Clean200 List: Google-led Alphabet Tops the Green Company List

Google holding company Alphabet leads the latest Clean200 list which is taken out by As You Sow and Corporate Knights. The List credits Alphabet’s top spot to its investment of billions of dollars in renewables to meet its 100% target.

In the latest list, Siemens came second, Toyota third, Cisco Systems forth and Hewlett Packard fifth.

The trendlines are clear. Fossil fuels are disappearing and carbon free business lines have stepped out of the clean energy niche and now touch the entire economy” – Clean200 Report

The Carbon Clean 200 list (Clean200) was first launched back in the summer of 2016 and ranks the top 200 publicly traded companies that are making significant revenue from clean technology. Published by non-profit As You Sow and research company Corporate Knights, the Clean200 provides quarterly performance updates on its 200 members which are spread across 29 countries and together represent an average market capitalization of $9.4 billion while generating over $363 billion in clean energy revenues each year. The listing was expanded to more sectors, which resulted in 87 new companies appearing in the ranking, including Alphabet.

The Clean200 methodology was updated this year — using the Corporate Knights Clean Revenue database — to capture portions of the clean economy extending beyond energy efficiency, green energy, and zero emission and hybrid vehicles.

New sectors now include banks financing low-carbon solutions, real estate companies focused on low-carbon buildings, forestry companies protecting carbon sinks, responsible mining companies, food and clothing companies with a lower carbon footprint, as well as ICT companies promoting renewable energy in their electricity consumption.

Since 2016, Clean200 has outperformed the S&P global 1200 energy index, 1.29% compared to 2.49%. Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights and a report co-author, said the rankings showed clean energy-related stocks were proving resilient amid wider market jitters prompted by the US-China trade war.

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“The Clean200 is overweight on growth companies and underweight on defensive stocks, with no exposure to weapons, tobacco, or healthcare. But it has still continued to outperform when the outlying Chinese stocks are excluded. This suggests markets are re-calibrating the value of stocks such as clean energy, that offer a superior and enduring value proposition in a low carbon economy.”

If Chinese stocks were excluded from the Clean200, the return of the list, since 2016, would rise to 20.4%, ahead of the broad market benchmark for the S&P 1200. Other companies in the Clean200 top 10 include Cisco Systems, HP, Taiwan Semiconductor, ABB Ltd-Reg, Ericsson, Unilever, and Banco Do Brasil S.A.