Over two decades ago, New York hummed with ambition as CEOs, investors, and activists gathered under the UN’s blue banners, coining the acronym ESG.
Since then, corporations and startups alike have rewritten market rules, using ESG to steer business toward a better future. Companies like Ørsted and Unilever have proven that decarbonization and purpose-led branding can outperform short-term profit-chasing. Meanwhile, ESG funds, like BlackRock’s and national pension schemes in Europe, redirect billions toward sustainable portfolios.
Across the globe, Europe takes up over 85% of global sustainable fund assets, followed by the United States with 10%, and the rest of the world makes up the remainder. China, India, Indonesia, and the Middle East continue to accelerate their push, pouring millions into sustainable investments.
ESG integration has prompted companies to trace, audit, and disclose their entire value chains, encompassing human rights and emissions. Legislation such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive has established “scope 3 transparency” as a new market norm, and the CFO Coalition for the Sustainable Development Goals, established in 2020, has mobilized financial leaders to direct capital toward sustainable development.
From multi-national operators to rapid-scale startups, these ESG innovators are reshaping how companies confront climate change and inequality. They tackle carbon removal, circular materials, resilient food systems, clean energy, and transparent governance.
Below is a look at 50 ESG leaders to keep an eye on next year. Every entry made the cut because in 2025, they either scaled operations, secured major partnerships or finance, won prizes, or converted pilots into commercial programs. These signals point to a bigger influence in 2026.
USA
Viking Pure — Florida
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: Once confined to oceans and soil, microplastics are progressively showing up inside us, in our brains and livers, blood, and lungs, U.S. researchers reported in 2025.
How They’re Changing Things: Eco-friendly cleaning and disinfecting solutions using patented electrolyzed water technology. Switching chemical-heavy cleaning to sustainable, non-corrosive alternatives across healthcare, senior living, education, and food and beverage.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: The Viking Pure Disinfecting Solution 600 from Viking Pure Solutions received an honorable mention in the 2025 Sanitary Maintenance Distributor Choice Awards, recognizing the company’s innovative contributions to the janitorial and sanitation industry.
Where To Find Them: vikingpure.com
Dots Eco — Delaware
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: ESG might be trending, but it’s not topping people’s to-do lists: 43% care about salaries and rewards, not sustainability contributions.
How They’re Changing Things: A feel-good tech platform that turns clicks and game purchases into planting trees, pulling plastic from oceans, and protecting wildlife. Partners are verified, and there’s tracking to prove it.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: Partnered with mobile game developer Candivore in 2025 to incorporate a tree-planting initiative within their acclaimed mobile game, Match Masters. Each player who accumulates 25 shovels will have a tree planted in their name and receive a certificate to mark their contribution. Among other partnerships, they also launched the “Eco-Rewards” programme with Ayvens. Member drivers who go green with EVs, lower mileage, or smarter driving earn points via Dots Eco that translate into reforestation and ocean conservation projects.
Where To Find Them: dots.eco
Keysight — California
ESG Pillar: Social and Environmental
What’s at Stake: The talent pipeline for tech and engineering is under pressure globally, and companies must invest in future-skills, inclusion, and community engagement — otherwise innovation and workforce resilience suffer.
How They’re Changing Things: In their 2024 CSR Progress Report (released May 2025), Keysight committed over US$295 million toward community engagement, giving, STEM education, and university partnerships; engaged over 4.4 million students globally; and entered into a renewable energy purchase agreement to cover 100% of Keysight’s electricity consumption in the US and Canada. They were also named among TIME/Statista’s World’s Most Sustainable Companies 2025.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: They’ve built momentum across multiple fronts, ranging from community investment and education to clean operations, embedding sustainability and skills into their business model. Their placement (127th globally) signals rising influence.
Where To Find Them: www.keysight.com
Blackbaud — South Carolina
ESG Pillar: Environmental and Governance
What’s at Stake: Many companies struggle to reduce their direct emissions and deliver credible environmental credentials; meanwhile, stakeholders and clients expect transparent, measurable impact.
How They’re Changing Things: Blackbaud achieved a 90% reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions since 2019, was named one of Newsweek’s World’s Greenest Companies 2025, and supports nonprofits and social-impact organizations with software that enables transparent giving and impact tracking.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: They’re positioning themselves as a dual-actor, both reducing their own footprint and enabling thousands of social organizations to scale their impact via technology. That gives them a multiplying effect and makes them a bellwether for how software and social impact can converge.
Where To Find Them: blackbaud.com
Sath Inc — USA
ESG Pillar: Governance
What’s at Stake: With the surge in AI agents, protecting human and non-human identities just mounted in scale. Already, 89% of CISOs plan to make identity-security-related hires in 2026. Identity and access management (IAM) has never been more critical for preventing breaches.
How They’re Changing Things: Sath’s flagship product IDHub is an Identity and Access Management solution that focuses on giving the right access to the right people with policy templates and controls. Their work helps organizations meet compliance and governance requirements.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: Active presence at major security events, such as the RSA Conference in 2025, and ongoing market activity position them as an IAM provider to watch for enterprise, government, and security needs.
Where To Find Them: sath.com
IMH Care — California
ESG Pillar: Social
What’s at Stake: Primary care is often the first contact for mental health needs but lacks resources to deliver full behavioural health care. That gap contributes to untreated conditions, provider burnout, and misses early intervention of depression, anxiety, and other health issues.
How They’re Changing Things: IMH Care (Intuitive Mental Health) integrates mental health support directly into primary care using its Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) powered by the CareOS platform. By coordinating mental health specialists, data‑driven workflows, and primary care providers, IMH improves access, personalizes treatment plans, and reduces administrative burden, helping clinicians deliver timely, holistic mental health support where patients already seek care.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: Healthcare systems in 2025 are increasingly investing in integrated behavioural health solutions that reduce burnout and improve outcomes, and models like Collaborative Care are highlighted in industry improvement frameworks as key drivers of quality care and systemic efficiency.
Where To Find Them: imh.care
Caregentic — New York
ESG Pillar: Social
What’s at Stake: Healthcare systems face growing administrative burdens, inconsistent patient engagement, and care gaps that lead to poor follow‑up, missed screenings, reduced adherence to treatment plans, and clinician burnout.
How They’re Changing Things: Caregentic provides a no‑code, AI‑powered patient support platform that automates personalized, 24/7 patient interactions via SMS, phone, and web portals. Its AI agents help patients navigate care journeys, reminders, follow‑ups, and pre/post‑procedure instructions while reducing administrative workload for clinical teams.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, Caregentic appointed healthcare tech veteran Russ Johannesson as CEO to accelerate growth and scaling with major health systems. Early deployments with Northwell Health improved engagement, reduced no‑shows, and lowered clinical admin burden, positioning the platform to expand across more U.S. systems.
Where To Find Them: caregentic.com
Credibl ESG — U.S
ESG Pillar: Governance
What’s at Stake: Companies face growing regulatory pressure from the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Meanwhile, 79% of investors consider ESG risk management an important factor in their investment decisions. Yet, many organizations still rely on disconnected spreadsheets, manual processes, and cannot provide audit-ready disclosures.
How They’re Changing Things: Credibl ESG is an AI-powered “sustainability intelligence” platform that automates ESG data collection, validation, reporting, and supply-chain traceability. It promises to turn compliance burdens into actionable insights.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, Credibl launched a major strategic collaboration with Deloitte Australia to deploy an AI-powered “SustainNext Climate Reporting Platform”, and expanded its platform features significantly. Its website lists tools for AI-powered data ingestion, ESG KPI mapping across 1,000+ metrics, and automated reporting for frameworks like CSRD, ESRS and CDP.
As the global ESG-reporting market grows rapidly, tools that can deliver reliable, audit-ready data will be in high demand. Credibl’s early traction and AI-driven model position it to become a key enabler for companies transitioning from pledge to performance.
Where To Find Them: crediblesg.com
KYRO AI — Texas
ESG Pillar: Governance
What’s at Stake: Field operations in construction and infrastructure are traditionally fragmented, paper-heavy, and prone to errors, which can lead to safety incidents, cost overruns, and delays.
How They’re Changing Things: KYRO AI is a project management platform that serves general contractors, private equity firms, finance managers, and architects, eliminating paper trails and creating more seamless operations. Through AI-enabled visibility in inspections and vegetation management, KYRO addresses safety risks, compliance gaps, and climate-driven infrastructure stress.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, KYRO strengthened its SaaS partnership with LS Power Grid, embedding AI-driven inspections and automated workflows into live grid operations, reducing rework and downtime.
Where To Find Them: kyro.ai
Heirloom Carbon — Texas
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: Atmospheric CO₂ levels continue to rise, intensifying climate risks globally. Without scalable and permanent carbon removal solutions, climate targets remain out of reach, and environmental, social, and economic consequences grow.
How They’re Changing Things: Heirloom Carbon accelerates natural carbon mineralization using limestone and Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology. Their facilities in California and Louisiana permanently remove CO₂ from the atmosphere, making working conditions safer.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, Heirloom expanded DAC capacity in Louisiana to capture nearly 320,000 tons of CO₂ per year, reinforcing U.S. leadership in carbon removal while offering verifiable, low-cost, permanent climate solutions.
Where To Find Them: heirloomcarbon.com
Raya Power — Puerto Rico & California
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: Solar adoption in the U.S. is often limited by high costs, complicated permits, roof requirements, and professional installation barriers, leaving many renters and homeowners without accessible clean energy options.
How They’re Changing Things: Raya Power designs a plug‑in solar plus storage system that requires no roof work or skill to install. Its compact, self‑ballasted solar and battery appliance can be set up quickly, reduces reliance on grid power, lowers bills, and provides resilience during outages, making clean energy more practical and affordable.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, Raya Power prepared to launch its all‑in‑one solar and storage solution with pilot programs in Puerto Rico and California ahead of a broader rollout, targeting early 2026 availability and expanding access for diverse households.
Where To Find Them: Rayapower
Ribbon — California
ESG Pillar: Social
What’s at Stake: Inheritance and account transitions are historically painful for families and inefficient for credit unions. Excessive paperwork and poor digital experiences frustrate grieving members and lead to lost deposits and trust.
How They’re Changing Things: Ribbon offers a secure, AI‑enabled digital platform that streamlines inheritance notifications and estate account workflows for credit unions. By reducing manual tasks, cutting verification time, and improving customer interactions during sensitive life events, it helps financial institutions retain assets and serve members with dignity and efficiency.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: The company is scaling in 2025 with investor support after partnering with PortX, the premier integration platform for banks, credit unions, enabling seamless workflows between stakeholders. Its early adoption in credit unions positions it to become a trusted standard for secure inheritance management and digital member retention, a niche with growing importance as wealth transfers accelerate.
Where To Find Them: Ribbon
Mode (MODE) — California
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: Commercial buildings and industrial facilities generate fragmented operational data across HVAC, lighting, access control, and energy systems, limiting visibility into environmental impact.
How They’re Changing Things: MODE’s unified data platform integrates sensors and building systems into a centralized layer, giving operators a single source of truth for real‑time performance and AI‑driven insights. By transforming siloed IoT data into actionable analytics, the platform improves decision‑making, reduces energy waste, and enhances operational efficiency.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, MODE secured an $8.75 M Series B and an additional $5.3 M in follow-on funding, bringing total funding to approximately $14 M. This capital will accelerate the global rollout of their generative AI and IoT platform for smart buildings, enabling wider adoption of data-driven operations and energy efficiency improvements.
Where To Find Them: tinkermode.com
Automotus — Los Angeles, California
ESG Pillar: Environment
What’s at Stake: Urban traffic congestion and curb side inefficiencies create safety hazards and environmental strain, particularly in friction-filled cities and airports. Traditional curb management lacks real‑time data and automation, limiting progress toward cleaner, safer mobility.
How They’re Changing Things: Automotus builds automated curb management solutions using AI and computer vision to help cities, airports, and fleets reduce congestion, cut emissions, and improve safety. Their technology automates curb side data collection, payment, enforcement, and analytics, increasing parking turnover, reducing double‑parking events, and enabling better policy decisions without new hardware apps or kiosks. According to Ganesh Vanama, Computer Vision Engineer at Automotus, “The WHO estimates that around 1.19 million people die each year from road traffic crashes, with more than half being vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. AI-driven curb management gives cities a way to see and measure interactions. By using computer vision and real-time curb analytics, cities can understand how their streets operate everyday and rethink street design to improve safety.”
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, Automotus continued scaling deployments partnering with Sacramento International Airport, where its tech provides real‑time curb analytics and policy insights that enhance urban mobility and reduce traffic impacts. Their solutions are increasingly seen as essential for modern traffic and emissions management.
Where To Find Them: Automotus.ai
Europe
Positive Carbon — Ireland
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: Food waste accounts for up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and most of it happens in commercial kitchens.
How They’re Changing Things: Positive Carbon uses AI and sensors to detect, categorize, and measure food waste as it happens. Hotels, canteens, and restaurants gain daily recommendations, enabling them to cut waste, costs, and carbon emissions simultaneously.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In July 2025, Positive Carbon launched its “Scrappy” real-time food-waste monitoring system in partnership with the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland, targeting the commercial kitchens of hospitals. The system is already in place at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, where it contributed to a 33 % reduction in food waste and saved more than €90,000 last year.
Where to Find Them: positivecarbon.org
Greater Than — Sweden
ESG Pillar: Environmental and Governance
What’s at Stake: Transport emissions and road accidents are two of the biggest, most stubborn global problems, and data on both is badly underused. Emissions from domestic transport account for around half of all emissions in the ESR in Sweden. Meanwhile, most EU Member States are not on track to meet the union’s goal of halving road deaths by 2030.
How They’re Changing Things: Greater Than’s AI converts GPS driving data into real-time insights on crash risk and carbon footprint, letting insurers and fleets reduce emissions and accidents. They make mobility measurable and insurable through an ESG lens.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, Greater Than shifted from being a Europe-centric risk analytics company to a global player after partnering with Navisaf, a major fleet-management and telematics reseller in Latin America. In the same year, they also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a licensing agreement with a global mobility organization, estimating a €1.4 billion lifetime revenue opportunity (with approximately €100 million annually within three years). The company is turning ESG compliance into a competitive edge for the mobility industry.
Where to Find Them: greaterthan.eu
Platter (WeArePlatter) — UK
ESG Pillar: Social and Environmental
What’s at Stake: Brexit has weakened UK supply chains, resulting in declines in agrifood trade, and the word “resilience” now appears in nearly every strategy document. For the UK, supply chain competence rests on expanding supplier networks and enabling flexibility to reconfigure when shocks strike.
How They’re Changing Things: Platter offers an all-in-one wholesale food platform that is custom-built to connect or deliver accounting software, ERP, EDI, or logistics tools, reducing friction between suppliers and wholesale buyers.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: 2025 saw early traction, securing £350,000 in a pre-seed round, and onboarding four manufacturers. Media pieces spotlight Platter as a food-industry digitization play, achieving sales uplift of up to 26% by aggregating all third-party partners for the ordering, transportation, financing, and sustainability of food.
Where To Find Them: weareplatter.com
Esas Social — Turkey
ESG Pillar: Social
What’s at Stake: Millions of young people in Turkey and the wider region face unemployment and limited access to global-level education.
How They’re Changing Things: Esas Social invests in youth programs that provide job-readiness, mentorship, and English-language training — tackling inequality at its roots. It’s corporate social investment with measurable community ROI.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, Esas Sosyal’s work was formally recognized: they won a Silver Stevie Award in the “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion” category at the 19th Stevie International Business Awards, acknowledging their measurable social-impact investments targeting youth employment and equal opportunity. As regional instability tests youth employment, Esas Social is proving that long-term social impact can come from private-sector funding, not just philanthropy.
Where to Find Them: esassocial.org
WorkAhead — Finland
ESG Pillar: Social
What’s at Stake: According to the latest statistics, 49.6 million men, women and children are in modern slavery on any given day. Verifying worker conditions across global supply chains, especially low-income regions where conventional audits miss voices, is something we cannot ignore.
How They’re Changing Things: With video-based, mobile-first surveying that lets local workers and family farmers report anonymously and at scale, WorkAhead offers a platform where no literacy or constant internet is required. This direct, human-sourced data model reduces audit bias and reaches populations conventional surveys miss.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: The company continued product rollouts and visibility in 2025, positioning them as a practical tool for companies auditing human rights and labor KPIs.
Where To Find Them: workahead.co
Planboo — Sweden
ESG Pillar: Environmental and Social
What’s at Stake: Agriculture both suffers from and contributes to climate change; roughly a third of the EU’s carbon emissions come from its food systems. And rising greenhouse gases degrade soils and lower yields.
How They’re Changing Things: Planboo works with rural communities to deploy biochar systems that sequester carbon, enrich soils, and generate income from verified carbon credits. Think of it as climate tech rooted in the dirt, not the cloud.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: This year, Planboo teamed up with Better Cotton to help cotton farmers convert crop waste into biochar and earn carbon credits. They partnered with Milkywire and Carboneers on a cocoa waste biochar project in Ghana, using advanced digital monitoring and low-emission kilns to ensure high-integrity carbon removal. And they were selected as a partner in Oliver Wyman’s Climate Leadership Portfolio, securing a multi-year offtake agreement for biochar credits derived from waste biomass in Thailand. With verified regional pilots and commercial offtakes secured, Planboo is positioning biochar as the most practical form of carbon removal you’ve never heard of.
Where to Find Them: planboo.eco
Carbon Clean — UK
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: Industrial facilities produce over 30% of global CO₂ emissions, yet most carbon-capture tech remains too expensive or complex for everyday factories.
How They’re Changing Things: Carbon Clean’s modular capture units bring industrial decarbonization within reach, bolting onto existing infrastructure at a fraction of traditional costs.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: After opening its Global Innovation Centre in India in 2025, Carbon Clean is gearing up for major partnerships in steel, cement, and chemicals — a potential turning point for affordable carbon capture.
Where to Find Them: carbonclean.com
Binit Technologies — Finland
ESG Pillar: Environment
What’s at Stake: Household and retail waste streams are opaque and hard to reduce without behaviour change and measurement. People lack feedback on the impact of their disposal choices.
How They’re Changing Things: Binit’s AI scanner reveals the environmental footprint of any item so you can shop smarter. Its strava-like feedback helps reduce household waste at the consumer level, turning waste tracking into actionable insights and learning. People who scan products receive instant guidance on proper sorting and the environmental impact of what they discard, helping users make smarter consumption and waste decisions in everyday life.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, Binit continued rollout of its AI waste scanner which began in five cities across the U.S. (NYC; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; Oakland and Miami) and four in Europe (Paris, Helsinki, Lisbon and Ljubljana). As awareness and demand for individual sustainability tools rise, Binit’s solution could scale user engagement with waste reduction, bridging personal behaviour with measurable environmental benefit.
Where To Find Them: getbinit.com
Compocity — Hungary
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: Office and corporate food waste is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and inefficient resource use. Nearly one‑third of office waste is organic and often sent to landfill.
How They’re Changing Things: Compocity provides a practical, on‑site composting ecosystem anchored by its “CompoBot” hardware and app‑driven service, turning organic office waste into nutrient‑rich compost and tracked environmental impact data. This gamified solution engages employees and helps companies integrate measurable circular practices into daily operations.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: Compocity’s service has been adopted by partners across Europe working with Sodexo and HEPA Hungarian Export Promotion Agency to provide corporations with trackable waste‑reduction solutions.
Where To Find Them: compocity.help
Ourself — UK
ESG Pillar: Social
What’s at Stake: Fragmented women’s health data (cycles, hormones, pregnancy, menopause) makes personalized care and early detection harder.
How They’re Changing Things: Ourself provides a personalized all-in-one app to track cycles and symptoms, offering expert guidance across different life stages. It’s a privacy-first product design built by women for women. By giving users control over their health data and self-care routines, it improves preventive care, daily wellbeing, and informs health decisions. This approach aligns with broader trends in digital self-care, as highlighted by initiatives like Self-Care Week 2025 promoting accessible, proactive health management.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, Ourself expanded its offerings in the UK and internationally, leveraging data-driven insights and self-care frameworks to empower women’s health management. Growing demand for digital health solutions makes the platform increasingly relevant for proactive wellbeing.
Where To Find Them: Ourself.health
Middle East & Asia
Planno — UAE
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: Solar companies lose valuable time and ROI by manually scouting rooftops and qualifying prospects, which slows the renewable transition. The demand for solar energy drove the Global Rooftop Solar Potential Mapping via Satellite market size to $425 million in 2024, and is forecasted to hit $1.67 billion by 2033, indicating heavy investment in mapping tools just to identify viable sites.
How They’re Changing Things: Planno’s AI-powered prospecting platform identifies and pre-qualifies commercial and industrial rooftop solar opportunities at scale, helping developers accelerate project pipelines and deploy clean energy faster.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: Planno published an in-depth geospatial study of over 15,000 commercial and industrial rooftops in Dubai and found that more than 94% of the rooftop area was still untapped. They also expanded their AI-powered rooftop prospecting platform into multiple markets in the Middle East, Africa, and the U.S., supporting developers with automated lead-generation and rooftop analytics.
Where To Find Them: planno.ai
Hirdaramani Group — Sri Lanka
ESG Pillar: Environmental and Social
What’s at Stake: The apparel industry faces scrutiny for water use and land degradation, with 85% of all textiles going to dumps each year.
How They’re Changing Things: Hirdaramani has turned its factory sites into biodiversity sanctuaries — restoring native ecosystems, documenting nearly 400 species (27 endemics), and engaging 10,000 community members in conservation. They’ve restored green space equivalent to 94% of their built footprint.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: As fast fashion gets greener pressure, Hirdaramani is setting a new benchmark — factories that give back more to nature than they take. In 2025, they unveiled Diya Arana, a proposed wetland at their Ja-Ela (washing) facility in Sri Lanka, aiming to restore and protect the wetland ecosystem and support biodiversity. It is planned for completion in February 2026. Their UNDP-backed project established 105 backyard poultry units and 101 home gardens, helping families build steady incomes through sustainable farming.
Where To Find Them: hirdaramani.com
Carbelim — Middle East
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: Air pollution kills over 7 million people annually — and most urban and industrial zones still lack scalable, active carbon capture solutions.
How They’re Changing Things: Carbelim merges biotechnology, AI, and urban design to turn microalgae into a carbon-absorbing infrastructure layer.
BioMimetic Façade: Green wall using AI and IoT to optimize algae growth, absorb CO₂, and generate oxygen.
OmegaPod: Converts emissions into high-value bio-based products like omega-3 oil and plant protein.
AlgaPod: Solar-powered container system that captures as much CO₂ as 300 trees while producing spirulina biomass.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: Runners-up in the 2025 World Sustainability Awards, Carbelim is proving that it is possible to build cities that breathe and clean the air.
In August 2025, it secured a pre-seed funding round to scale its algae-based carbon capture and air purification systems, and announced a Letter of Intent worth US$5.1 million for an airport decarbonization project. They also filed multiple U.S. patents and advanced production in South India (Coimbatore) to manufacture their modular “BioMimetic Facade” and “AlgaPod” systems.
Where To Find Them: carbelim.com
ReNew Power — India
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: South Asia’s growing demand for electricity risks locking in fossil-fuel dependency unless renewable supply can scale faster.
How They’re Changing Things: ReNew accelerated utility-scale wind and solar buildouts in 2025 and signed new corporate power purchase agreements with global firms — making renewable energy more accessible, reliable, and bankable.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: With expanding storage capacity and global offtake deals, ReNew is shaping the renewable backbone for India’s green industrial boom.
Where To Find Them: renew.com
Greenko — India
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: India’s renewable expansion demands massive energy storage to balance grids and maintain stability.
How They’re Changing Things: Greenko advanced a new wave of storage-plus-renewables projects — integrating pumped hydro and battery systems to deliver clean, reliable power at grid scale.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: With large commercial contracts and national backing, Greenko is anchoring India’s transition from renewables in theory to renewables in practice.
Where To Find Them: greenkogroup.com
Africa
Dope Initiatives — Rwanda
ESG Pillar: Social
What’s at Stake: Period poverty forces 18% of Rwandan schoolgirls to drop out, perpetuating inequality and lost opportunity.
How They’re Changing Things: Awarded Social Enterprise of the Year at the 2025 World Sustainability Awards, Dope Initiatives combats period poverty through its KEZA Pad Bank. The organization distributes affordable, reusable pads via vending machines built from repurposed e-waste, alongside reproductive health education. Working in 23 schools nationwide, they’re restoring dignity, boosting attendance, and empowering the next generation of girls.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: Their scalable, tech-enabled model could become a blueprint for tackling menstrual equity across East Africa.
Where To Find Them: dopeinitiatives.org
DelAgua — Rwanda
ESG Pillar: Social and Environmental
What’s at Stake: Still, 2.1 billion people cook on open fires, driving respiratory illness, deforestation, and gender inequality.
How They’re Changing Things: Through its Live Well project, DelAgua provides high-performance cookstoves to rural African communities, funded via carbon finance and delivered in partnership with host governments. By 2025, the initiative had distributed over 2 million stoves, improving seven million lives, cutting air pollution by 73%, and reducing wood use by 71%.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: With verifiable carbon credits and proven health benefits, DelAgua is setting the global benchmark for clean-cooking programs at scale.
Where To Find Them: delagua.org
Women in Management Africa (WIMA) — Tanzania
ESG Pillar: Social and Governance
What’s at Stake: Gender imbalance in leadership and limited access to networks hold back women’s economic and decision-making power across Africa. Many women and girls lose education and employment opportunities fetching water. Lack of access to safe water becomes even more troublesome during their menstrual and hygiene needs. Yet, just 17% of national ministries of water benefit from women leaders in their teams.
How They’re Changing Things: WIMA is a pan-African platform advancing women into leadership, boardrooms, and senior management through mentorship, networking, and professional development programs aligned with the UN SDGs.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: WIMA’s continent-wide expansion is creating a pipeline of women leaders driving change from corporate to community levels.
Where To Find Them: wima.co.tz
M-KOPA — Kenya
ESG Pillar: Social and Environmental
What’s at Stake: Over 600 million Africans still lack access to affordable energy and financial services.
How They’re Changing Things: M-KOPA’s pay-as-you-go platform delivers solar power and financial products to low-income households. In 2025, it surpassed major customer and revenue milestones, proving that off-grid clean-energy finance can scale profitably and inclusively.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: M-KOPA is fast evolving from an energy company into a fintech engine for financial inclusion across Africa. It hit the milestone of 3 million active customers for the first time, and deployed over US $2 billion in credit to more than 7 million Africans. They also sold 1.3 million smartphones in 2025, helping many first-time buyers, and achieved their first-ever profit, with revenue jumping 66% to US $416 million.
Where To Find Them: m-kopa.com
SunCulture — Kenya
ESG Pillar: Social and Environmental
What’s at Stake: Smallholder farmers in drought-prone regions face declining yields and unreliable access to water and energy. The majority, 95%, of African farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture, which is highly susceptible to shifts in weather patterns.
How They’re Changing Things: SunCulture offers solar-powered irrigation and climate-smart agritech solutions for smallholder farmers. SunCulture’s model shows how solar technology can drive food security, rural livelihoods, and climate adaptation in one stroke.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, it scaled field trials and partnerships, boosting productivity and climate resilience across East Africa. The company secured US$5 million from WaterEquity to expand access to its solar-powered water pumps. They also launched a US$15 million financing structure in partnership with Bridgin to unlock local-currency capital for climate-smart agriculture in Kenya, targeting small-holder farmers via portfolio receivables financing.
Alongside the funding, they formed a key partnership with International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to develop responsible water management guidelines and frameworks for solar irrigation systems, helping ensure their expansion is both high-impact and sustainable.
Where To Find Them: sunculture.com
Ampersand — Rwanda
ESG Pillar: Environmental and Social
What’s at Stake: Africa’s booming two-wheel transport sector is responsible for rising fuel costs and urban emissions. A global shift to 90% battery-electric motorcycle sales by 2030 could result in carbon emissions reductions of roughly 11 billion tonnes between now and 2050.
How They’re Changing Things: Ampersand is electrifying motorcycle transport with affordable e-bikes and battery-swap networks. With demand for low-cost transport soaring, Ampersand could become East Africa’s first EV unicorn — and a model for green mobility in emerging markets.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: This year, Ampersand expanded fleet partnerships with corporate logistics players and advanced toward full battery-swap commercialization. The company reported executing over 18,000 battery swaps daily across Rwanda and Kenya, marking a strong operational scale-up. They also secured a major funding round of approximately US$7 million from British International Investment (BII) and other investors in August to scale their electric-motorcycle business and battery-swap infrastructure.
Each e-motorcycle reduces carbon emissions by 75-95%, and riders benefit by cutting operating costs and boosting earnings, supporting cleaner transport and livelihoods.
Where To Find Them: ampersand.solar
Latin America and the Caribbean
VaxThera — Colombia
ESG Pillar: Social and Governance
What’s at Stake: National and regional access to vaccines and biologics is troublesome for countries in Latin America. In 2024, more than 1.4 million children missed routine DTP-containing vaccines. Dependence on imports left Latin America exposed during pandemics. Of the vaccines procured via PAHO’s Regional Revolving Fund, less than 9% come from regional, Latin American manufacturers.
How They’re Changing Things: VaxThera is building local fill-and-finish and vaccine manufacturing capacity, partnering on R&D and working with contract manufacturers to scale production. Their approach focuses on bringing regional manufacturing and packaging capacity online rather than relying solely on imports.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: 2025 brought concrete scale-up moves and strategic partnerships. The biotechnology company opened Colombia’s first vaccine development and production laboratory, just minutes away from Medellín’s José Maria Córdova international airport, and publicly announced its breakthrough collaboration with Quantoom Biosciences on saRNA vaccines; moves that signal it’s moving from pilot to production capacity and regional supply roles.
Where To Find Them: vaxthera.com/en/
NotCo — Chile
ESG Pillar: Environmental and Social
What’s at Stake: Nearly 75% of methane emissions from beef and dairy cattle now originate in the Global South, and without greater investment in better feed, genetics, and animal care, those numbers are set to climb.
How They’re Changing Things: NotCo uses AI to recreate animal-based foods from plants without sacrificing flavor or texture, scaling culturally relevant, lower-emission alternatives across Latin America.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: New R&D breakthroughs in protein innovation and expanded retail and manufacturing partnerships position NotCo as a Latin powerhouse in sustainable food tech. This year, they launched their AI-platform “Giuseppe” into the B2B space, licensing it to major CPG brands so those companies can more quickly develop plant-based alternatives. They also secured new high-profile partnerships, such as with Magnum, a division of Unilever, to reformulate ice cream using plant-based ingredients and reduce calories and ingredient cost through AI-driven innovation.
Where To Find Them: www.notco.com
Greenfluidics — Mexico
ESG Pillar: Environmental
What’s at Stake: The buildings and construction sector consumed 32% of global energy and was responsible for 34% of global CO₂ emissions in 2024. There is a gap for scalable climate tech that turns biological and solar inputs into low-carbon energy and materials.
How They’re Changing Things: Led by pioneers in biotechnology and sustainable architecture, the Greenfluidics team designs living systems that blend nature, technology, and aesthetics to reinvent the built environment. They developed a bio-panel, hybrid tech that converts solar radiation and CO₂ into usable products.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: Public 2025 visibility at sustainability events, with ChangeNow, and STARTGlobal awards and selection to sustainability startup lists indicate momentum, validation and investor interest. The company was part of the entrepreneurship program at Mexico’s Tecnológico de Monterrey university.
Where To Find Them: greenfluidics.com
Verde Compacto — Mexico
ESG Pillar: Environmental and Social
What’s at Stake: In Mexico, 60% of food travels more than 1,000 kilometers before reaching the plate. Fresh vegetable availability, land and resource limits, and climate negatively impacts agriculture in cities and farms. The company transforms shipping containers into smart vertical farms capable of producing up to 2,500 plants per week.
How They’re Changing Things: Introducing the first indoor vertical farming company in Latin America, Verde Compacto has been developing technology to increase the productivity and efficiency of vertical farms since 2016, making toxic-free food more accessible and inclusive.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In 2025, Verde Compacto opened a 40-foot Huvster container farm at a stadium in Akron, providing fresh produce for the stadium’s athletes and visitors.
Where To Find Them: verdecompacto.com
Where To Find Them: isa1890.com
Glasst — Colombia
ESG Pillar: Environmental and Social
What’s at Stake: The construction sector accounts for almost a quarter (23%) of single-use plastic waste in a city and releases toxins such as ACPM or Burnt Oil. Moreover, paints and coatings are resource-heavy and often hard to remove — renters, designers and short-term spaces need low-impact, temporary finishes.
How They’re Changing Things: Glasst stands out for developing innovative concrete release agents that are environmentally friendly and safe for workers’ health. The company also launched biodegradable, peelable “removable” coatings, under the brand UNPAINT, as a low-waste alternative to traditional paints. The product’s USP is a peelable coating that captures carbon dioxide and removes cleanly from many surfaces.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: Product launches over the past year and commercial retail/brand tie-ups saw Glasst scale distribution across the United States, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. In March 2025, Glasst partnered with Kölor Paints, itself an exclusive paint brand sold via Homecenter, to launch “Kölor – Unpaint,” described as “the first removable paint on the market.”
Where To Find Them: glasst.co
Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. — Cayman Islands
ESG Pillar: Environmental, Social and Governance
What’s at Stake: Island utilities face urgent pressure to decarbonise, build grid resilience (especially to storms), and raise workforce and community standards in high-vulnerability areas.
How They’re Changing Things: They’re converting small island-utility challenges into ESG leadership, scaling storage, issuing green debt, and improving socio-governance metrics. This positions them as a model for utilities in climate-vulnerable regions.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: In their 2025 Sustainability Update Report, they commissioned Grand Cayman’s first utility-scale 20 MW battery energy storage system. They also launched a Green Financing Framework, issued US$50 million in Green Notes, and committed US$60 million in grid-hardening investments. On the people side, it achieved 50% female representation on the board and maintained zero lost-time injuries among staff.
Where To Find Them: caribbeanutilities.com
PuertoRicoProduce (PRoduce) — Puerto Rico
ESG Pillar: Social and Environmental
What’s at Stake: Puerto Rico imports roughly 90% of its food. Food security and local market access on the island benefit from stronger local supply chains.
How They’re Changing Things: PRoduce makes local produce delivery simple connecting Puerto Rican farmers directly to consumers and businesses via a mobile app, strengthening local food resilience and shortening supply chains.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: Ongoing community and press recognition demonstrate the model’s social impact in building resilient local food systems; they remain a visible Latin American example of food-system digitization.
Where To Find Them: puertoricoproduce.com
Savimbo — Colombia
ESG Pillar: Environmental and Social
What’s at Stake: There is a huge lack of financing for Indigenous groups. Historically, communities have been excluded or underpaid.
How They’re Changing Things: Savimbo is an Indigenous-led biodiversity credit model that pays local stewards directly, prioritizes community governance, and is working toward third-party audited MRV and novel Cercarbono Biodiversity Certification Programme certification — a “fair-trade” approach to biodiversity credits. The company demonstrates how science and community stewardship can work hand in hand to protect biodiversity.
Why Watch Them Going into 2026: 2025 brought major validation, being named in UNEP Financial Initiative discussions, coverage as an example in nature-finance trends, and the first biodiversity credits under the CBCP announced in 2025. That’s a market-first signal for corporate buyers seeking trusted biodiversity credits.
Where To Find Them: savimbo.com
As ESG cements its place at the center of business strategy, the 50 leaders featured here prove that what once sat on the sidelines now drives long-term growth. From AI-powered climate tech and regenerative farming to social equity and circular design, these companies show that profit and purpose can thrive on the same ground. Their breakthroughs signal a new edge in a marketplace defined by resilience, transparency, and real impact.
When the story of this century is written, it will be shaped by those rooted in sustainability. These are the ones to watch in 2026.
