Most business “best of” lists, including ours, focus on financial superlatives—the biggest and most profitable corporations, the fastest-growing companies, the top-performing stocks. But financial gain isn’t the only purpose of a business. The Fortune Change the World list is rooted in the belief that companies can mobilize the creative tools of capitalism to help solve social problems—using the profit motive to achieve goals that are just as important as turning a profit, and sometimes more so.
The 2023 list, our ninth, showcases 59 companies selected by our reporters and editors from a short list of nearly 250. We’re publishing it after a summer of record heat and terrifying wildfires from Maui to Macedonia; in part for that reason, we’ve put the quest to curb greenhouse-gas emissions in the spotlight. That’s reflected in our No. 1 selection—four companies that are speeding up the EV revolution in the U.S.—but also by businesses that are teaming up to build energy-effcient “smart homes” and offering ingenious ways to keep food, plastic, and clothing out of landfills. Other businesses, meanwhile, are tackling public-health challenges and finding ways to grapple with the world’s refugee crises. And some of the world’s biggest companies, including Walmart, the world’s largest by revenue (No. 3), are pouring resources into educating and upskilling people in their workforces and their wider communities—and perhaps training the next generation of problem-solving business leaders.
How We Choose the Companies
The Change the World list recognizes companies that have had a positive social impact through activities that are part of their core business strategy. As we assess nominees, among the factors that matter most are:
Measurable Social Impact
We consider the reach, nature, and durability of the company’s impact on one or more specific societal problems.
Business Results
We consider the benefit the socially impactful work brings to the company. Profitability and contribution to shareholder value outweigh benefits to the company’s reputation.
Degree of Innovation
We consider how innovative the company’s effort is relative to that of others in its industry and whether other companies have followed its example or partnered with it.
1 AMERICA’S ELECTRIFIERS
Four companies leading the push to convert the world’s most car-happy nation to electric vehicles.
TESLA / GENERALMOTORS / CHARGEPOINT / SK ON
The United States is a nation of drivers. Americans own more cars and trucks per capita than citizens of any other major nation—some 275 million in all—and those vehicles account for 23.5% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, a far higher share than in most countries. As the climate crisis grows more urgent, converting that massive fleet from internal combustion to electricity has become one of the world’s most important net-zero missions.
Things are trending in the right direction: EVs accounted for a record 7.2% of U.S. auto sales in, the first company to convince Americans that electric cars could be both attractive and practical; there are some 1.3 million Teslas on the road in the States today. (For more on the complicated “green” legacy of Tesla’s Elon Musk, see the story in this issue.)
