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The ranking of the 100 most sustainable global firms – compiled by Corporate Knights – shows France and Denmark leading the EU leaderboard.
ADVERTISEMENTSchneider, an electrical equipment firm based in France, has been named the world’s most sustainable firm according to a newly released report from Corporate Knights.
The Global 100 index, updated annually, ranks global firms based on a mix of sustainability and ethical indicators.
Factors scrutinised include carbon emissions, water use and levels of sustainable investment. Non-environmental indicators such as worker pay and gender parity are also taken into consideration.
The list of 100 firms notably includes several French companies, along with Danish and German firms.
Outside of the EU, Australia dominates the top five slots – with Sims waste management and Brambles furniture in position two and four.
The ranking is based on an assessment of 8,359 companies with more than $1bn (€970m) in revenues.
Higher sustainable revenues
As a group, this year’s Global 100 invested 58% of their capital expenditures, research and development, and acquisitions in green themes in 2023, said Corporate Knights.
That’s almost quadruple the 15% average given to sustainable investments by all other large companies overall.
Corporations are labelled as large if they have more than $1bn in revenue.
An increase in sustainable investment is allowing companies to generate greater returns from these sources, added Corporate Knights.
“Over the last five years for major global public companies, sustainable revenues are growing twice as fast as other revenues, and they now represent over $5 trillion of annual revenues for the largest publicly traded companies that we track”, said Toby Heaps, co-founder and CEO of Corporate Knights.
Trailing behind MSCI ACWI
While businesses are earning more revenue from sustainable sources, Corporate Knights noted that the previous few years presented challenges for Global 100 firms.
Last year, its 2025 pick of the most sustainable corporations delivered lower investment returns compared to the MSCI ACWI index.
The Global 100 had been tracking higher total returns than the benchmark since its inception in 2005.
The MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) is an index that tracks broad global equity-market performance.
ADVERTISEMENTAccording to Wednesday’s report, three factors accounted for the lower comparative returns, which Corporate Knights labelled as transient.
Firstly, the high interest rate environment made it expensive for companies to borrow money and grow.
Secondly, the Global 100 includes fewer US firms than the MSCI ACWI index, which performed well in 2024.
The index therefore receives no exposure to “Magnificent 7” stocks like Nvidia and Meta.
ADVERTISEMENTThe group of companies also excludes weapons stocks, which posted strong returns in 2024.
Heaps noted that he expects Global 100 stocks to bounce back in 2025.
