 49%, up from 24% a decade ago; over the same period, the portion derived from wind has risen significantly, from 3% to 17%. In 2021 alone, Enel built some 70 renewable power plants, mainly wind and solar, and most in Latin and North America, as well as battery energy storage systems in the United States. Enel expects its total portfolio to be more than 85% renewable by 2030 and at net-zero, for both direct and indirect emissions, by 2040.   

That’s 10 years earlier than the goal Enel set for itself in 2015, when it signed on to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, but Starace, the company’s CEO, is confident that it’s achievable. Soft-spoken and known for his love of poetry, Starace points to the impact of COVID-19 as evidence of how quickly the world can change. During the pandemic, Enel saw industrial and commercial demand for electricity plummet, while domestic demand increased slightly; the result was a dramatic drop in conventional generation and a surge in renewables, proving, for Starace, that electric systems are flexible and ready to adapt. “We accomplished our 2030 goals in a few days,” he told business podcaster Charles Trevail in an interview last May. “We’re never ready to change,” he mused, “but changing continuously. COVID proved that point spectacularly.”  

Enel’s courage in its own convictions has translated into investor confidence. In July 2021, the company launched the largest-ever issue of sustainability-linked bonds, an instrument whose cost financing is raised if the company fails to meet stated objectives. In this case, the $4-billion issue was linked to Enel’s ambition to reduce its direct greenhouse gas emissions to 80% of 2017 levels by 2030. It received $12 billion in orders. Overall, the company says that its decarbonization drive has reduced the cost of its debt, reduced its risk, and the portion of shares held by ESG investors has almost tripled, from 6% in 2014 to 15% of the company’s float in 2021. They’ve also expanded their base of sustainability-focused institutional shareholders from 134 to 252.  

Overall, Starace believes that the journey to net-zero can be accomplished largely with existent technologies and that what’s missing – primarily better storage systems – is on the way. Having built Europe’s first fully digital grid, in Italy, with a smart-meter rollout that began in 2001, Enel continues to invest heavily in grid digitization: optimizing the dispatch and bidirectional flow of electricity as more distributed renewable energy is fed into the system. It recently launched Gridspertise, a company that shares Enel’s digital technologies and innovations with other grid operators, in a bid to promote grid modernization across the board.   

Asked why it took the energy sector so long to get on board, Starace says that visionary thinking yields results only if the economics work; it took time for competitive technologies to break through.  

Of course, there will be setbacks, like Russia’s throttling of natural gas exports to Europe, but there Starace sees silver linings. Finally, the folly of Europe’s dependence on Russia has become clear, and Europeans will be forced to learn some important lessons in energy conservation. “Gas was supposed to be a bridge,” he told Trevail in the May podcast, “and now the bridge is collapsing.”  

For Starace, the future is looking good. While the first phase of the transition to renewables has been driven largely by regulators and the market, he believes the next phase will put customers in the driver’s seat. They will be the ones to choose the heat pump or the electric car. In doing so, they will go from being consumers to being producers of heat and electricity.  

Dismissing industry dinosaurs who consider this democratization a threat, Starace is convinced that once consumers become producers, they’ll be more invested in electrification and want more of it. On the Monopoly boards of the low-carbon future, everyone will want to land on Electric Company.  

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