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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.