Ørsted Tops World's Sustainable Companies
The global leader in offshore wind Ørsted becomes the first-ever energy company to top a index.
The Denmark-based global power company has outperformed more than 7,300 global companies with billion-dollar revenues to rank #1 in Corporate Knights' 2020 index of the Global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world.
Henrik Poulsen, CEO of Ørsted, said: "We're immensely proud to rank as the world's most sustainable company. From our origins as a traditional fossil fuel-based energy company, we've transformed into one of the largest renewable energy companies in the world. Every day, we deliver green energy solutions at scale to combat climate change, the defining challenge of our time."
Since 2006, the company has reduced carbon emissions from its energy generation and operations by 83% and will be essentially carbon-neutral by 2025. Today, the offshore wind farms built by Ørsted bring green power to more than 13 million people, and Ørsted aims to grow this number to 50 million people by 2030.
Ørsted's ability to significantly grow its business, while substantially reducing its carbon emissions, has been central to attaining the top rank in the Global 100 index.
Ørsted decided to change its business model a decade ago, realizing that having fossil fuels as its core business would not be sustainable in the long-term. The company has since been instrumental in driving the build-out of offshore wind at industrial scale and has grown to be the world leader in offshore wind and one of the fastest growing energy companies in the world.
Offshore wind is now significantly cheaper than newly built coal- or gas-fired power plants in most parts of the world, making it a key technology in the global transition to green energy.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), offshore wind has the potential to provide green power to hundreds of millions of people. However, almost 75% of all global greenhouse gas emissions still come from fossil-based energy, and carbon emissions continue to rise.
