Cisco, Autodesk, Osram and TSMC amongst world’s sustainable companies

Amongst the worlds companies, Cisco is the fourth most sustainable, CAD company Autodesk fifth and semiconductor-maker Osram is not far behind, while TSMC is 25th, according to the ‘Global 100 Index’, collated annually by Canadian research company Corporate Knights.

“For the second time in a row Osram made it into the Global 100 Index. Among the 7,400 companies evaluated worldwide, Osram is at eleventh position,” according to the German LED maker.

First overall was Danish power firm Orsted, and the first UK company of any sort was Unilever at number 46, up from 65 in 2019. BT was the first UK electronics-related firm and the fourth UK company, in 65th place.

However, most of the top 100 are financial companies.

“If the 2010s were the decade when business started to realize the dangers of climate change and the impact it could have on their operations, the 2020s must be the decade when they act to dramatically reduce the emissions that cause it,” according to Mike Scott of Corporate Knights in a detailed report on motivation to improve sustainability. “It is no accident that the biggest grouping in the Global 100 is financial services companies – investors, insurers and lenders are often ahead of the game when it comes to acknowledging where the risks of failing to deal with sustainability issues lie.”

The whole Global 100 Index can be downloaded from the Corporate Knights website.

Only publicly-listed companies are judged, and amongst other things these are assessed on, : energy, greenhouse gasses, water, non-recycled or reused waste, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx) and particulates.