2012 Green Provincial Report Card in Canada

I’ve reported on various country lists where Canada notably ranked including the smartest, the happiest, the best for entrepreneurs and the best country to live. Today I’m adding the third bi-annual Green Provincial Report Card to that list of rankings. This list is unique in that it focuses exclusively on Canada and in-keeping with the report card theme, it gives a letter grade on the environmental efforts of each of Canada’s ten provinces and three territories.

The list was compiled and published by Corporate Knights.. Corporate Knights “is a media, research and financial products company focused on quantifying and animating clean capitalism drivers for decision makers.” Along with an insightful website, Corporate Knights also has a magazine and has branched out into Corporate Knights Capital as well. Corporate Knights Capital is “a division of the leading publishing and investment research company [Corporate Knights], [it] is [a] source for objective, data-driven ‘clean capitalism’ ratings for over 2000 companies globally.” In covering other reports compiled by Corporate Knights like the 50 Best Corporate Citizens in Canadaand 2012 Top Foreign Corporate Citizens, I’ve found them to be comprehensive and extensive in their research and reasoning.

Image courtesy of corporateknights.com

To help compile this list they used a panel of experts, which “included representatives from York University, [the] David Suzuki Foundation, and The Pembina Institute.”

The criteria they used for the 2012 Green Provincial Report Card was: air and climate, water, nature, transportation, waste, energy and buildings, and innovation. In addition to these seven categories, they reviewed some 35 indicators to help analyze the environmental performance of each province and territory.

In order to understand their letter grades you have to look at their letter scheme: >7 = Excellent; 6.7-6.9 = A+; 6.4-6.6 = A; 6.0-6.3 = A-; 5.7-509 = B+; 5.4-5.6 = B; 5.0-5.3 = B-; 4.7-4.9 = C+; 4.4-4.6 = C; 4.0-4.3 = C-; and <4.0 = D.

Corporate Knights used the most current data available ranging from 2008-2011 with information coming “through federal sources that allowed for direct comparisons between Canada’s 13 jurisdictions. One major source was Environment Canada’s new Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESI) database, which was just made publicly accessible last year.”

You can view the interactive map or the provincial profilesfor a more in-depth breakdown by province but here is the overall ranking by province:

1. Ontario score: 6.06, A- (2nd in Air and Climate, 2nd in Innovation)
2. British Columbia score: 6.0, A- (2nd in Transportation, 1st in Energy and Buildings, 1st in Innovation)
   

   Image courtesy of corporateknights.com

3. Prince Edward Island score: 5.9, B+
4. Yukon Territory score: 5.6, B (1st in Air and Climate, 1st in Nature)
5. Quebec score: 5.5, B
6. Nunavut score: 5.3, B- (1st in Transportation)
7. Nova Scotia score: 5.3, B- (1st in Waste)
8. Northwest Territories score: 5.0, B- (1st in Water)
9. Newfoundland score: 4.9, C+
10. New Brunswick score: 4.9, C+
11. Manitoba score: 4.8, C+ (Tied for 2nd in Water)
12. Alberta score: 4.5, C (2nd in Nature)
13. Saskatchewan score: 4.4, C (Tied for 2nd in Water)

Although Ontario and B.C didn’t come out on top in a majority of categories they still topped this 2012 ranking because they achieved many highest or second or third highest scores in multiple categories with no extremely low scores.

Hopefully this listing will inspire each province and territory to focus on strengthening and building on their weaker areas. It might spark some healthy competition. Maybe all Canadians should heed those words. We live in one of the greatest countries on earth – what can we do as citizens to make it even better? We’re the smartest country – we have to be able to come up with something 🙂

As this is my last post before July 1st, I want to say Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians and welcome to all of those new to Canada celebrating their citizenship this weekend. A special Bienvenue to Gianluca!

Also a big shout out to all our LBGTTQ friends for a happy and peaceful Pride!
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