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Of the top carbon-clean companies in a new report, TaiwanSemiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. ranks first while four U.S.firms—Alphabet Inc., HP Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., and TeslaInc.—rate in the top 10.

The report, "Carbon Clean 200," ranks publicly traded companiesthat are leading the way on clean energy issues in the firstquarter of 2020. One of its key takeaways is that the cleanest 200corporations have financially outperformed the largest oil, gas,and coal companies over the past three years. In fact, the Clean200 has outperformed the MSCI ACWI Global Energy Index by a factorof four—29.6 percent to 6.7 percent—since the first Clean 200report was published in July 2016.

The "Carbon Clean 200" report was prepared by As You Sow, anonprofit group advocating corporate accountability onenvironmental and other issues, and by Corporate Knights, aToronto-based for-profit media and research company that focuses"clean capitalism."

Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights and co-author of thereport, spoke during a webcast introducing the report last week,saying: "Investors are starting to really wake up to this newnarrative—that the fossil fuel industry growth story is coming toan end. Big money is waking up to this and investing in greeninvestments. Smart money is now going big on clean energy."

Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow and co-author of the report,said, "In 2016, people were saying, 'If we divest fossil fuels,there is nothing to invest in.' We created the Clean 200 to showinvestors around the world" that there are profitable investmentsto be made for a clean energy future.

Heaps added, "Given that oil prices rose by 30 percent in thepast year, it is surprising that oil company stocks have performedso poorly," suggesting that investors are breaking up with fossilfuels.

The Clean 200 consists of companies that have more than US$1billion in revenue, with more than 10 percent of that revenuecoming from clean energy sources. However, Heaps said, 59 companiesthat meet these two criteria have nevertheless been excluded fromthe list due to their performance in other areas such as socialresponsibility, corporate governance, and sustainable sourcing.

Companies were dropped from the list if they paid fines,penalties, or settlements in excess of 1 percent of their revenue;if they were found to have human rights violations; or if they usedforced child labor in their supply chain. Some companies wereexcluded just based on the products they make or sell: tobacco,weapons, natural gas, or nuclear energy, for instance. Neithernatural gas nor nuclear energy is considered "clean" energy,explained Wendy Shen-Juarez, research manager of CorporateKnights.

Europe has 69 companies on the Clean 200 list, followed by theU.S. with 39, Japan with 28, and China with 27. In addition to theTaiwanese and U.S. companies in the top 10, the report ranksSiemens AG of Germany third, Toyota Motor Corp. of Japan fourth,Iberdrola SA of Spain sixth, Schneider Electric of France ninth,and Unilever of the U.K. and The Netherlands tenth.

The largest industry sector for companies on the list is theindustrial sector, which encompasses 79 of the Clean 200, followedby 44 in information technology and 26 in materials, a categorythat includes recycled metals and paper.

Shen-Juarez said her company developed the clean revenue metricthree years ago as a synthesis of revenue, best practices, andseveral other sources. Where possible, the researchers consult withthe companies themselves, she added.

The report concludes, "The fundamental story is that the marchfrom high carbon energy to clean energy is only quickening, drivenmainly by economics, risk, and increasingly supported by othersocial forces from Greta [Thunberg, climate advocate] to PopeFrancis; from Extinction Rebellion to The European CentralBank."

From: CorporateCounsel