These 50 Canadian corporations are betting big on green

In early May, the federal government announced that Canada had “bent the curve” on climate pollution. New figures showed that carbon emissions in 2022 fell to “significantly lower” than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, giving hope that Canada can meet its net-zero commitments. “The hard work of Canadians is paying off,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said.

That hard work is often hard to see, the product of millions of Canadians and thousands of businesses quietly, persistently adopting new approaches to life and work, eschewing waste, prioritizing collaboration and generally learning to do more with less. Since 2002, Corporate Knights has recognized this work by publishing the Best 50 list of Canada’s top corporate citizens – the businesses that prize sustainability as well as commerce.

Now in its 23rd year, the Best 50 helps track how Canadian businesses are meeting the low-carbon and green-transition challenge – as well as where they’re getting stuck in the process.

You already know many of these companies – you’ve ridden their buses (Société de transport de Montréal), pocketed their coins (Royal Canadian Mint), used their phone networks (BCE, Telus and Rogers), shopped there (Canadian Tire) or bought the T-shirt (Gildan Activewear). The companies that made the Best 50 are mostly corporations with more than $1 billion in annual revenues, as well as Crown corporations, large co-ops and members of the S&P/TSX Renewable Energy and Clean Technology Index. What sets them apart is their commitment to doing business differently – they’re companies that derive significant revenue from greener products and services, invest in increasingly sustainable projects, and prioritize equity in their operations.

Crucially, the companies’ average sustainable investment (as a percentage of total investment) hit 58.9% this year, up 9% over last year’s 49.7% – that’s compared to just 8.4% for the average large Canadian corporation.

2024 Best 50 ranking table

*Indicates a tie as a result of a formula correction
**Revised rank due to a formula correction

“How a company invests its capital expenditures today is a major determinant of how sustainable its revenue will be tomorrow. The fact that we’re seeing a significant jump in sustainable investments among Best 50 companies tells us that more corporate leaders see sustainability as a business imperative,” says Michael Yow, director of corporate rankings at Corporate Knights. There’s also evidence that companies can do better by doing good. Since the inception of this list on June 1, 2002, the stock prices of publicly listed companies on the Best 50 have outperformed the S&P/TSX Composite Index by 80% (as of April 30, 2024).

Driving into first place

In first place on the list this year is a different kind of public company: Société de transport de Montréal (STM) gets 85.4% of its revenues from delivering greener public transit. Better still, Corporate Knights researchers found that 82.3% of STM’s capital investments (up from 45.8% last year) now go toward building low-carbon infrastructure – including the expansion of its Metro line and a large underground garage to support subway service expansion.

Beyond cutting carbon, STM stands out for its commitment to equity and inclusion. In an era of runaway executive compensation, its CEO earns just 5.2 times more than the company’s average worker – well below the Best 50 average of 76 times. In addition, women make up half of the company’s board of directors, and STM has committed to “universal accessibility,” striving to minimize barriers to the use of transit for all its customers – even as it maintains a personalized para-transit service.

Second-place Stantec, which calls itself “a global leader in sustainable design and engineering,” is also committed to building sustainable cities. Ranked as the world’s ninth-most-sustainable company earlier this year on Corporate Knights’ Global 100 list, Edmonton-based Stantec has built its latest three-year strategic plan on “purpose-driven growth.” To Stantec, the climate crisis is one big opportunity; it’s focusing in particular on the energy transition, coastal resilience, ecosystem restoration, smart cities and international development.

The Best 50 includes many firms in industries central to the energy transition, such as power generation and transmission (which includes a whopping 14 companies, from giants such as Hydro-Québec and Ontario’s Hydro One to renewables specialists such as Innergex and Brookfield Renewable). But the list also identifies values-based companies in many other sectors, including manufacturing (six), communications (five), banks and insurance (four), and rail transportation, engineering services and forest products (two each). More evidence that any company, in any industry, can choose a more sustainable path.

The fact that we’re seeing a significant jump in sustainable investments among Best 50 companies tells us that more corporate leaders see sustainability as a business imperative.

–Michael Yow, director of corporate rankings, Corporate Knights

This year’s Best 50 list also demonstrates that the road to the future is not perfectly straight. For instance, CEOs are still pushing the limits on executive compensation. While the average ratio of CEO pay to average employee pay dropped this year to 76:1 from 108:1 among last year’s Best 50 cohort, that stemmed mainly from unusually large decreases at just two companies compared to 2023. Our researchers report that, of the companies appearing on both years’ lists, 21 firms green-lit increases in their CEO pay ratios, and just 13 managed decreases.

In another sign of fitful progress, executive gender diversity improved to just 28.4% this year, versus 26.8% last year. But while there are still more CEOs named Michael than there are female CEOs in Canada, 12% of Best 50 companies are led by women. Especially making their presence felt are Marie-Claude Léonard, a 20-year STM veteran who leads the top firm on the list; Tracy Robinson, appointed CEO of Canadian National Railway in 2022, who is the first Canadian woman to run a national railroad; Marie Lemay, who heads the most-improved organization, the Royal Canadian Mint; and Mairead Lavery, who runs Export Development Canada, the company with the lowest ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay.

Climate commitments legend

1.5°C: Business Ambition for 1.5C

SBTi: Science Based Targets initiative

FCCA: Fashion Charter for Climate Action

NZAM: Net-Zero Asset Managers Initiative

NZAO: Net-Zero Asset Owners Alliance

NZBA: Net-Zero Banking Alliance

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