Samsung and Ricoh are the only two audiovisual and imaging vendors named on a list of the 100 most sustainable corporations in the world, announced at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Samsung took ninety-first place, while Ricoh came in at number 95. The top 10 per cent of companies, out of 3,000 global stocks, are rated on 10 indicators, including their ratio of sales to waste, their energy and water use, and their productivity versus their carbon emissions.

Toby Heaps, editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights, the self-styled ‘clean capitalism’ magazine that has been masterminding the index for six years, said: “By using clear metrics to show investors which companies stand out from their peers, we hope to create a virtuous cycle where the most sustainable companies attract the most capital.”

The list features all kinds of companies, hailing from 24 countries and with an overall value of $4trn (£2.5trn) and a total of three million employees. The good news was that some 70 per cent of the companies surveyed were on a sustainable path and half of those on the list made the list last year as well, said Heaps.

Tim Taylor, UK environment and compliance manager at Ricoh, said this is its sixth year of being listed.

“Sustainable innovation is at the heart of our research and development. We take great pride in our cradle-to-cradle approach to innovation,” said Taylor.

Top IT firm overall was Nokia (5th), with Vodafone hot on its heels at number eight. Other listed tech firms included: BT (35th); Agilent (36th); Intel (39th); Capita Group (54th); Electrocompo­nents (66th); Trend Micro (75th); SAP (79th); and STMicroelectronics (87th).