The Canadian magazine Corporate Knights rates corporations every year based on how responsibly they do business. While not perfect, the companies on the list appear to be doing things better than their peers. Here's a list, by sector, of the companies that stood out in '07--and why.





Healthcare

  • McKesson has embraced recycling--84 per cent of their waste is recycled--and energy efficient lighting programs. It's also recently introduced a re-usable plastic tote program for its shipping.
  • QLT has done extensive work on generic drugs development, and has made substantial community and social investment in Canada and abroad.

Communications and Media

  • Transcontinental has made progress on integrating recycled fibre into its production and every one of its printing plants are assigned an environment coordinator.
  • Telus has a sector-leading environmental management program and has recycled over 20,000 phones this past year in an attempt to reduce the e-waste that is sent to landfills. 
  • BCE issues formal annual environmental reports and continues to lead in terms of putting policy into practice, with priorities on energy efficiency and waste reduction.

Financials

  • Since 2003, RBC has executed financial mandates of $5 billion for alternative energy projects.
  • Vancity members and clients have invested $450 million in socially responsible investment options; Vancity offers Clean Air Auto Loan, a personal loan of up to $35,000 on the purchase of a new vehicle with interest rates that allow borrowers to save up to $3,000 over five years.
  • Great West Life Realty Advisors has taken an aggressive role on greening buildings including a commitment to apply LEED standards for all new buildings
  • Manulife has $1.3 billion currently invested in renewable power; and through its subsidiary Hancock Timber is the world's largest manager of timberland investments for private equity investors--all forests are certified according to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and in some cases the Forest Stewardship Council.
  • BMO has $1 billion of business with aboriginal customers, and a technology disposal program which safely disposed of 194 tonnes of e-waste in 2006.

Retail

  • The Canadian Tire Advance Green line of energy solutions for conservation, production and storage made the company the first "big box" store to aggressively market decentralized renewable power. Canadian Tire also makes safety information for chemical products it sells accessible to the public through the web.
  • Tim Hortons is leading the coffee chains in environmental initiatives--it's the only coffee shop testing biodegradable cups, composting bins and beverage bottle recycling
  • Home Depot has labeled more than 2,500 EcoOptions products, including all-natural insect repellents, compact fluorescent lightbulbs, cellulose insulation, front-load washing machines, and certified sustainable forestry products.
  • Loblaws offers the broadest selection of environmentally friendly food of any Canadian grocer, complete with a collection of President's Choice GREEN products, hundreds of President's Choice Organics products, and PC Blue Menu products which are lower in fat, calories and sodium, and higher in fibre.

IT

  • IBM committed to investing $1 billion per year to make data centers more energy efficient.
  • Dell offers a free recycling program for home computers and printers to consumer customers.
  • HP has a sector-leading Design for Environment Program and the company reports it has recycled 920 million pounds of product since 1987.

Oil and Gas

  • Petro-Canada provided seed money and is an investor in Iogen Energy Canada, a company which is pursuing a proprietary technology to convert biomass waste into ethanol.
  • Suncor has 41 MW of installed wind capacity and all Sunoco retails stations sell gasoline containing 10 per cent ethanol.
  • Syncrude is the most efficient user of water in the oil sands industry using 2.26 cubic metres of water per barrel of production.
  • Nexen is a 50-per-cent partner in a 70.5 MW wind project that opened this year in Alberta.

Autos

  • Honda's fleet efficiency, adjusted by sales, is the best in the auto sector.
  • Toyota has a car recyclability rate of 90 per cent--the company has sold a million hybrid vehicles to date.

Mining

  • Alcan has knocked down its Canadian absolute greenhouse gases by 30 percent since 1990, while increasing production by 50 per cent.

Chemicals

  • Potash is the only chemical company that has introduced social policy in its supply chain by formalizing local purchasing and sourcing whenever possible. Potash has also committed to green energy, and currently one third of its energy consumption comes from green sources and co-generation.

Utilities

  • Between now and 2015, Hydro-Quebec will add 4,000 MW of wind generation capacity
  • 880,000 of Hydro One's customers participated in one of its conservation and demand management programs and the company is leading the way in deploying smart meters in Ontario homes and businesses.
  • Manitoba Hydro offers homeowners Residential Earth Power Loans of up to $20 000 at an interest rate of 4.9% to cover the additional cost of installing a geothermal heat pump, rather than a conventional heating and cooling system.

Industrials

  • In the past year, General Electric sold $12 billion worth of its environmentally superior ecomagination line of products.
  • Husky Injection diverted 94 per cent of its Bolton factory waste from the landfill this year.

Forestry

  • Every year, Cascades handles 2.7 million short tonnes of recycled fibre; close to 70 per cent of its product content is from recycled materials, saving 30 million trees annually .
  • Since 1990, Catalyst has slashed its greenhouse gas emissions by about two-thirds and cut its carbon intensity emissions by 71 per cent.
  • Alpac forests are 100 per cent Forest Stewardship Council-certified, and the company generates 100 per cent of its energy from biomass (including selling 2.8 MW of Eco-Logo certified power to the Alberta Grid).

The methodology used to determine the Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada

The methodology for the Best 50 Corporate Citizens is based on environment, social and governance indicators found in the public domain. For 2007, the scoring has been expanded to include baseline indicators (as in previous years), and sector-specific key performance indicators. The baseline indicators are worth 50 per cent of the final score. The KPIs (including pollution for relevant sectors) are worth 50 per cent. The ranking for each indicator is based on each company's sector rank.