--- description: The inaugural TIME100 Climate list includes leaders driving climate action in the businesses of energy, finance, culture, health, and more. title: How We Chose the Most Influential Climate Leaders in Business image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2338e9d1bbc3aa8/698a4258db2987283a2698dd/TIM231204-100Climate-CoverFINAL.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Climate](/section/climate/) ## Climate Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [TIME100 Climate](/tag/time100-climate/) ## TIME100 Climate Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # How We Chose the 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders in Business for 2023 ## Video: TIME100 2023 Climate Leaders on Staying Inspired [Watch (HLS stream): TIME100 2023 Climate Leaders on Staying Inspired](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XiGTQ47A.m3u8) (3:12)  _Published 2023-11-16. As part of the TIME100 Climate series, business climate leaders talk about a moment in the climate movement that inspired them this year_ by [Marcius Extavour, TIME CO2](/author/marcius-extavour-time-co2/) ## Marcius Extavour, TIME CO2 Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 16, 2023 12:37 PM CUT  Illustration by Eiko Ojala for TIME by [Marcius Extavour, TIME CO2](/author/marcius-extavour-time-co2/) ## Marcius Extavour, TIME CO2 Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 16, 2023 12:37 PM CUT [_Buy a print of the TIME100 Climate cover here_](https://timecoverstore.com/featured/time-100-climate-eiko-ojala.html "undefined") In 2023, China Hongqiao Group, one of the largest aluminum producers in the world, shut down 1.5 million tons of smelting capacity and moved it across the country—unplugging from coal electricity and connecting instead to [cleaner hydroelectric power](https://time.com/6333831/renewables-are-key-to-cop28-success/ "undefined"). By itself, the move is expected to slash carbon pollution from those smelters by 30%. It’s the kind of business decision that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, and a dramatic example of a nascent but important trend: business taking direct action to fight climate change. Solving climate change requires bold new styles of business leadership. It also requires [mobilizing massive amounts of capital](https://time.com/6331171/john-kerry-corporate-finance-climate-action-cop28/ "undefined")—recent estimates vary from $3 trillion to $5 trillion annually over the coming decade—into practical solutions that reduce emissions, restore nature, and improve quality of life. Scientists have identified the problem and can evaluate our options; activists and organizers can amplify the conversation; but businesses are often best positioned to actually deploy solutions on the ground, at scale. This is starting to happen. The U.S.’s [Inflation Reduction Act](https://time.com/6304143/inflation-reduction-act-us-global-impact/ "undefined"), considered the most important piece of climate-related legislation ever, represents about $370 billion in investment over the next decade, and a new generation of business leaders is taking advantage of its incentives to build better products, services, and companies. But unfortunately, business is still moving far too slowly, and most people have no idea that these transformations in commerce, law, policy, technology, community leadership, and science are taking place. ### More From TIME In fact, the so-called greenhushing effect—companies intentionally staying quiet about actions on climate change and nature, for fear of harsh public scrutiny—was stronger than we expected when making this list. Examples of tangible business action were not top of mind, even among climate experts. But, when we looked, we found countless hopeful examples of business leaders driving positive action right now—even in the world’s most heavily polluting industries like [shipping](https://time.com/6189877/maritime-shipping-green-energy/ "undefined"), manufacturing, [agriculture](https://time.com/6109450/sustainable-lab-grown-mosa-meat/ "undefined"), and energy. To identify the true changemakers, TIME’s editors spent months with our in-house climate experts at TIME CO2 (Isabella Akker, Bee Hui Yeh, Simon Mulcahy, Shyla Raghav, Andrew Wu, and me) vetting nominations from across the economy. In line with the latest scientific and economic thinking, we prioritized nominees from five systems most crucial to change: energy, nature, finance, culture, and health. We valued measurable, scalable achievements over commitments and announcements. We favored more recent action. In the end, the inaugural [TIME100 Climate](https://time.com/collection/time100-climate/ "undefined") list produced no single perfect instance of complete climate action, but multitudes of individuals making significant progress in fighting climate change by creating business value. We asked them to talk about it, hoping their words will stir others to do the same. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6334864/how-we-chose-time100-climate-2023/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6334864/how-we-chose-time100-climate-2023/"},"headline":"How We Chose the 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders in Business for 2023","datePublished":"2023-11-16T12:37:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T16:40:56.951Z","description":"The inaugural TIME100 Climate list includes leaders driving climate action in the businesses of energy, finance, culture, health, and more.","url":"https://time.com/6334864/how-we-chose-time100-climate-2023/","keywords":["TIME100 Climate","climate change","Climate Is Everything"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2338e9d1bbc3aa8/698a4258db2987283a2698dd/TIM231204-100Climate-CoverFINAL.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Marcius Extavour, TIME CO2","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/marcius-extavour-time-co2/"}],"articleSection":"Climate","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2338e9d1bbc3aa8/698a4258db2987283a2698dd/TIM231204-100Climate-CoverFINAL.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The TIME 100 Climate Time Magazine cover 231204","caption":"The TIME 100 Climate Time Magazine cover","creditText":"Illustration by Eiko Ojala for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/climate/","name":"Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time100-climate/","name":"TIME100 Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6334864/how-we-chose-time100-climate-2023/","name":"How We Chose the 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders in Business for 2023"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME100 2023 Climate Leaders on Staying Inspired","description":"As part of the TIME100 Climate series, business climate leaders talk about a moment in the climate movement that inspired them this year","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XiGTQ47A/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-11-16T12:25:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XiGTQ47A.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6334864/how-we-chose-time100-climate-2023/","duration":"PT3M12S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6334864/how-we-chose-time100-climate-2023/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```