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-efficient “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:

1.Measurable Social Impact

We consider the reach, nature, and durability of the company’s impact on one or more specific societal problems.

2.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.

3.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 / GENERAL MOTORS / 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 second quarter of 2023. That share would undeniably be lower if it weren’t for Tesla, 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.

Still, even after recent price reductions, most Teslas are luxury goods. The next phase of bringing EVs to the U.S. masses may belong to General Motors. Under CEO Mary Barra, GM has pledged to sell only EVs by 2035—a bigger commitment than any other full-line automaker. By the end of this year, the Detroit giant will have nine EV models available (Tesla currently sells four). GM’s lineup will include a pickup and two family-size SUVs—the categories U.S. consumers gravitate to most—along with two models priced in the $30,000 range. The key to that breadth is GM’s Ultium platform, which enables the company to use the same battery and powertrain architecture across multiple models, bringing scale up and costs down. In September, GM, Ford, and Stellantis were locked in a labor dispute with the United Auto Workers in which EVs were a major sticking point, because EVs have fewer parts and thus require fewer workers to assemble. But if GM can simultaneously broaden access to electric cars and provide its workforce with good-paying jobs building them, it will have pulled off a social-impact coup.

Range anxiety, the fear of not having access to a charger, has been a major obstacle to EV adoption. No company has done more to quell that fear than ChargePoint, whose network now includes some 240,000 charging ports. ChargePoint has also teamed up with GM, Tesla, and other car manufacturers to build the North American Charging Standard, which aims to develop one standard EV connector for use across the U.S. and Canada.

To power a growing EV fleet, South Korea’s SK On has helped jump-start battery manufacturing in the U.S. The company has opened a factory in Georgia; in joint ventures with Ford and Hyundai, it has another four under construction. By 2025, those facilities collectively will be producing batteries for about 1.5 million EVs a year—more vital pieces in the remaking of Auto Nation.

2.Mercado Libre

MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY

In Latin America, where 33% of adults lack bank access, this e-commerce and fintech firm offers loans and investing services to millions. About 45% of its customers got their first loan or credit card from Mercado Libre.

3.Walmart

BENTONVILLE, ARK.

Walmart’s Live Better U aims to put workers on a path to better pay—by covering 100% of their tuition and book costs. Since 2018, about 19,000 people have earned degrees and certifications through LBU.

4.Johnson Controls

CORK, IRELAND

The building technology company is one of the world’s biggest producers and installers of heat pumps, which can heat or cool a building using only about one-third the energy of a conventional system.

5.Battelle

COLUMBUS, OHIO

This applied-sciences nonprofit has developed the PFAS Annihilator: It’s one of the first tools for eliminating PFAS—pervasive “forever chemicals” linked to various increased cancer risks—from water and soil.

6.Perrigo / Organon

DUBLIN / JERSEY CITY

Major milestones in the fight for women’s reproductive freedom.

Access to contraception helps lower maternal mortality rates, increases women’s wages and education levels, and broadly benefits society and business at large. Despite these tremendous benefits, for-profit companies have largely abandoned women’s health in general and contraception in particular. But two companies have bucked the trend this year, taking significant steps to help women prevent unwanted pregnancies.

In the U.S., women will soon be able to buy birth control pills over the counter for the first time, thanks to Ireland’s Perrigo. In 2014 a company now owned by Perrigo started working to seek U.S. regulatory approval to sell its Opill without a prescription. In July, the Food and Drug Administration finally approved Perrigo’s application, a decision one advocate called “a transformation in access to contraceptive care.”

Organon in March pledged $30 million as part of an initiative to reduce unintended pregnancies globally. The women’s health company is issuing grants to nonprofits working with lower-income women and teaming up with others to distribute its contraceptive implants in low-income countries. It says its work helped prevent 57 million unintended pregnancies through the end of 2022.

7.WASOKO

NAIROBI

Shoring up mom-and-pop retailers across Africa.

Wasoko has become one of the fastest-growing companies in Africa by making it convenient for mom-and-pop retailers to order essential goods at any time via SMS or its mobile app for free same-day delivery to their stores. The company has facilitated 5 million orders to sellers of goods like rice, sugar, and soap to maintain their stock and provide essential products to local communities in such countries as Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It’s a huge difference maker in rural areas where supply chains are shaky and big chain retailers are rarely found. Wasoko’s platform has also disbursed $43 million in financing to retailers for projects designed to help them grow their revenue. The company raised $125 million in a financing round last year that valued it at $625 million.

8.WeRide

GUANGZHOU, CHINA

Harnessing the safety and climate benefits of driverless cars.

Traffic accidents are a leading cause of death globally, and many advocates say autonomous driving tech could pave the way to safer roads—reducing accidents by eliminating factors like driver fatigue and drunk driving. WeRide, recently valued at $5.1 billion, operates driverless cars, buses, and other vehicles in China, Singapore, and the UAE. Three years into its robo-taxi operations, WeRide says it has recorded no “proactive” accidents—that is, none caused by its cars. It also serves underrepresented consumers in new ways. “We want to empower the vulnerable communities, including the elderly and the disabled, by offering a means to get to their destinations independently,” CEO Tony Han told Fortune. WeRide’s entire fleet of 600 vehicles, from taxis to buses, is electric—helping to reduce carbon emissions. WeRide has also played a role in urban sanitation: Its driverless street sweepers run every day in Guangzhou, a city of 14 million people.

9.Gilead

FOSTER CITY, CALIF.

Gilead is one of the most successful developers of HIV drugs. It’s now channeling its earnings into the Compass Initiative, which aims to expand access to HIV education and treatment in the American South.

10.Abbott

ABBOTT PARK, ILL.

The health giant’s Freedom 2 Save program matches employees’ student loan payments with 401(k) contributions, helping them navigate their student debt. Other companies plan to follow its lead.

11.Infosys

BENGALURU, INDIA

The huge consultancy has taken digital training far beyond its walls. Its Springboard system has reached 5.9 million students in India alone, offering master classes, programming challenges, and life-skills courses.

12.Patagonia

VENTURA, CALIF.

A sustainability pioneer devotes nearly all of its profits to a healthier planet—in perpetuity

Since outdoor apparel brand Patagonia started donating revenues to environmental initiatives in 1985, it has contributed more than $161 million to sustain - able causes. Today the company donates 1% yearly of net revenues to mostly grass-roots environmental nonprofits.

Those are the kinds of numbers that allow backpackers and finance bros alike to wear their $200 vests with pride. But the 50-year-old company, which generated an estimated $100 million profit last year, made a far bigger and more radical gift in September 2022. In the apex of corporate good, Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, donated a 98% stake in the company to a climate nonprofit called the Holdfast Collective in 2022, ensuring that almost all the company’s future profits will fund some form of environmental salvation. “Hopefully this will influence a new form of capitalism that doesn’t end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people,” Chouinard told the New York Times as he gave his company away.

13.Mastercard

PURCHASE, N.Y.

After Russia’s invasion spurred an exodus of Ukrainians to Poland, Mastercard analyzed data to figure out which towns could best help. Its Where to Settle app helped 240,000 people decide where to go.

14.Santander

MADRID

The global bank’s Santander Universities program supports scholarships and entrepreneurship programs in 25 countries. Since its 1996 launch, the program has reached more than 1 million beneficiaries.

15.Apple

CUPERTINO, CALIF.

Since 2015, the iPhone maker has cut its overall CO2 emissions by more than 45%. The company just unveiled a carbonneutral Apple Watch, and it plans for every Apple product to be carbonneutral by 2030.

16.Tencent

SHENZHEN, CHINA

Tencent’s WeChat is omnipresent on phones in China. Its 99 Giving Day turns that reach into philanthropic impact: Since its inception eight years ago, the event has channeled almost $1.8 billion to charities.

17.RECYCLING REVITALIZERS

Three companies fighting to keep plastic out of landfills.

DIGIMARC / DOW / EASTMAN

Of the almost 400 million tons of plastic produced each year, only about 9% gets recycled. The remainder accumulates in our landfills, our oceans—and, increasingly, our bodies. Scientists and activists are racing to build a “circular plastics economy” where most plastic gets reused repeatedly or even perpetually, and these companies are in the thick of the effort. Digimarc, which specializes in anti-counterfeiting “watermarks” for currencies, driver’s licenses, and other products, recently launched Digimarc Recycle. That program pairs digital watermarking with software that enables sorting machines to quickly identify what type of plastic any given item is made of—avoiding the mismatches that lead recyclers to reject tons of plastic every year. Plastic can’t be recycled when it’s too dirty, which inspired Dow, a major plastic producer, to develop the cleaning formula Evowash: Dow estimates Evowash, which became commercially available in March 2023, will help recyclers divert 150,000 tons of waste out of landfills this year alone. Another plastic maker, Eastman, aims to regenerate materials that today are mostly unrecyclable, including polyester fabric, carpet fibers, and colored plastics. Eastman’s process breaks those materials down to their molecular components, from which it can make highly durable, reusable products. It has recycled about 50 million pounds of plastic since 2020 and plans to scale up to 500 million pounds a year by 2030.

18.FERRING

Distributing a durable tool for a pervasive maternal health threat.

SAINT-PREX, SWITZERLAND

For many years, the first-line defense against postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), a dangerous complication of childbirth that kills 70,000 women per year, has been an abundant, low-cost drug called oxytocin. Trouble is, the drug doesn’t work well if it hasn’t been kept cold—which can be hard to do in the many parts of the world that lack cold transport and storage or a reliable power supply. In 2010, Swiss pharmaceutical firm Ferring began work on a more resilient alternative: heat-stable carbetocin. A massive clinical trial, funded by Merck for Mothers and conducted by the World Health Organization, showed that carbetocin was comparably effective in preventing PPH after vaginal births. The drug is now on the Essential Medicines List, and Ferring since 2021 has de - livered more than 800,000 doses to 15 low- and middle-income countries—many in the midst of humanitarian crises—where the burden of maternal mortality is high. Ferring has committed to providing the drug at a sustainable and affordable price, along - side training to ensure it’s used correctly and safely. —Erika Fry

19.Octopus Energy Group

Connecting more customers with green power and cheaper energy.

LONDON

Octopus Energy Group helps customers keep a tight grip on their purse strings while cutting down their carbon footprint. Its proprietary energy-tech platform, Kraken, makes it easier for users to customize their energy sources and pricing structures. Octopus installs solar panels and heat pumps, and business customers can opt to get their power from 100% renewable sources by connecting with them through Octopus. The company also offers various smart-grid programs that allow customers to buy electricity at reduced rates for use during off-peak hours—a good deal for anyone charging an electric vehicle overnight. Kraken now has 30 million customer accounts in 16 countries, including about 13 million in the U.K., where it’s now the country’s second largest energy provider, with a customer base of about 50% of the population. —Aslesha Mehta

20.Syndio

SEATTLE

Companies including Walmart and Salesforce use Syndio’s tech to spot pay gaps based on race, gender, or ethnicity. The company says it’s helped steer $167 million to workers who were under - paid due to such gaps.

21.Vivo (Telefônica Brasil)

SÃO PAULO

Brazil’s largest telecom provider built a nation - wide recycling network for cell phones, tablets, and other consumer gear; it reclaimed 11.3 tons of e-waste in 2022.

22.Bobbie

SAN FRANCISCO

When factory problems led to a massive infant formula shortage in 2022, this organicformula startup stayed reliable for parents. Its recent acquisition of Nature’s One will vastly expand its market share.

23.Yum China

SHANGHAI

The huge restaurant manager (it operates brands like KFC and Pizza Hut in China) is taking on rural poverty— in part through “grow local” initiatives to intro - duce regional produce to its restaurant menus.

24.Microsoft

REDMOND, WASH.

In May, Microsoft helped launch Jugalbandi, a chatbot that uses AI to give Indians information about public services in their own languages. That’s a boon for millions in India who speak neither Hindi nor English.

25.Chobani

NEW BERLIN, N.Y.

The yogurt maker helped found the Tent Partnership for Refugees, which enlists companies to provide refugees with jobs. In June, 41 partners pledged to employ and train over 250,000 people across Europe.

26.Too Good to Go

COPENHAGEN

Discarded food is not only a waste but a driver of global warming. Too Good to Go helps restaurants and stores sell or donate extra food rather than throwing it away; its app has kept 243 million meals out of landfills.

27.Recykal

HYDERABAD, INDIA

Recykal runs a digital marketplace in India that helps match recyclers and trash collectors, increasing the amount of waste that gets reused. It diverted some 700,000 metric tons of trash out of landfills so far in 2023.

28.Cisco

SAN JOSE

Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration program has funded more than 1,500 projects to close the digital divide, including broadband services in the rural U.S. and mobile doctor’s offices for refugees in Germany.

29.Green Homebuilders

Collaborating on energysmart homes and towns

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC / KB HOME

Aging energy grids around the world have been tested in unprecedented ways—the result of a perilous mix of heat waves, severe storms, droughts, and other catastrophes. Residential energy use accounts for an estimated 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and more energy-efficient homes are one possible solution to the growing strain. Schneider Electric—whose products are now in four out of 10 U.S. homes—has been a leader in building out technology and services to make smarter homes and grids a reality. In early 2023, the company launched a product that lets consumers switch between energy sources (traditional and cleaner sources) and store energy from solar panels during the day to power their homes during peak hours. This saves money for residents and helps alleviate some of the stress put on existing power grids at times of high demand.

Schneider has also teamed up with KB Home, the big U.S. builder that has become a leader in energy-efficient housing. In 2022, KB launched the first “microgrid communities”—two all-electric, energy-smart neighborhoods in Menifee, Calif. Homes in the neighborhoods have built-in solar panels, energystorage systems, and energyefficiency tech powered in part by Schneider. Each home is designed to average out to be net-zero energy—producing as much energy as it consumes over time.

30.WORLD-CHANGING INVESTORS

Channeling capital to finance powerful ideas.

LEAPFROG INVESTMENTS / TPG RISE / FLAGSHIP PIONEERING

LeapFrog Investments/TPG Rise/Flagship Pioneering

Investors are on the hunt for startups that can solve social or environmental problems: In 2022, total assets devoted to “impact investing” topped $1 trillion for the first time. These companies have proved particularly adept at steering investor capital to companies with worldimproving ideas. Anglo-Australian firm LeapFrog Investments focuses on companies that provide financial services, health care, and clean energy to lower-income consumers in Africa and Asia. Its portfolio of 30 companies includes Sun King, whose rooftop solar-energy panels serve more than 100 million people; and HealthifyMe, an app that delivers personalized health advice to customers in more than 300 cities in India and Southeast Asia. TPG Rise, an impact private equity firm, now manages $17 billion—including $7.3 billion in its Rise Climate fund. Rise Climate’s big bets include stakes in Nextracker, whose solar panels move to track the sun across the sky, maximizing their energy yield; Monolith, a big player in the race for green hydrogen; and an EV-and-battery-development partnership with Indian automotive giant Tata Motors. Biotech VC firm Flagship Pioneering, best known for incubating vaccine maker Moderna, has launched more than 100 other companies. Two of them have made particularly big waves in 2023: Seres Therapeutics, whose therapy VOWST was approved by the FDA to treat dangerous recurrent C. difficile infections; and Indigo Ag, which helps farmers earn extra revenue by adopting sustainable agriculture practices and thus earning, and selling, carbon credits.

31.Volvo

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN

The maker of trucks, buses, and construction equipment is shrinking its carbon footprint by leaning into “green steel”—using metal that’s forged with energy from hydrogen instead of fossil fuels.

32.Grail

MENLO PARK, CALIF.

Early detection and diagnosis can reduce cancer mortality rates by 26%. Grail’s Galleri blood test can detect a shared signal across more than 50 types of cancers, increasing the odds of an early start on treatment.

33.JPMorgan Chase

A rebounding city becomes a springboard for helping entrepreneurs of color.

NEW YORK CITY

In the summer of 2013, Detroit hit economic rock bottom. With the city’s population down more than 60% from its 1950s peak, and the auto industry still reeling from the Great Recession, the city declared bankruptcy; its unemployment rate topped 25%. To help the city bounce back, JPMorgan Chase teamed up with local government and nonprofits on Invested in Detroit, a program through which it has poured over $200 million into Detroit’s economy in the form of job training, loans for small businesses, and real estate financing. The bank’s biggest innovations have involved extending credit to people who lacked the collateral or credit histories to qualify for traditional loans—a major problem in underserved and lower-income communities.

A decade on, the program is making a difference. To date, Invested in Detroit has helped place some 72,000 Detroiters into apprenticeships or jobs, while providing financing or technical aid to 13,000 small businesses. Detroit’s jobless rate is now just 6.4%. JPMorgan Chase, meanwhile, has benefited from a healthier economy: Since 2017, its deposits, commercial lending, and market share in the metro area have all risen substantially. And the bank has taken some of its innovations national and global: Its Entrepreneurs of Color Fund, first launched in Detroit, has now made more than 2,100 loans, worth over $115 million, to entrepreneurs nationwide.

34.Intuition Robotics

A “companion robot” that’s helping socially isolated seniors stay healthy.

RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL

For older people, loneliness can be a threat as real as any disease: Estimated to cost Medicare $7 billion a year, the condition is associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, dementia, anxiety, depression, and premature death. ElliQ, Intuition Robotics’ “companion robot,” aims to address the problem. About the size of a desk lamp, and equipped with a touch screen and empathetic voice-interaction software, the robot can both keep seniors company throughout the day and encourage healthy habits—valuable services at a time when the number of elderly people is growing far faster than the number of caregivers.

New York’s Office for the Aging began piloting ElliQ last year among some 300 socially isolated seniors. Acting director Greg Olsen says that 95% of its users report a reduction in loneliness and an overall improvement in health—thanks to ElliQ’s messaging and activities around hydration, medication, nutrition, cognitive games, and mindfulness.

35.Swatch

BIENNE, SWITZERLAND

Many Swatch watches now use a sustainable “bioceramic” material instead of traditional plastic. And in a stand for human rights, Swatch has resisted backlash against its LGBTQ+ Pridethemed watches.

36.Leidos

RESTON, VA.

The defense contractor is a leader in addressing —and destigmatizing— addiction and mental health issues in the broader workforce. It also provides counseling on such issues to government entities.

37.WSP

MONTREAL

The engineering giant aims to generate more than 50% of its income from “clean-revenue” projects. One current highlight: a massive transmission network to carry hydroelectricity to New York from Canada.

38.Winmark

MINNEAPOLIS

The owner of clothes resale chains such as Plato’s Closet and Once Upon a Child estimates it has resold more than 1.6 billion items since 2010—helping to tackle a fast-fashion waste crisis overwhelming landfills.

39.CIB Egypt

GIZA, EGYPT

CIB recently became the first Egyptian bank to issue a green bond, raising $100 million to finance projects to increase the use of renewable energy in a region that finds itself increasingly stressed by climate change.

40.Esusu

NEW YORK CITY

This startup helps young people and folks with iffy credit build a financial profile. It reports users’ timely rent payments to major credit bureaus, gradually improving their scores and empowering them to borrow later.

41.PayPal

SAN JOSE

PayPal is now using AI to identify payments that could have criminal links. The tech detects transactions related to terrorism, drug sales, trafficking, and more, enabling PayPal to quickly loop in law enforcement.

42.SESAME WORKSHOP

Helping displaced children keep up with their education.

NEW YORK CITY

Few investments offer a return as enduring and broadly shared as early childhood education— one Nobel-winning economist puts the ROI to societies at 13% annually—but every year tens of millions of children miss out, displaced by conflict or other crises.

Now Sesame Workshop, the 55-year-old nonprofit creator of Sesame Street, offers Ahlan Simsim, or “Welcome Sesame” in Arabic—a program developed in partnership with the International Rescue Committee that has reached 25 million kids across the Middle East and North Africa. Ahlan Simsim has also become the basis for a remote preschool experience, combining in-person services, teacher-led phone calls, multimedia materials distributed via WhatsApp, and engaged caregivers, that has reached 2 million children in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. It may be a scrappy approximation of the real thing—caregivers have been known to borrow phones or seek cell service on rooftops—but studies by New York University’s Global TIES for Children have found the impacts on participants’ development to be broad and profound.

43.VC Gender Parity

AUSTRALIAN FIRMS

After research showed that women-led firms received only 10% of VC funding in Australia in 2022, a few firms committed to do better and share data about who they vetted; now some 50 firms have signed on.

44.Trimble

WESTMINSTER, COLO

Trimble’s software helps architects and contractors predict the energy consumption of buildings they’re designing; its “embodied carbon” calculator can help them choose materials with a lower carbon footprint.

45.Google Nest

PALO ALTO

The thermostat maker’s Energy Shift feature lets users make continual adjustments that concentrate energy consumption when power is cheaper, or when the grid is relying on cleaner power sources.

46.Habi

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA

In Latin America’s housing markets, lowerincome homeowners often can’t get accurate home valuations. The Habimetro tool has helped 557,000 households in Colombia and Mexico fill that gap.

47.Biobot Analytics

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Biobot analyzes wastewater to track the spread of disease, tech that’s been crucial in anticipating COVID-19 outbreaks. Biobot now also tracks mpox and norovirus, monitoring 400 communities in 50 states.

48.Cotopaxi

SALT LAKE CITY

This maker of colorful outdoor apparel concentrates on fighting poverty. Cotopaxi gives 1% to 3% of revenue to nonprofits that provide education in impoverished areas or shelter to refugee communities.

49.Kayrros

PARIS

Kayrros helps governments combat emissions of powerful greenhouse gases like methane by figuring out exactly where they’re being emitted from—using AI and satellite imagery to pinpoint trouble spots.

50.VF Corp.

DENVER

The owner of Timberland, Vans, and The North Face has created a regenerative rubber supply chain in Thailand— relying on new practices to curb the ecological damage associated with rubber farming.

HEAD WRITERS

Matt Heimer

CONTRIBUTORS

Maria Aspan

Paige Hagy

Rachyl Jones

Jasmine Li

Lila MacLellan

Meghan Malas

Aslesha Mehta

L’Oreal Thompson Payton

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez

Alexandra Sternlicht