The elevator and escalator company has appeared in the global sustainability ranking for the second consecutive year, receiving the highest rating awarded.
Otis Worldwide Corporation has earned a five-star rating in Newsweek’s World’s Greenest Companies 2026, placing the company in the ranking’s highest category. Announced on 25 August 2026, the recognition marks the second consecutive year that Otis has appeared on the global list.
The 2026 ranking includes 850 companies across 28 countries. Developed by Newsweek in partnership with Plant-A Insights Group and GIST Impact, the assessment reviewed more than 8,000 organizations before selecting the final list.
Companies were evaluated using more than 25 environmental indicators covering four principal areas: greenhouse-gas emissions, water use, waste generation, and sustainability disclosures and commitments. Otis’s five-star result therefore reflects performance across a broad range of measures, rather than a single project, product or public pledge.
Recognition of a wider environmental strategy
Otis said the recognition reflects its continued focus on operational excellence, efficiency and business resilience. The company also credited employees across its international operations for supporting customers, delivering reliable service and pursuing continuous improvement.
For a global elevator and escalator business, environmental performance extends across factories, offices, vehicle fleets, purchased materials, supply-chain activity and the electricity consumed by equipment during its working life.
Otis has connected these areas through a climate strategy focused on energy management, operational efficiency, product innovation, digitalisation and more resilient sourcing.
The company’s science-based climate targets were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative in 2024. Otis aims to reduce absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse-gas emissions by 55% by 2033, compared with a 2021 baseline.
It has also committed to reducing selected Scope 3 emissions by 33% over the same period. This target covers purchased goods and services, business travel and emissions associated with the use of products sold by the company.
These commitments are particularly relevant to the vertical-transportation sector because elevators and escalators can remain in service for decades. Their environmental impact is shaped by manufacturing and installation, but it also depends on energy efficiency, maintenance practices, modernisation decisions and component durability throughout the equipment lifecycle.
How the ranking was determined
Newsweek’s methodology considered both environmental performance and the quality of corporate disclosure. This distinction is important because the ranking assesses whether companies publish measurable information on emissions, water, waste and their environmental commitments.
The five-star rating is the highest level awarded within the 2026 ranking. Otis’s position indicates that its reported performance and disclosures compared strongly with those of the other organizations considered for the global list.
However, inclusion in a sustainability ranking represents a snapshot of reported progress rather than the completion of a company’s environmental journey. The longer-term measure will be whether Otis delivers measurable reductions against its 2033 targets while continuing to expand its manufacturing, installation, service and modernisation activities.
Why it matters to the elevator industry
Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important consideration in the planning, procurement and operation of buildings. Developers, architects, consultants and property owners are paying closer attention to equipment efficiency, lifecycle performance, modernisation potential and the environmental reporting of suppliers.
For elevator and escalator manufacturers, this places greater emphasis on solutions that reduce energy demand, extend equipment life and enable more efficient maintenance. It also increases scrutiny of the environmental footprint behind the equipment, including factories, logistics, service operations and sourcing.
Otis’s five-star rating provides the vertical-transportation industry with another example of how environmental performance is being measured at the corporate level. It also reinforces the growing connection between sustainability and operational resilience as buildings and urban infrastructure face tighter environmental expectations.
The recognition follows Otis’s inclusion in TIME’s World’s Most Sustainable Companies 2026 earlier this year. Together, the two listings add external visibility to the company’s environmental programme, while its published targets provide longer-term benchmarks against which future progress can be assessed.
Sources: Otis announcement, Newsweek ranking, Otis 2025 Annual Report