ABB has been named #8 in Fortune magazine’s “Change the World” rankings for the company’s efforts to speed up adoption of clean-energy electric transportation. The list, Fortune said, honors companies that “have had a positive social impact through activities that are part of their core business strategy.”
Other honorees included the drug maker Merck, for use of its life-saving vaccine against the Ebola virus this year in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Fortune also lauded Reliance Jo, a telecommunications provider for providing the “digital oxygen” of smartphones and broadband to more than 200 million subscribers in India in less than two years.
ABB’s CEO, Ulrich Spiesshofer said the Fortune ranking was validation of the company’s leadership and commitment to e-mobility as a way to decouple global economic growth from climate change.
ABB, whose e-mobility portfolio includes charging and power solutions for trains, buses and ships, has developed fast-chargers for cars that can add as much as 200 kilometers (nearly 125 miles) of cruising range in as little as 8 minutes.
Fortune’s criteria for its “Change the World” rankings include the degree of innovation in a company’s technologies and the benefits to profitability and shareholder value from its positive social impact.