On Monday, news emerged that Ørsted ranks as the world's most sustainable utility in the 2021 edition of magazine media Corporate Knights' Global 100 index of the greenest companies in the world. Last year, the Danish group took the top spot across sector categories but now ranks as number two in that regard.

Rather, France's Schneider Electric, which specializes in energy management and automation solutions, made it to the top of the list from its former rank as number 29.

"The ability and willingness to make the world greener and more equitable is not just a moral responsibility – it makes good business sense too," writes Olivier Blum, Schneider Electric's chief strategy and sustainability officer, in a statement.

"The year 2020, marked by Covid-19, a string of climate-linked disasters, and the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change, reinforced the urgency for action. It has also intensified the appetite from our customers to accelerate their own transitions towards a lower-carbon world. Our solutions can help them achieve their goals, too," he continues.

Corporate Knights' selection is based on factors such as renewable energy proportion and generated waste volumes. As a new feature from this year, other items like sick leave, diversity and so-called clean investment criteria inform the outcome. A total of 8,000 firms were nominated for the list of the world's greenest 100.

Schneider Electric plans to become fully powered by renewables and has set out to electrify or hybridize the full corporate car fleet within the coming five years.

English Edit: Daniel Frank Christensen

Ørsted ranked as world's greenest utility for third consecutive year