Corporations directing capital into sustainable investments are generating three times more sustainable revenue as a percent of total revenue compared to the average large company.
This is one of the key messages highlighted in new findings from the independent media and research B Corp business, Corporate Knights which has this week published its 20th annual Global 100 Index of the world’s 100 most sustainable companies.
Its 2024 research find that Global 100 companies direct three times (55% vs 17%) more capital into sustainable investments as a percent of total investments and generate three time (51% vs 16%) more sustainable revenue than an average large company as a result.
“The Global 100 index has outperformed over time because Global 100 companies back up their green commitments with their investment dollars,” said Toby Heaps, ceo of Corporate Knights. “Sustainable investment themes like clean energy are growing exponentially and the Global 100, across. Sectors, are helping to drive and are poised to thrive in the low-carbon economy.”
Global 100 is an annual ranking devised by Corporate Knights and quantitatively compares and ranks the world’s largest publicly traded companies, equally emphasizing the impact of a company’s operations and its core products and services on people and the planet.
The ranking itself is based on the assessment of 6,733 companies with more than $1bn in revenues. This year it is the Australian metal recycler Sims Ltd which has emerged as the most sustainable corporation, followed closely by Brambles, another Australian company specialising in renting recycled shipping pallets and containers around the globe. Both score 100% on sustainable revenue and sustainable investment in the ranking.
The Global 100 Index has also continually tracked higher total returns since its inception in 2005, returning 295% as of the end of 2023. Corporate Knights underscores this as ‘particularly notable’ as the Global 100 have no exposure to weapons or traditional fossil fuel stocks, which have benefited from geopolitical instability over the past two years.
No fewer than 31 new companies entered the ranking in 2024, helping to broaden the index’s geographic footprint, particularly in China.
Corporate Knights has also awarded a Global 100 ‘pivot prize’ to the Italian energy firm ERG SpA which completed its multiyear transition from black to green halfway through 2023, selling off its last fossil fuel asset after revealing its pans in 2013 to transition from an oil and gas company to a green energy one.
“When we first did the Global 100 ranking 20 years ago, the green economy was a quaint idea,” Heaps says. “It is now the overwhelming driver of global economic growth and we are enthusiastic that the Global 100 will continue to lead the way over the next 20 years and beyond.”
