• Schneider ranks first, followed by Sims and Vestas Wind Systems in second and third positions, respectively.
• The Global 100 Firms are set to perform well in 2025, added Corporate Knights.

Corporate Knights, a leading sustainability research organisation, has published its "Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations" 2025 list at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

The companies are ranked based on their environmental and ethical performances, such as carbon emissions, water usage, investment in sustainable projects, and pay and gender equality.

Businesses from France and Denmark have topped the list, with Schneider Electric, a French multinational corporation specialising in energy management, bagging the world's most sustainable company title.

European firms fared well, while Australian businesses have also made it onto the list outside of the EU.

The top five are Schneider Electric SE, Sims Ltd, Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Brambles Ltd, and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp.

READ MORE: What is CSR? Corporate Social Responsibility Meaning, Types, and Benefits

These 100 sustainable corporations are pacesetters in sustainable investment. In 2023, collectively, they allocated 58% of their capital expenditures and research and development on green programmes like renewable energy strategy and sustainable products. This is four times the investments made by larger companies.

Toby Heaps, co-founder and CEO of Corporate Knights, said: "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."

However, in 2024, the global 100 companies faced challenges in sustainable revenues compared to the MSCI ACWI index, another well-known benchmark for global stock performance, notes Corporate Knights. This is due to high interest rates, fewer US firms, and the exclusion of weapons stock.

READ MORE: What is the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI)?

The Global 100 included fewer American companies. But, the MSCI ACWI index did well in 2024 because of the strong participation from high-performing American companies, including Nvidia and Meta.

Despite these hurdles, Corporate Knights says they (The Global 100) will perform exceedingly well in 2025 as the current factors, like high interest rates, are temporary.

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Source: Euro News