It’s been a complicated year for chief sustainability officers. Executives have shifted their focus to operational efficiency and cost-savings, corporate sustainability goal calculations have changed, and the U.S. government has cut off tax credits for renewable energy and significantly pulled back environmental regulations. Meanwhile, a looming energy crisis—the result of the war in Iran—threatens to disrupt oil supplies and drive up prices for all kinds of goods.
Despite all this, María Mendiluce, CEO of We Mean Business Coalition, believes that many companies are still carrying out their long-term commitments because they realize that climate change and biodiversity loss pose serious threats to business. “Pragmatism is coming to the sustainability agenda, both on corporate standard setters and policy makers,” she says. Leaders in Europe and Asia have continued to put out policies and incentives to support the green economy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
To recognize corporations that prioritize sustainability in their business practices, TIME and data firm Statista partnered on the third annual edition of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies to rank 750 of the world’s largest and most influential companies based on their transparency, accountability, and impact on the environment.
Methodology: How TIME and Statista Determined the World’s Most Sustainable Companies of 2026
Clear leaders emerge, such as those that sell clean energy technologies and solutions as their main business. For example, decarbonization solutions-provider Schneider Electric, has been the top ranked company not only on this year’s list, but in 2025 and 2024 as well. Electric utilities companies are also benefitting from the growing adoption of electrification. “For a very large majority of businesses, electrification is more effective, better for energy security,” Mendiluce says. However, for many businesses, including those selling consumer goods, it’s harder to address value chain emissions because they depend on ecosystems influenced by policies, prices, providers, and clients, she says. “I think they’re still committed, but they are just figuring out how to deal with the ups and downs of the moment.”
Luxury brands like Moncler (no. 3) has also maintained high ranks over the years with conscious efforts. The brand reported using more than 55% of yarns and fabrics made from recycled, organic, regenerative or certified alternatives in 2025, and partnered with suppliers that would help them decarbonize and lower emissions across the supply chain.
“When you talk about luxury firms, they’re doing better because they can afford to make important investments, as consumers are paying an important luxury premium,” Mediluce says, “They can afford to be the cleanest of the cleanest.” But sustainability doesn’t always have to come with a more expensive price tag, especially as the price for wind, solar, and batteries become cheaper than fossil fuels. “We’re moving to a place where being sustainable can be economically beneficial to the company, because they can reduce their costs, potentially increase their sales, without necessarily increasing the price,” she says.
Sherry Madera, CEO of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which tracks corporate emissions, says that there are still plenty of incentives for big multinational companies with global supply chains to care about corporate sustainability. “Businesses that are multinational, they’re also part of someone else’s supply chain, so they’re protecting their top line by disclosing their emissions, their water usage, their risks,” she says. “All of these data points are now actually making sure that they stay in the universe for procurement. That’s protecting their revenue.” CDP’s examination of market capitalization and climate scores reveals that in over half of the sectors, climate leaders are showing higher or similar market growth compared to those at the lowest performance level. In the past few years, there’s been an increase in demand for water use disclosure data on CDP’s platform, mainly in the U.S., because it’s no longer just an element of biodiversity but an economic output—it impacts industries from food and beverage, to manufacturing, to textiles, to data centers and AI. And with the conflicts in Ukraine and around the Strait of Hormuz, energy security is a top concern in the boardroom, Madera says, which means data about companies’ energy mixes is starting to be of interest. “That’s a huge wealth of information for companies to determine not only their own but also their supply chains’ resilience to energy,” she says. And with the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism—a tariff on carbon-intensive goods which came into effect at the start of 2026—more global companies are interested in CDP’s disclosure data because they want to understand how the tax will affect their economics and the health of their business.
Additionally, the consolidation and redesign of key international standards like SBTi and ISO net zero standards are setting the bar for credible corporate climate action going forward. Kaya Axelsson, a climate policy researcher at the University of Oxford, says her research shows that companies are increasingly talking about sustainability because the business case has become stronger, but they’re also realizing that they cannot achieve climate goals alone. Increasingly, she’s found that more organizations are communicating policy needs to governments or identifying opportunities for collaboration. For example, climate-positive policies like the 2025 ReFuelEU Aviation initiative, which requires that at least 2% of the fuel supplied at European Union airports be Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), has made airport operators like Aena (no. 9) more active in developing incentives to promote its uptake. “The next phase of corporate climate action is less about setting targets and more about changing systems,” she says. “The politics have become noisier but the economics have become clearer that a climate transition inside companies is a strong business choice. Many companies are changing their messaging, but not their direction of travel because climate action makes sense for energy stability and supply chain risk management.”
See the full list of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies of 2026 below:
Read the full article here
