Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada 2011 released by Corporate Knights

Trying to evaluate and then compare the overall CSR performance of one company versus another is, I would imagine, a rather difficult task and while there are many reports that presents such data the logistics behind the ranking evaluation are often a little muddy. Therefore I was very interested to see a new report just released by CorportateKnights.ca that not only ranks of the 50 best corporate citizens in Canada but also provides excellent insight as to the methodology used to determine the final scores and ranking.

The final list of 50 is presented beneath and it’s worth noting that the 2011 summary is the 10th annual report published by Corporate Knights. Corporate Knights is an online magazine that ” supports clean capitalism”, according to their website their mission is to humanise the marketplace. It’s a great website and definitely worth a visit as the reports and articles demonstrate their commitment to helping Canada become the world leader in responsible commerce. It’s a topic that is near to our hearts also here at Miratel as corporate social responsibility is an integral part of our ongoing business platforms and each future decision.

Top 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada 2011 (please click to enlarge if needed)

With the report is an excellent article that explores not only the importance of sustainable business practices at the corporate level but also delves into the reasons why Canada is so expertly positioned for the years ahead. Investment in renewable energy coupled with a reaffirmation of good corporate citizenship; from improvements to supply chain management to greater employee equity. The article presents a number of interesting strategies that should be considered for a blueprint for the coming decade to make Canadian business truly CSR Business and a global leader.

While not wishing to take away from the results and ranking I did want to focus on the shared methodology which I found to be quite fascinating, both in the depth attached to the scoring system but also the overall trends in a positive direction that in many circumstances are outstanding. The results were based upon performance within four key areas: environmental, social, governance and transparency in addition to an evaluation of the core business impact. I liked the fact that the data compiled is very tangible and wherever possible succeeds in comparing apples with apples across different industries which of itself is often a tricky proposal. At the bottom of this post is a link to the results that generated the rankings whilst here are the elements that were measured:

Environmental

• Energy Productivity: Sales ($USD) per total indirect and direct energy use in gigajoules
• Carbon Productivity: Sales ($USD) per total CO2e emissions in tonnes (scope 1 and 2)
• Water Productivity: Sales ($USD) per total water use in cubic metres
• Waste Productivity: Sales ($USD) per total waste produced in tonnes

Social

• Ratio of highest-paid executive remuneration to lowest-paid employee
• Number of no-lost-time and lost-time accidents and fatalities per 1,000,000 hours worked
• Average per cent of statutory taxes paid over the last four fiscal years
• Funded status of defined-benefit pension plan benefit obligations

Governance

• Existence of sustainable development-themed board committee (environment, health, safety, corporate responsibility)
• Existence of a link between sustainability criteria and a senior executive’s compensation
• Per cent of women, Aboriginal, and visible minorities on Boards of Directors

Transparency

• Existence of a GRI report by company; evaluation based on adherence level and declaration level
• Percentage of voluntary data points (resource productivity and injuries) reported
• Together the above indicators are worth 85 per cent.

This report goes a long way toward generating what I feel is going to be a very important overall CSR index or measurement in the years ahead which will benefit consumers, customers, partners and suppliers by equipping them with us what will hopefully be objective data to compare and contrast the CSR performance of companies. Congratulations to those who had such outstanding results and to Corporate Knights for such informative research,

For the latest CSR and nonprofit fundraising news please follow us on Twitter!