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Adidas and H&M Rank Among Most Sustainable Companies in the World

Photo: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images

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Adidas, L'Oréal, and H&M lead the rankings of sustainable fashion and beauty companies, according to new rankings from Corporate Knights. Fashionista notes that Corporate Knights ranks 100 corporations with market capitalizations over $2 billion in order of sustainability.

All ranked companies meet four different criteria — these include tests for companies revenue, sustainability disclosures, the type of products the company sells (tobacco and weapons companies, for example, are excluded) and the amount of environmental sanctions brought against them — and then are ranked based on factors like water productivity, innovation capacity, leadership diversity, and CEO to average worker pay.

Based on all these criteria, Adidas ranked highest out of any beauty or apparel company, coming in fifth in the overall rankings. Notably, Nike is nowhere to be seen in the top 100. The next fashion and beauty companies on the list are L'Oreal at 14, H&M at 20, Kering at 43, and Unilever at 47. Fast fashion retailer H&M in particular is known for initiatives like its Conscious collections and working with eco-friendly companies like I:CO. H&M competitors like Forever 21 and Zara did not make the rankings.