Despite political fluctuations, the clean economy is now driven by market fundamentals, reaching record-breaking revenues and significantly outperforming fossil fuel benchmarks.
That’s according to the 2026 Carbon Clean 200 list, which tracks the top 200 public companies that earn revenue from clean energy, electrification and efficiency. The annual ranking, produced by shareholder advocacy group As You Sow and sustainable-economy research firm Corporate Knights, is built to show where “clean revenue” is actually showing up in financial statements—not where it’s being promised in climate pledges.
So, where does fashion fold in? Barely.
The 13th list since 2016 saw only eight fashion and fashion-adjacent companies made the 2026 cut. It’s a small showing for a sector that dominates consumer culture, but it’s not particularly small or strange, given the context. The authors called the Clean200 is an educational tool, intended to examine the world’s top-performing publicly traded firms that are actively generating massive financial output from the green transition.
Still, the placement of the companies that do appear is revealing.
Spanish multinational retailer Industria de Diseño Textil SA—aka Inditex, the parent company of Zara, ranked No. 13—the highest-positioned fashion company on the list. In the Clean200 download dataset, Inditex posted a 53.8 percent sustainable revenue ratio and roughly $33.44 billion in sustainable revenue based on 2024 data, putting it slightly above the Clean200 average ratio of 53.7 percent.
Luxury entered the conversation as French conglomerate Kering ranked No. 64 with a 39.9 percent sustainable revenue ratio and about $11.05 billion in sustainable revenue. Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz (aka H&M) comes next, ranking No. 116 with a 23.3 percent ratio and $6.23 billion in sustainable revenue. Shuffling the dataset’s very finite fashion footprint aside to look elsewhere, sportswear formed a neat cluster—and a useful comparison.
Nike ranked No. 57 and Adidas ranked No. 58, effectively a dead heat on absolute sustainable revenue: $12.16 billion from the world’s most valuable brand versus $12.11 billion from the three-stripe stalwart. Adidas posted a 31.8 percent ratio versus Nike’s 26.3 percent; Puma trailed at No. 180 with a 25.1 percent ratio and $3.56 billion in sustainable revenue.
“The Clean200 follows revenues, not rhetoric,” Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights and report co-author, said in a statement. “Even when politics turns hostile, markets continue to reward companies that are supplying what the global economy is structurally demanding.”
The authors positioned the list as an answer to a basic investor question.
“In 2016, we created the Clean200 in response to investors who asked, ‘As we shift away from fossil fuels, what should we invest in?’” Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow and report co-author, said in a statement. “A decade later, the Clean200 continues to demonstrate that the global economy is increasingly driven by companies delivering solutions that reduce dependence on fossil fuels and resource-intensive systems.”
Sector-wide, Consumer Discretionary—the bucket that includes many consumer brands—generated $649 billion in sustainable revenue, behind Information Technology at $782 billion and ahead of Industrials at $611 billion, the report said. The apparel names that do appear are, therefore, less a verdict on fashion’s overall progress than a snapshot of which incumbents are registering measurable “clean revenue” inside a framework investors can compare across industries.
That framework is also defined by what it excludes. The 13th edition’s listees were selected from over 8,200 global firms using a revenue-based methodology. To be eligible, companies must earn more than 10 percent of revenue from clean sources.
As for those non-starter submissions, the methodology includes an “exclusionary filter,” with screenings drawing on Corporate Knights’ research and As You Sow’s Invest Your Values platform. The ranking removes firms involved in fossil fuels, the majority of fossil-fired utilities, weapons, deforestation-linked commodities, private prisons, harmful pesticides and companies that obstruct climate policy.
The goal, the authors said, is to ensure outperformance (see: financial success) isn’t being built on revenue tied to systemic harm. Suzano, for example, was excluded. The Brazilian cellulose producer was identified on the Deforestation producer list provided by Friends of the Earth, per the report.
Optics aside, the global clean economy is no longer an alternative market; it is the market, according to the Clean200. With global energy investment reaching 3.3 trillion, its authors argue that the economics of the supply chain are shifting.
“The evidence is clear,” Behar said. “Across sectors and regions, companies focused on sustainability fundamentals are building more resilient, competitive businesses. These firms are helping define the next phase of global economic growth.”