29-05-2025
Meet The Net Zero Leaders 2025
Rivian Automotive's electric vehicles expect to have a 15% lower lifetime carbon footprint, with the company's goal being one-half of current levels by the end of the decade.
Courtesy of Rivian Automotive
Achieving net-zero, or the reduction or off-setting of greenhouse gasses to as close to zero as possible, by 2050 will cost nearly $300 trillion (about 7.5 percent of global GDP annually, on average), according to research by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Not achieving it, though, could cost double that, according to global reinsurance company Swiss Re.
'If we understood that alternative more, the benefits of climate leadership would be more clear, and the markets would be pricing in these risks and these opportunities,' says Vit Henisz, vice dean of the ESG Initiative at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. To not address emissions, Henisz says, would incur costs 'bigger than the great financial crisis, bigger than the housing crisis, bigger than the dot-com crisis.'
To identify which companies have performed best in reducing or offsetting their greenhouse gas emissions, Forbes partnered with data providers Sustainalytics and Morningstar to create the third annual Net Zero Leaders list. Roughly 15,000 companies were evaluated for their efforts to achieve their net-zero targets within three ways in which a company can affect greenhouse gasses: emissions within the company's direct control, such as using energy to manufacture a product (known as Scope 1); emissions from purchased energy (Scope 2); and lastly, supply-chain emissions as well as emissions released from consumer use of the company's product (Scope 3). Firms are also assessed on how much of the emissions are managed by the company, their organizational preparedness, governance and financial strength to withstand challenges.
At the top of this year's ranking are three electronic vehicle (EV) companies: Lucid Group at No. 1, followed by Rivian and Tesla. (Lucid and Rivian jumped to the top of the list after not even appearing on it last year.) The reason for EVs' dominance is strong Scope 3 emissions performance, says Alex Osborne-Saponja, Sustainalytics' director of ESG methodology and climate solutions. 'Essentially, their product use is close to zero, and we only expect that to continue as they invest in the manufacture of electric vehicles.'
Anisa Costa, Rivian's chief sustainability officer, says that the company's 2026 vehicles will have a 15% lower lifetime carbon footprint, with perhaps greater improvements ahead: 'Our goals right now are launching a product with half the life-cycle emissions compared to our 2022 products by 2030.'
Rivian is also engaged in a joint venture with the Volkswagen Group to create software and more efficient electric vehicle design for the next generation of Volkswagen's vehicles across its portfolio of brands, a project that will also generate data for both companies to pursue further emissions reduction. With more data generated by more consumers, 'there's a lot you can do in terms of working on how you drive on your impact,' says Costa.
Seagate, which joined the list this year at No. 14, has been approaching its net-zero goals in stages. The data storage company first worked to improve efficiency within its operations to reduce its energy use across the board, and then eventually how much renewable energy it would need to the company is educating suppliers on sustainability practices to reduce the company's carbon footprint. Seagate also recently reduced its number of suppliers to further concentrate its investment, and projects that stronger partnerships among a few will ease tracking and result in a greater reduction of emissions.
'It's a journey,' says Balan Shanmuganathan, the company's senior engineering director of sustainability. 'It's not something where you flip a switch and suddenly everybody's carbon neutral or net zero.' For its efforts, Seagate says it is on track to be at 55% renewable energy by 2030.
Host Hotels, which rose from No. 28 last year to No. 13, owns 80 upscale hotel properties in the U.S., including several Ritz-Carltons, and is actively upgrading them to meet its net-zero goals. The real estate investment trust has been running what Michael Chang, the company's head of sustainability, calls a continuous conditioning platform that involves analyzing a building's internal operations, such as its HVAC system, and investing in renovations to improve efficiency.
'It's difficult to find that baseline in buildings over 30 years old,' Chang says. 'The systems are sort of Frankenstein-ish.' But Chang says the process has led to 5 to 20 percent gains in efficiency so far, and they're further analyzing how heat pumps and other new technologies can continue to reduce emissions. He adds, 'By this year we'll more than double the amount of electricity that's being generated with solar rooftops and solar carports. We're also putting in batteries to shave the energy demand.'
But for a business like Host Hotels, a lot of the gains come from knowing their operating partners are on board, and from continuous investments by utility companies to provide renewable energy to power the properties. 'All of these improvements and investments need to be made in tandem,' Chang says. 'We need to have this happen cross-industry to achieve net-zero.'
Contrary to some reports that suggest companies might be de-emphasizing emissions targets due to the change in administration, Sustainalytics' Osborne-Saponja says the company has actually noticed an increase in company reporting. Since most companies have to consider more stringent European standards anyway, she says, they're not likely to stop anytime soon: 'I think there will be some green hushing. But, I don't think that necessarily means that we will see a lack of progress.'
Methodology
Forbes' Net Zero Leaders list was created using raw data from research firms Sustainalytics and Morningstar. Sustainalytics provided its Low Carbon Transition Ratings, which evaluate the robustness of each company's climate governance, strategy, risk management and more. Morningstar contributed analysis of how each company's financial position and competitive strength can overcome industry challenges and inevitable economic downturns. A formula using those data created a single metric that was then ranked, with the top 200 companies making the list.
As with all Forbes lists, companies do not pay any fee to be considered. For questions about this list, please contact listdesk (at)
