As You Sow, a nonprofit foundation, has teamed up with Corporate Knights, a research and financial information products company, to rank 200 companies by how well they are making clean energy a priority.
That includes how much in revenue they receive through clean energy. It also screens out companies based on other criteria, such as whether they are involved with non-green utilities, tropical deforestation, child labor or weapons.
The ranking, called the Carbon Clean 200, is updated every six months. The difference this time is that the ranking has broadened its definition of carbon-free.
Now other kinds of companies qualify, including food and apparel, real estate and banks. As a result, 78 companies made the list for the first time.
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Most of the businesses are in the industrials sector, with 78 companies, followed by information technology (40) and utilities and consumer discretionary, which each had 20.
Those that made the list were predominantly based in China, which had 36 companies, followed by the U.S. with 34 and Japan with 19.
The new methodology cleared the way for Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to debut in the top spot. That company was also judged on privacy, for which it received a grade of D minus. “They got the best grade out of anybody,” As You Sow CEO Andrew Behar said.
No one has created an index out of the list yet. But investors who are concerned about the environment can take cues from the ranking on what to invest in. “It actually performs quite well,” Behar said.
Following is a list of the top 10 companies and what they are doing in clean energy to stand out.
Source : CNBC
