By Pamela Largue

The largest energy company in Denmark, Orsted, has been ranked as the most sustainable company in the world in the Corporate Knights’ 2020 index of the Global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world.

Orsted was ranked 70th in 2018 and 4th in 2019.

The index examined the sustainability efforts of more than 7,300 global companies with up to $1 billion in revenue.

Orsted was recognized owing to the firm’s strategic and fundamental business transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy over the past decade. Corporate Knights says it ranked Orsted as No. 1 because the company increased the share of revenue earned from renewable energy by 10%, from 58.4% to 68.1%.

In the 2020 Global 100 index, 49 companies are from Europe, 29 from the U.S. and Canada, and 18 from Asia.

Sustainability efforts implemented by Orsted include:

Reduced carbon emissions by 83% since 2006. The utility has vowed to become carbon-neutral by 2025,

Providing energy from wind farms to 13 million people, with an aim to increase the base to 50 million consumers by 2030,

Reduced its renewable energy targets from three decades to a single decade,

By 2023, Orsted will finalize the phase-out of coal from its portfolio of combined heat and power plants to run on certified sustainable biomass,

Company car fleet will be 100% electric by 2025,

By 2032, will reduce emissions in the supply chain and from energy trading by 50% compared to 2018.

“We’re immensely proud to rank as the world’s most sustainable company,” said Henrik Poulsen, chief executive officer of Ørsted. “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.

“… 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.

“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.”

“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.”

Ørsted develops, constructs and operates offshore and onshore wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities and bioenergy plants.

Article adapted from one originally published on smart-energy.com