The Pacific Northwest is a place that prides itself on being clean and green. It only makes sense with all of the nature that surround our regions beautiful cities. But no two companies are alike and sustainability practices aren’t always what they seem. According to a recent study done by Corporate Knights, the worlds most sustainable company is just a few hours south – meaning you won’t have to look very far for a good example of great leadership.

This year’s Global 100 ranking of the world’s most sustainable companies, now in its 19th year, reveals that the transition is gathering momentum – and that businesses that take sustainability seriously are flourishing financially,” they wrote. 

In what may or may not be a surpise, Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc., of Portland, Oregon took first place. Schnitzer Steel Industries was formed in 1906 and prides itself on being a global leader in the metals recycling industry.

Sustainbility is at the core of their business model – in their work they divert and reuse millions of tons of materials each year that might otherwise be destined for landfills. The metals they process are used to create new metal-based products, a process which conserves natural resources and significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

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In order to curate their 2023 list, Corporate Knights assessed over 6,000 public companies – all with revenue over $1 billion USD.

Companies were then scored on metrics such as carbon productivity, revenue earned from “clean” products and services, and even their CEO–average to worker pay ratio (just to name a few.)

Here’s a look at the top five comapnies that made the cut in this years ranking.

world's most sustainable company
Photo via Corporate Knights

“50% of the weight assigned to sustainable revenue and sustainable investment,” they explained. “Nine of the indicators have fixed weights; the rest are assigned weights according to each industry’s relative impact in relation to the overall economy. After quantitatively analyzing data for 25 key performance indicators, using the Corporate Knights methodology, this year’s overall scores were converted to letter grades.”

You can view this year’s full ranking by visiting Corporate Knights website. In the meantime it looks like Seattle coportaions have a little bit of work to do.