Leading global offshore wind developer Ørsted is the world’s most sustainable company according to the Global 100 ranking announced by the Toronto-based research firm Corporate Knights.
Ørsted has become the first-ever energy company to top Corporate Knights’ list, outperforming more than 7,300 global companies with billion-dollar revenues to rank #1 in the 2020 index.
“We’re immensely proud to rank as the world’s most sustainable company,” Henrik Poulsen , CEO of Ørsted, said.
”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 expects to 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 decided to change its business model a decade ago, realising 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, the company said. 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.
“While we’re grateful to be named the most sustainable company in the world, we’d prefer to see the world develop more sustainably. Global greenhouse gas emissions have been rising for decades and are now at their highest level ever. We have no time to lose if we want to halt global warming and halve global emissions by 2030 as recommended by science,” Poulsen said.
“We have the necessary green technologies at hand to transform the world’s energy systems. Countries and businesses must work together and take bold steps to speed up the green transformation, reduce their emissions and limit global warming to 1.5C. As I see it, we owe it to the current and not least future generations.”
Ørsted is now embarking on the next frontier in its decarbonisation journey by launching a new programme for reducing carbon emissions in its supply chain.
“We’re strengthening collaboration with our biggest and most important suppliers to work with them on reducing their emissions in line with science and to encourage them to run their operations on green energy,” says Poulsen said.
“Ørsted has become a sustainable and profitable business by making green energy deployment the keystone of our business strategy. Companies that do not take action now to decarbonise run the risk of seeing their business models come under pressure in the future. We encourage all companies to make decarbonisation a core part of their strategy.”
The progress in Ørsted’s decarbonisation programme is demonstrated in the company’s jumps up the Global 100 ranking: 70th in 2018, 4th in 2019, and 1st in 2020.