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Corporate Knights’ Sustainable Economy Intelligence provides business leaders and investors with the information they need to align their business strategies and portfolios with the opportunities in sustainable production that are driving global economic growth. By quantifying corporate revenues and expenditures that align with the sustainability transition, our data and analytical products provide our clients with the highly granular, internally consistent and comprehensive information they need to make the choices that will keep them on the leading edge of the global trend toward a sustainable economy.

Purpose. The purpose of the Corporate Knights Sustainable Economy Taxonomy (CKSET) is to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable economy by providing an integrated global standard for identifying and quantifying company revenues and investments that are aligned with a sustainable economy, broadly defined as an economy in which the UN Sustainable Development Goals are achieved.

Scope. All economic activity that takes place anywhere is within the scope of CKSET. At Corporate Knights, CKSET has been applied to the products and services of more than 3,000 companies, including the companies in the MSCI ACWI, with data from 2019 forward to create a database of sustainable revenue and investment with more than 40,000 records. Sustainable investment includes capital expenditures, research and development, and acquisitions. A growing number of global companies use CKSET for their internal sustainability assessments and strategic planning analyses.

Organizing framework. CKSET defines sustainability using an easy-to-navigate, hierarchical framework consisting of nine top tiers and 85 secondary tiers covering all types of economic activity. Sustainable revenue and investment can be identified by any company for any tier of the economy, regardless of the company’s industrial classification.

Compatibility. CKSET adopts design principles and specific benchmarks from other taxonomies, including the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities, the Climate Bonds Taxonomy, the Taxonomy Roadmap of the Canadian Sustainable Finance Action Council and others. Corporate Knights maintains a watching brief and incorporates innovations from climate and sustainability taxonomies from around the world that are under development or in the field. For the EU taxonomy, a detailed concordance is maintained that specifies line-by-line alignment with CKSET, allowing data prepared for EU taxonomy reports to be incorporated into CKSET’s broader, global scope.

Limitation. CKSET defines products and services that are sustainability-aligned, but it does not include an assessment of the environment, social and governance (ESG) performance of the companies generating the sustainable revenue and investments. To evaluate ESG and other risks, CKSET should be used in concert with other evaluation and screening tools. At Corporate Knights, use of CKSET to identify sustainable investment and sustainable revenue is integrated into our Global 100 Methodology for systemically evaluating company sustainability against ESG key performance indicators and “red flag” screens for egregious corporate behaviour.

Design principles. A set of design principles and guidelines serves as a reference for the development of definitions and benchmarks incorporated in CKSET.

1. Best available technology. CKSET sets the gold standard for sustainable products and services by establishing science-based definitions and benchmarks for the highest possible level of alignment with a sustainable economy operating within planetary limits. Products and services that are misaligned with this objective are excluded from the taxonomy altogether, and for all others the starting point for defining alignment is “best available technology” that avoids carbon lock-in that is incompatible with science-based pathways for avoiding climate change exceeding 1.5 to 2°C.
2. Sustainability alignment. While the taxonomy puts forward definitions for what constitutes “sustainable” products and services, no specific technology or service offering is sustainable. Sustainability is an emergent property of the whole economy, and as such the best one can do in evaluating products, processes and services is to identify characteristics of those products, processes and services that are aligned with the achievement of a sustainable economy.
3. Pragmatic. There are few if any products or services that are perfectly aligned with sustainability, and so the selection of benchmarks and definitions requires setting priorities and accepting compromises. Given the immediacy of the climate emergency, there is a tendency to emphasize the greenhouse gas emission profile in establishing benchmarks, but CKSET endeavours to take a holistic approach to sustainability and covers social dimensions as well. The energy component of a sustainable economy, for example, would comprise highly efficient and convivial technologies matched in scale and quality to human energy needs that run on renewable energy; that generate no greenhouse gas emissions, no air or water pollution, no toxic or radioactive waste, and no waste heat; that protect and enhance biodiversity; that fail safely; that are manufactured under healthy working conditions with no forced labour; that distribute costs and benefits equitably among the current population and between the current and future population; that create no geopolitical risks; and that are 100% recyclable. Clearly, a working tool like CKSET with the goal of accelerating adoption of best practices must take a pragmatic approach to defining the standards by which products and services in the energy sector are deemed “sustainability aligned.”
4. Versatility and flexibility. Different types of economic production contribute to the sustainability transition in different ways, and this requires flexibility in the approach to the definitions and benchmarks that recognizes the issues that are material to sustainability for different types of economic activity. For electricity, energy- and resource-intensive primary products, agricultural and forestry products, and minerals, the emphasis is on the production footprint. For buildings, vehicles, equipment and infrastructure, the emphasis is on the footprint of the products. For products such as telecommunications and information technologies, the emphasis is on the extent to which they facilitate sustainability. For products and services that reduce consumption (e.g., energy efficiency, recycling, light-weighting and right-sizing, logistics innovations), the focus is on the extent to which they eliminate unsustainable production. For
   insurance and financial products, the emphasis is on the enabling of sustainable loans, investments and advisory services.
5. Radical transparency and verification. Radical transparency is a Corporate Knights core value. Data are provided with documentation of sources, methods and assumptions. Data used to qualify revenue and investments as aligned with CKSET must be available to Corporate Knights for independent verification. No imputed data is included in CKSET; all data is real and verified.
6. Use of certifications. Corporate Knights reviews hundreds of product certifications and accepts some of them as evidence of sustainability-aligned production. To be considered, a certification must have a fully disclosed, credible and stringent methodology; must require third-party verification; must require continuous requalification (preferably annually); must cover both outcomes and production processes; and must have a multi-stakeholder governance structure to guard against greenwashing. Certifications that pass all five of these screens are then assessed for whether they reflect sustainability-aligned production, and if so whether the certified production is counted as 100% sustainability-aligned or discounted.
7. Sustainable revenue versus sustainable investment. Whereas capital expenditures on any of the products defined as sustainability-aligned in CKSET qualify as sustainable investment, the ownership of sustainable products defined in the taxonomy does not necessarily lead to qualified sustainable revenue unless those products are central to the value creation of the business. For example, capital expenditures on emission-free vehicles qualify as sustainable investment, but owning emission-free vehicles does not result in qualified sustainable revenue except for companies in the business of providing passenger mobility or freight delivery. Similarly, if any business invests in a sustainable building, it qualifies as sustainable investment, but a business does not qualify to claim sustainable revenue by virtue of owning or occupying a sustainable building except for the hotel and accommodation industry or businesses that lease or manage real estate.
8. Supply chains count. All products and services that form part of the supply chain for sustainability-aligned products and services also qualify as sustainability-aligned. Examples include the percent of a tire manufacturer’s revenue resulting from sales of tires for electric vehicles, or the sales of a digital controls company to smart-grid or sustainable-building developers, or capital expenditures and related sales by a machine manufacturer to tool up for and provide gearbox components to a wind turbine manufacturer. By qualifying sustainable revenue and investment for these “behind the scenes” but critically important players, we are able to identify the sustainability leaders and laggards in all sectors of the economy and provide business intelligence that supports investors with diverse portfolios.
9. Financial products and services. In the special case of financial products and services, credit in the taxonomy is restricted to revenue and includes interest earned from loans that facilitate sustainable investments in other sectors, as well as revenue from investments, underwriting and advisory services that are sustainability-aligned, and environmental insurance premiums.

Revision and review. CKSET is a public document, accessible on the Corporate Knights website, and is central to both Corporate Knights’ data products and services and Corporate Knights’ various company ratings and rankings, including the Global 100. It is also integrated into the Corporate Knights online data portal, through which hundreds of global companies submit data and engage with Corporate Knights staff in the identification and verification of company sustainable economy performance. As such, the taxonomy is in daily use and subject to constant critical review by both CK staff and our engagement partners. Suggested revisions to the taxonomy are compiled and maintained in a development agenda, with input from:

• members of the Corporate Knights research team, each of whom have been assigned focus areas (portfolios) that align with the CKSET categories and for which they monitor current technology, business, national and supranational taxonomies, and policy developments that are relevant to the CKSET;
• industry contacts who engage with Corporate Knights in the process of providing data for their operations, and who often have suggestions for taxonomy revisions; and
• academic and subject-matter experts contacted by Corporate Knights for advice and assistance in formulating definitions and benchmarks for inclusion in the taxonomy.

At least once a year, the research team conducts a rigorous review of all the definitions and benchmarks in CKSET, confirming they are still fit for purpose based on the current scientific literature and state of disclosure. This definition review, combined with the development agenda of proposed taxonomy revisions, results in a set of candidate taxonomy changes that are subject to critical review and testing. The result is a set of documented recommendations for inclusion in a revised release of CKSET that is put before the CKSET Governance Committee for final review. Recommendations that are accepted by the Governance Committee (as modified according to their instructions) are then incorporated in a new release of CKSET, which is published along with documentation of all changes since the previous release.

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Since 2005, the Global 100 has been one of the world’s most valued and transparent rules-based sustainability ratings that emphasizes the impact of a company’s core products and services. It is the best-performing global sustainability index (ticker: CKG100), with more than 10 years of history. All publicly traded companies with more than US$1 billion in revenue are assessed across three sustainable economy key performance indicators, including percentage of sustainable revenue and percentage of sustainable investment. Companies engaging in “red flag” activities such as thermal coal, blocking climate policy and deforestation are disqualified. Our methodology illuminates the “say–do” gap. Only those companies making sustainable solutions a core part of their business offerings and allocating meaningful investments to reduce their carbon footprints make the grade. 

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Boralex operates 103 wind farms, 13 solar energy facilities, 15 hydroelectric power stations and two storage units. Collectively, it has an installed capacity of more than 3,260 megawatts at facilities in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Its entire electricity sales revenue comes from renewable production, and it is working toward net-zero across its value chain by 2050.

The Best 50 Corporate Citizens are identified each year from among a universe including all Canadian corporations with at least $1 billion in annual revenues. They are assessed relative to the percentage of their investments and revenues that are sustainable, and to up to 23 other metrics that reflect both global carrying capacities in areas such as carbon emissions and aspirations for greater social equity.

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The Clean200 are the largest 200 public companies ranked by clean revenue. The ranking was first calculated on July 1, 2016, and publicly released on August 15, 2016, by Corporate Knights and As You Sow.

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

The Clean200 uses negative screens. It excludes carbon laggards in the cement industry, oil and gas companies and those found on the Global Oil & Gas Exit List, coal companies found on the Global Coal Exit List, all utilities that generate less than 50% of their power from green sources, the top 200 carbon reserve owners in the Carbon Underground 200 list, fossil-fuel financers found on the Banking for Climate Chaos list, fossil-fuel insurers found on the Insure Our Future list, companies involved in for-profit prison operations recommended for divestment by the Investigate project of the American Friends Service Committee, companies involved in severe environmental or human rights violation, and those that were involved in illegal activities where the ratio of fines, penalties or settlements over revenue for the most recent 12-month period exceeded 1.0%. In addition, the Clean200 excludes weapons companies, including major military arms manufacturers found on the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Top 100 arms-producing and military services list, as well as cluster munitions, nuclear weapons and civilian firearm manufacturers screened on As You Sow’s Weapon Free Funds. The Clean200 also excludes palm oil, paper/pulp, rubber, timber, cattle and soy producers that are screened on As You Sow’s Deforestation Free Funds; companies that use child or forced labour, are involved in the manufacture of harmful pesticides, and that engage in negative climate lobbying are not included.

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Eligibility criteria

Equity funds must have at least two-thirds of their holdings by market weight rated in the Corporate Knights Research universe; for balanced/corporate fixed income funds, the minimum threshold is 50% of the holdings by market weight to be rated in the Corporate Knights Research universe.‡ 

Rating metric

Funds (mutual funds and ETFs) receive a rating based on the weighted sustainability rating* of each of the funds’ underlying holdings (“Weighted Rating”).  

Example: XYZ Fund

Holdings	Weight	Sustainability Rating
AAA Co Ltd.	50%	25%
BBB Co Ltd.	40%	10%
CCC Co Ltd.	10%	50%
Weighted rating		21.5%

Holdings date

Fund ratings are based on most recently available holdings breakdowns as provided by Fundata as of September 30, 2025. 

Fund categories

Funds are classified according to the classification system established by the Canadian Investment Funds Standards Committee (CIFSC) at the “Fund Type” level of classification as provided by Fundata. 

Fund scoring

Each fund receives a score that is based on the percent rank score of the fund’s Weighted Rating against other funds in the same category (“Final Score”). Scores range from 0% to 100%. 

Example: Canadian equity

Fund Name	Weighted Rating	Final Score
X Equity Growth	50%	100%
Y Canadian Equity	40%	67%
Z Value Fund	10%	33%
Omega Index Fund	5%	0%

Corporate Knights 2025 podium funds: Top 10 funds in category ranking

For fund categories where there are at least 12 RI funds (defined below) and at least 50 funds that meet the minimum eligibility criteria, the top 10 scoring funds in each assessed fund category are allowed to communicate that Corporate Knights has ranked them as being among the top 10 responsible funds in the given category based on this methodology. Four fund categories meet these conditions: 

• Canadian equity 
• global equity 
• international equity 
• U.S. equity 

RI funds are those funds that:

A. Have an ESG mandate or objective as identified from:

• The CIFSC list of qualifying funds,
• The Responsible Investment Association’s funds, and
• The TMX list of sustainable ETFs

and/or:

B. Are ESG-Related Funds* which are funds where the consideration of ESG factors plays a role in their investment process and confirmed by Corporate Knights Research review of the funds’ disclosures of their investment strategies in their prospectuses and due diligence with the fund manager/s.

* Based on the CSA Staff Notice 81-334 (Revised) ESG-Related Investment Fund Disclosure

Footnotes: 

*The sustainability rating is based on Corporate Knights’ rating methodology as deployed in the 2026 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World ranking, which can be accessed here.

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