Gucci parent Kering has been named a top sustainable brand by Corporate Knight. Image credit: Gucci
Brands that create value for society also reap financial success, as the top 100 sustainable companies tend to outperform the average. In Corporate Knights’ 2018 rankings of the top 100 most sustainable companies in the world, BMW and Kering topped their respective categories, leading the field in automotive and fashion. According to Corporate Knights, while the average multinational corporation has been around for 40 years, the mean age of the top 100 brands is 85. “The Global 100 companies are built to last, demonstrating that firms which adapt to serve societal needs also do well financially,” said Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights, in a statement. Sustainability leaders With the increasing risk of climate change to businesses and the growing adoption of more sustainable practices by companies, Corporate Knights changed the system for its annual rankings. This year, the key performance indicators of a company were weighted in regard to the impact of the sector it belongs to. For instance, a business in a high-energy use sector that reduces its consumption was given more weight for its efforts than it would receive were it in a sector with less energy spent. Corporate Knights also added a KPI for clean revenue. “Clean revenue exposure is a big driver of both commercial health and contribution to sustainability,” said Michael Yow, research director at Corporate Knights, in a statement. “It adds an important new dimension to our ranking.” Corporate Knights’ rankings were pulled from a pool of 5,994 publicly listed companies. On a country basis, the United States, France and the United Kingdom had the most companies make the list. However, 69 percent of listed businesses came from Europe. In the luxury space, BMW topped the automotive category at 17. Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler also made the list at 60.
BMW recently turned it headquarters into batteries to celebrate an electric vehicle milestone. Image credit: BMW