Location: New York
Year founded: 1869
Revenue: $69.4 Billion
Employees: 24,000
Bold climate-change policy shapes major investments. When Goldman Sachs announced a groundbreaking environmental policy in 2005, critics said chief executive Hank Paulson was imposing his green ethos. Wrong. The bank has become even more planet-friendly since Paulson left. Why? Because it is doing lots of green business.
Goldman's investment of $1.5 billion in cellulosic ethanol, wind and solar have paid off. Texas Pacific and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts turned to Goldman, which had built bridges to environmental groups, as they prepared a bid for Texas energy company TXU. Research clients are pleased that Goldman's equity analysts in Europe now factor environmental, social and governance issues into their reports. "The world's changing," says one Goldman official. The company is too - some cars that take bankers home are hybrids. --Marc Gunther
