American investors — more than 85% — say they want to invest in sustainable companies or funds that aim to achieve market-rate financial returns while also considering positive social or environmental outcomes. They're also confident they can do it without sacrificing profitability and that strong sustainability practices can lead to higher returns.
That may be a tall order in a whipsaw political and economic environment, both at home and abroad. And, it's not just a matter of finding "green" companies, or pursing "ESG." A truly sustainable company, regardless of products or services, has a plan to grow and thrive in a low-carbon future.
That's true across all industries. From IBD Long-Term Leaders like Microsoft and Cadence Design Systems in the tech sector, to financial giants like Bank of America and retailers like T.J. Maxx parent TJX Cos, companies know that sustainability impacts their business and reputation.
When it comes to the future, younger investors may turn the tide. Especially Gen Z and millennials, who have more of their portfolio allocated to sustainable options, plan to increase allocations at higher rates and prioritize a broader range of sustainability issues when making investment decisions.
The 2025 Morgan Stanley Sustainable Signals individual investors report shows that "investors across demographic groups and regions continue to believe that investments can achieve both positive real-world outcomes and competitive market-rate returns," said Jessica Alsford, chief sustainability officer and chair of the Institute for Sustainable Investing at Morgan Stanley.
"Younger investors plan to increase portfolio allocations to sustainable options at higher rates and prioritize a broader range of environmental and social issues when making investment decisions. This suggests that sustainability could become an even greater focus area for investors in the future as younger generations gain more financial influence."
Rules For When To Buy And Sell Stocks In Bull And Bear Markets
But how can investors parse the complex world of sustainability assessments, ESG scores and emissions reporting? Investor's Business Daily is here to help, with its 2025 list of the Most Sustainable Companies. The 50 stocks on this list combine strong climate management scores from Morningstar Sustainalytics with superior IBD technical and fundamental stock ratings. They are well-positioned for investors concerned about the climate transition. Read all the stories in our full special report.
This list reveals which companies are leading the way to a lower-carbon future and are ready for the challenges of the energy transition in coming decades. The top ranks are filled with financial services, utility and consumer companies.
How IBD's Most Sustainable Companies List Was Created
To build IBD's 2025 list of the Most Sustainable Companies, we started with Morningstar's U.S. and global Low Carbon Transition Leaders Indexes. These indexes provide exposure to companies from each sector that are taking the most action toward transitioning to a low-carbon economy. We sorted the constituents of the Morningstar indexes using IBD technical and fundamental stock ratings.
The stocks had to have a price of $10 or more and sufficient data to create an IBD Composite Rating. We further qualified the list by removing stocks that did not meet or beat the S&P 500 in the past five years. We selected the companies with the highest IBD Composite Rating — all with scores of 80 or better.
Finally, we ranked the companies by their Morningstar Sustainalytics climate management score, using the IBD Composite Rating to break any ties.
Morningstar Sustainalytics provides an overall climate management score of 0 to 100. This indicates the strength of a company's systems for managing its exposure to the low-carbon transition, and factors in the issuer's investment alignment, metrics and targets, financial strength, and historical performance across the full business value chain. A score of 46 to 55 is average, 56 to 75 is strong, and above 76 is very strong.
"Investors increasingly view sustainability factors as a material drivers of long-term performance," said Margaret Stafford, associate director of product management for Morningstar Indexes. "The Morningstar Low Carbon Transition Leaders Index Series, along with our global research, ratings, and data, helps investors distinguish companies genuinely advancing the climate transition from those merely talking about it."
IBD's 50 Most Sustainable Companies
Here is IBD's 2025 list of the 50 most sustainable companies:
Note: Be sure to scroll to the right to see all the columns. Data is as of Oct. 9.
| Rank | Company | Symbol | Industry | Low Carbon Transition Mgt Score | Composite Rating | Relative Strength Rating | EPS Rating | SMR Rating | 3-Yr EPS growth rate | ROE | Last qtr sales % change | Last qtr EPS % change | Dividend yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eaton | Energy/Power | 74.3 | 94 | 68 | 90 | A | 19 | 23 | 11 | 8 | 1.11 | |
| 2 | Bank of Montreal | Financial | 70.6 | 93 | 83 | 69 | A | -9 | 12 | 10 | 22 | 3.53 | |
| 3 | Stantec | Commercial Svcs | 67.0 | 88 | 78 | 97 | A | 20 | 19 | 7 | 21 | 0.59 | |
| 4 | Loews | Insurance | 66.5 | 84 | 73 | 87 | B | 30 | 10 | 7 | 19 | 0.25 | |
| 5 | TJX Cos. | Retail | 64.1 | 88 | 71 | 87 | A | 15 | 62 | 7 | 15 | 1.20 | |
| 6 | Microsoft | Technology | 63.1 | 98 | 75 | 95 | A | 15 | 33 | 18 | 24 | 0.70 | |
| 7 | NatWest Group | Financial | 63.1 | 94 | 85 | 99 | A | 27 | 13 | 10 | 33 | 4.23 | |
| 8 | Cadence Design Systems | Technology | 62.7 | 93 | 77 | 98 | A | 19 | 40 | 20 | 29 | n/a | |
| 9 | IBM | Technology | 61.7 | 84 | 70 | 71 | A | 7 | 39 | 8 | 15 | 2.33 | |
| 10 | Heico | Aerospace/Defense | 61.6 | 95 | 74 | 97 | A | 22 | 15 | 16 | 30 | 0.09 | |
| 11 | Parker-Hannifin | Industrial | 61.4 | 92 | 76 | 90 | B | 14 | 28 | 1 | 14 | 0.94 | |
| 12 | Bank of America | Financial | 61.3 | 83 | 73 | 76 | B | -1 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 2.21 | |
| 13 | Old Republic International | Insurance | 60.8 | 87 | 75 | 81 | B | 3 | 13 | 18 | 9 | 2.67 | |
| 14 | Canadian Imperial Bank | Financial | 60.4 | 88 | 81 | 83 | A | 5 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 3.09 | |
| 15 | Oracle | Technology | 60.0 | 94 | 92 | 72 | A | 8 | 119 | 12 | 6 | 0.70 | |
| 16 | Osisko Gold Royalties | Mining | 58.9 | 99 | 95 | 94 | A | -2 | 8 | 27 | 50 | 0.46 | |
| 17 | Williams Cos. | Energy/Power | 58.6 | 85 | 71 | 78 | A | 5 | 19 | 19 | 7 | 3.10 | |
| 18 | Nvidia | Technology | 58.2 | 99 | 88 | 99 | A | 151 | 121 | 56 | 54 | 0.02 | |
| 19 | Alphabet | Technology | 58.0 | 98 | 88 | 97 | A | 24 | 32 | 14 | 24 | 0.34 | |
| 20 | Gold Fields | Mining | 57.9 | 98 | 97 | 96 | A | 12 | 17 | 64 | 220 | 1.47 | |
| 21 | Iron Mountain | Commercial Svcs | 57.9 | 87 | 49 | 75 | A | 4 | 0 | 12 | 12 | 2.99 | |
| 22 | American Express | Financial | 57.6 | 83 | 67 | 91 | A | 16 | 33 | 8 | 17 | 0.99 | |
| 23 | Valaris | Energy/Power | 57.5 | 93 | 78 | 99 | A | 74 | 14 | 1 | 78 | n/a | |
| 24 | Nasdaq | Financial | 56.5 | 88 | 61 | 93 | A | 5 | 15 | 17 | 23 | 1.23 | |
| 25 | Citigroup | Financial | 56.4 | 80 | 86 | 79 | C | -8 | 6 | 0 | 29 | 2.46 | |
| 26 | Eli Lilly | Health/Medical | 54.8 | 85 | 49 | 94 | A | 26 | 94 | 38 | 61 | 0.71 | |
| 27 | Agnico Eagle Mines | Mining | 54.2 | 99 | 94 | 97 | A | 34 | 11 | 36 | 81 | 0.94 | |
| 28 | Carlyle Group | Financial | 54.1 | 92 | 84 | 81 | A | n/a | 19 | 47 | 118 | 2.21 | |
| 29 | Regions Financial | Financial | 54.0 | 85 | 71 | 88 | B | -3 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 4.02 | |
| 30 | Netflix | Leisure | 53.9 | 91 | 76 | 97 | A | 35 | 38 | 16 | 47 | n/a | |
| 31 | Expedia Group | Leisure | 53.7 | 91 | 85 | 98 | A | 31 | 105 | 6 | 21 | 0.73 | |
| 32 | Howmet Aerospace | Aerospace/Defense | 53.2 | 96 | 89 | 98 | A | 38 | 26 | 9 | 36 | 0.25 | |
| 33 | United Rentals | Commercial Svcs | 52.6 | 92 | 86 | 76 | A | 15 | 34 | 5 | -2 | 0.71 | |
| 34 | Pentair | Industrial | 52.3 | 87 | 71 | 91 | B | 8 | 21 | 2 | 14 | 0.89 | |
| 35 | Booking Holdings | Leisure | 52.3 | 85 | 61 | 97 | A | 37 | 0 | 16 | 32 | 0.69 | |
| 36 | Hubbell | Energy/Power | 52.2 | 83 | 44 | 86 | B | 23 | 29 | 2 | 11 | 1.28 | |
| 37 | Creditcorp | Financial | 51.6 | 93 | 85 | 97 | A | 11 | 21 | 10 | 47 | 4.07 | |
| 38 | GE Aerospace | Aerospace/Defense | 50.4 | 98 | 90 | 98 | A | 81 | 22 | 21 | 38 | 0.48 | |
| 39 | Southern Copper | Mining | 50.3 | 95 | 85 | 80 | A | 11 | 41 | -2 | 0 | 2.08 | |
| 40 | Wheaton Precious Metals | Mining | 48.1 | 99 | 90 | 94 | A | 16 | 9 | 68 | 91 | 0.59 | |
| 41 | Welltower | Property/REIT | 47.9 | 93 | 81 | 88 | B | 13 | 3 | 40 | 22 | 1.69 | |
| 42 | Morgan Stanley | Financial | 47.5 | 90 | 83 | 81 | B | 7 | 13 | 11 | 17 | 2.54 | |
| 43 | Elbit Systems | Aerospace/Defense | 47.3 | 97 | 92 | 90 | B | 15 | 13 | 21 | 55 | 0.58 | |
| 44 | Vulcan Materials | Industrial | 46.8 | 81 | 77 | 72 | B | 17 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 0.64 | |
| 45 | Antero Midstream | Energy/Power | 45.9 | 90 | 67 | 87 | A | 10 | 22 | 13 | 26 | 4.71 | |
| 46 | Blackstone | Financial | 45.5 | 87 | 61 | 85 | A | 17 | 66 | 33 | 26 | 2.53 | |
| 47 | Fox | Media | 42.6 | 89 | 79 | 88 | A | 16 | 19 | 6 | 41 | 0.90 | |
| 48 | Synchrony Financial | Financial | 42.3 | 80 | 78 | 94 | C | 5 | 18 | 3 | 61 | 1.68 | |
| 49 | Quanta Services | Industrial | 41.2 | 98 | 84 | 98 | A | 19 | 20 | 21 | 31 | 0.09 | |
| 50 | Heico | Aerospace/Defense | 37.5 | 95 | 72 | 97 | A | 22 | 15 | 16 | 30 | 0.07 |
Sources: IBD, Morningstar. Data is as of Oct. 9, 2025. The Most Sustainable Companies logos and accolades are available for licensing through Investor's Business Daily's partner, The YGS Group. Email IBDlicensing@theygsgroup.com or at 800-290-5460.
IBD's special reports are objective and data-based. This independent special report is produced by the IBD editorial team. There is no sponsored content, nor are there any commission links. A company cannot apply to get on this list, and there are no fees.
