Climate change requires reducing carbon emissions. These American companies are leading the way.

America's Climate Leaders list, according to USA TODAY and Statista, recognizes companies' efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Pindustry produces 23 % of US greenhouse gas emissions, making cleaning up businesses a key part of the fight against climate change. Evaluating such efforts is complex and daunting, requiring deep dives into multiple, sometimes conflicting, metrics. Even how companies should measure their carbon footprint is a work in progress. To help cut through the confusion that companies have cut their greenhouse gas emissions, market research firm Statista has compiled USA TODAY's inaugural list of America's Climate Leaders. It's a data-driven recognition of companies that have reduced their carbon footprint in recent years, a remarkable achievement for investors, customers and anyone trying to understand these ever-evolving measures. "The business sector is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions. That makes them a prime point of potential improvement,” said Magali Delmas, professor of management and faculty director of the Center for Impact at UCLA. After months of investigation and data crunching, the original lineup of 2,000 U.S.-based companies was narrowed down to 400 U.S. companies to reduce their emissions intensity between 2019 and 2021. The ranking uses multiple indicators to get a picture of how good a job is society is doing well in this part of the climate solution. The rating gives consumers and investors a sense of a company's trajectory along an increasingly important metric of success. While emissions reductions may not immediately affect profitability, such measures will become more important in the long term as governments, including the United States, begin to require entities to contribute to reducing global warming or at least report their exposure to its threats. (Elžbeta Weiseová, USA TODAY)