The top three international performers this year are Schneider Electric SE (France), Tesla Inc. (USA) and Novo Nordisk A/S (Denmark), with overall sustainability scores of 72.69%, 69.79% and 68.46%, respectively. Schneider Electric was the top company on the 2025 Global 100 list. Apart from Tesla, two other U.S. firms made the cut: Cisco Systems, a multinational specializing in networking hardware, and HP Inc., a manufacturer of personal computers and printers. Technology and industrial firms dominate the list, with most linked to electrification and digital infrastructure. Unilever PLC, in eighth place, is the only traditional fast‑moving consumer goods company on this year’s list.

“Corporate investment is a major preoccupation in Canada today, but quality matters at least as much as quantity,” Corporate Knights’ CEO and co-founder Toby Heaps said in a statement. “Our Best 50 analysis shows that economy-wide, investment in sustainable activities is growing materially faster than its non-sustainable counterparts – and that’s one of the most important and encouraging economic signals we’ve seen.”

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2026 Best 50 Corporate Citizens methodology

Press release | Canada’s Best 50 Corporate Citizens for 2026

Discover this year’s full list of Canada’s Best 50 Corporate Citizens

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In January, Mark Carney told the crowd at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting that the middle powers, like Canada, have the capacity to build a new world order and that allies will need to diversify to hedge against uncertainty. For Canada, the government is partly betting on a lower-carbon economy to meet this middle-power moment. The federal government’s climate competitiveness strategy aims to leverage clean technology and the nation’s abundant natural resources to boost Canada’s economy and position itself as a climate leader.

Though there are federal actions that have undercut this ambition, such as continued oil and gas subsidies, and evidence that curbing emissions in Canada has stalled, the economic case for climate action in Canada is strong. Some 66% of investments in Canadian oil and gas infrastructure are at risk of becoming stranded, according to a 2025 report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Canadian pension giant La Caisse saw investments in renewable energy tripled between 2017 and 2025, from $9 billion to $27.4 billion. Jobs within the environmental and clean technologies sector have grown faster compared to the broader economy for three years straight, according to a 2026 Statistics Canada study.

It’s against this backdrop that Toronto Climate Week (TOCW) 2026 will bring together innovators, business leaders, policymakers, researchers, artists and community members from all over the world. The second annual week-long event, from June 1 to 7, aims to showcase local and Canadian innovations while connecting to global opportunities, all while tapping into the discourse around the future of the global sustainable economy.

“I think Canada has a major opportunity right now to shape the global conversation around the clean-energy transition, and how the benefits of that transition to green energy can be an economic benefit for Canada,” says Kate Johnson, regional director for North America at C40 Cities, a global network of mayors from major cities working on climate action.

Cities lead on climate

Johnson, who is attending the Toronto event, has seen several climate action weeks pop up around the world. In some ways, that’s no surprise: “[Cities are] really the first responders,” she says, when it comes to climate change impacts, which intersect with rising energy bills and housing costs. Cities want to respond holistically to these overlapping crises, but it’s challenging, she says. Cities in the C40 network share resources and clout, and they’re making the case that it’s smart to use climate-smart solutions to address broader concerns.

Toronto Climate Week is “a really great opportunity just to get a pulse of what’s happening, not just in Toronto, but in Canada more broadly,” Johnson says. The event is expected to attract around 10,000 attendees to more than 200 scheduled events across the city. On the agenda are things like carbon solutions, the circular economy, cleantech and environmental justice.

Carbon focus

One of the flagship events, Carbon Solutions: Canada’s Competitive Advantage, will look at several carbon-removal and -management solutions in Canada and global markets. Carbon removal is forecast to be a US$1.2-trillion industry by 2050, according to a 2023 McKinsey report. With 20% of the world’s fresh water, 347 million hectares of boreal forest, 62.2 million hectares of farmland, more than 240,000 kilometres of coastline and an abundance of nature, Canada has ample opportunities to leverage its resources to help support climate action – and a lot to protect, too. Several companies have already started to look to Canada’s landscapes to sequester carbon.

Brady Paron, senior vice president of carbon market partnerships at Mast, a reforestation company working on restoring landscapes after wildfires, will be on a panel at the carbon-solutions flagship event. Mast takes trees that were killed in wildfires and buries them deep underground to prevent the wood from further decomposing and releasing more carbon into the atmosphere. To fund wildfire cleanup and landscape restoration expenses, Mast sells carbon credits to companies.

So far, there has been only a pilot project in Montana, but Canada is on Mast’s radar. “We see there’s a huge opportunity for biomass burial projects in Canada, given that we’ve got tons of forests in Canada,” Paron says, “and we’re unfortunately also seeing increasing wildfires here as well.” Paron is Canadian and based in Toronto but works for a U.S.-based company. He says this hybridity affords him a useful lens for TOCW: it’s not just about highlighting the incredible innovation in Canada, but also showcasing solutions to the entire world. “Canada can be a superpower for this moving forward.”

Sequestration strategy

Undo, a U.K.-registered company, has also focused on carbon sequestration projects in Canada. Working with farmers in Ontario, Undo offers enhanced rock weathering, a method that crushes abundant silicate rocks into a powder, through carbon credits sold to companies. The crushed rock both captures carbon from the atmosphere and can improve soil health, creating a win-win for the climate and farmers.

Peggy Sue Deaven, general manager for Canada at Undo, thinks that climate-solution companies like Undo need to showcase that they can make just as much business sense as the conventional big emitters. “We are a robust, competitive, for-profit, eat-your-heart-out [business], and we do good things.” Deaven, who will also be on a panel during the flagship TOCW carbon-solutions event, adds that climate solutions is an area where Canada can already own its leadership status in the world and that there are solutions that make economic sense.

With an existential threat like climate change, it’s important to connect with others, Deaven argues. “The soaring potential for folk to come together audaciously and to think what’s next, how are we pulse-checking with one another – that kind of community coming together is exceptional,” she says. “Toronto’s such a hub for innovation, so it does bring out the best in folk there.”

Corporate Knights is a media sponsor of Toronto Climate Week. This article was produced independently by the Corporate Knights editorial team, and Toronto Climate Week did not review or approve the content prior to publication.

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Here’s a look at how protectionist measures are pushing countries into walled markets that limit the flow of low-cost clean technologies:

Since 2020, countries around the world have implemented nearly 200 trade policies targeting clean energy, compared to only 40 in the five years before.

Close to 40% of those trade measures were protectionist, and 70% targeted three technologies: solar power, batteries and electric vehicles.

China dominates all three of those sectors, and almost half of its vehicle exports are now electric.

The United States has imposed a 100% tariff on those EVs and raised its tariff on Chinese solar to 50%.

Meanwhile, the World Trade Organization says that non-tariff restrictions are on the rise and they can be up to 10 times more restrictive than tariffs.

All these barriers are changing the flow of green goods: 31% of China’s cleantech exports now go to emerging markets, up from 23% in 2022.

To circumvent trade restrictions and tap new markets, Chinese firms have pledged more than US$210 billion for overseas green manufacturing since 2022.

From the spring 2026 edition of the magazine

Sources: Net Zero Policy Lab, International Energy Association, OECD, WTO, BloombergNEF

The post A surge in protectionism is reshaping global markets for green technologies appeared first on Corporate Knights.

To answer these questions, the Corporate Knights research group assesses eligible companies and scores them using three equally weighted indicators:

1. The share of revenue from sustainable products and services
2. The share of investments directed toward sustainable projects
3. The sustainable revenue momentum, which is the compound annual growth rate in sustainable revenue from 2022 to 2024

Companies can also earn a bonus of up to 5% for linking CEO pay to sustainability targets. Additionally, they face deductions of up to 5% each for legal sanctions and workplace fatalities. Companies are benchmarked against industry peers across 64 groupings.

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Affordable.

Onshore wind and utility‑scale solar photovoltaic installations are now substantially cheaper than new fossil fuel plants almost everywhere in the world. With voters broadly ranking economic concerns and energy costs above climate, cost is a key part of the new low-carbon lexicon.

Secure.

Renewables rely on international supply chains for set-up, but once installed they use freely available local resources like sunlight, wind and ground-source heat, which makes them less vulnerable to the sorts of market volatility that afflict fossil fuels.

Resilient.

A grid that is dependent on a mix of renewable sources, rather than exclusively on fossil fuels, can better withstand shocks. That’s why Ukraine, for example, has pivoted to wind and solar rather than large power plants to avoid major outages from Russian attacks.

Advanced.

Rather than positioning renewables as climate-positive, the sector is increasingly describing its products as modern, high-tech and cutting edge. Worldwide, renewables have received twice as much investment as other power sources, which increases competition and strengthens.

Efficient.

Combustion technologies also lose most of their fuel energy as heat, converting only about 35% to 60% into electricity. By contrast, electric motors commonly achieve 80% to 95% efficiency.

Illustrations by Drew Shannon

The post The new language of clean power appeared first on Corporate Knights.

The U.S. companies that make up Corporate Knights’ first-ever USA 25 Most Sustainable Corporations ranking brought in more than $1.15 trillion in revenues in 2024, of which an average of 61% came from sustainable products or services. That included companies like Nvidia, whose super-efficient chips power much of the world’s AI infrastructure, and Tesla, which has single-handedly transformed the U.S. electric vehicle market.

Perhaps more notably, however, sustainable revenues as a share of the total are growing, and sustainable investments are poised to accelerate the transition. Michael Yow, director of rankings at Corporate Knights, points out that the average sustainable investment ratio for S&P 500 companies is less than 11%; for companies in this ranking, it is more than 62%. “It illustrates how sustainability leaders are already rewiring their business models for a low‑carbon economy while the broader market lags behind.”

The top company

Leading the ranking this year is Fluence (#1), a company out of Arlington, Virginia, that creates utility-scale energy-storage systems. Founded in 2018 from a partnership between Siemens, the German tech giant, and AES, the largest U.S.-based global power company, Fluence is one of a select group of companies playing a pivotal role in the shift to renewable power in the United States. The grid-level battery company currently has 296 projects globally storing 28.9 gigawatts of renewable energy.

Fluence doubled its sustainability revenues between 2022 and 2024 and earned a perfect sustainable investment score by pouring all its capital expenditure and research and development into new energy-storage solutions and supporting technology. In early 2025, the company announced “breakthrough” modular stacks that can store 30% more power over the same footprint as previous generations of the technology. Additionally, Fluence – which also placed fourth in this year’s Global 100 ranking – is deploying AI-optimized software to help maintain its infrastructure and to assist with bidding in the notoriously complex and volatile wholesale energy market.

The fast track

The companies with highest compound annual growth rate of sustainable revenue

Among the companies with the fastest-growing share of sustainable revenues was
Prologis (#17), a San Francisco–based real estate investment trust.
Prologis owns more than 5,800 facilities, mostly warehouses and commercial spaces,
spanning 1.3 billion square feet across 20 countries. In the last year, the company
secured sustainable building certifications for all the eligible buildings and since
2021 has achieved 626 megawatts of solar power and storage capacity across its portfolio.

Sustainable revenues still account for only about 19% of the company’s total revenues, but since 2022 those revenues have grown 239% annualized. Yow points out that a significant share of the buildings that did not qualify under the Corporate Knights Sustainable Economy Taxonomy in 2022 now do, thanks to the company’s efforts.

Nvidia (#10), the world’s largest company by market capitalization, also had one of the fastest-growing shares of sustainable revenue. It saw a 124% increase over 2022 for total sustainable revenues of about $75 billion. Most of those earnings are attributable to the company’s ultra-efficient computer chips that now make up the majority of global AI data-centre infrastructure. These chips are up to 25 times more energy efficient per watt than traditional, general-purpose central processing units and up to 300 times more water efficient than air-cooled computing architecture.

There was one more company, Bristol-Myers Squibb (#25), that registered an even higher sustainable revenue compound annual growth rate, at 342%, but as Yow explains, its circumstances are unique. Revenues at pharmaceutical companies in the ranking are considered sustainable if they come from the sale of drugs included on the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines list. Bristol-Myers Squibb sells several of these medicines, but in 2022, a significant share of those revenues were not credited in full. This was because a significant portion of the cash flow from those revenues went toward share buybacks, dividend payments and senior executive compensation, rather than being reinvested in the company. Since 2022, the share of eligible revenues at Bristol-Myers Squibb has shifted, hence the increase.

Come-from-behind corporation

A company with a small percentage of sustainable revenue but high sustainable compound annual growth rate

At Hologic (#16), a healthcare company out of Massachusetts, about 19% of its $4.03 billion in 2024 revenues were sustainable, representing an annualized increase of 50% since 2022. This change is attributable to the increased sales of its medical solutions for women’s health, particularly breast cancer. Many of Hologic’s systems, including those used for imaging and biopsy, have been classified by the World Health Organization as “indispensable” for quality healthcare delivery.

Transition majors

Companies with small sustainable revenue but high sustainable investment

American Water Works Company (#19) is a 140-year-old company and the largest regulated provider of water and wastewater utilities in the United States. Based in Camden, New Jersey, and delivering services to more than 14 million people in 18 states, its share of sustainable revenues was small relative to the scale of its operation, but its sustainable investments were significant. Last year, the company reportedly invested $3.2 billion in infrastructure improvements (in 2024, the company brought in $4.6 billion in revenue). This included pipe replacement and water treatment upgrades, as well as remediation for PFAS (known as “forever chemicals”) that have been commonly detected in drinking water.

Another one of the senior companies on the list, the 146-year-old automotive manufacturer BorgWarner (#21), operating out of Auburn Hills, Michigan, also earned high marks for its sustainable investments. The company has been focused on developing new parts for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, including motors, transmissions and battery systems.

The pure-play behemoth

A large-cap pure-play company with high sustainable revenue and investment, but also penalties

Given this year’s refocusing of the methodology on sustainable revenues, investment and growth, it should come as little surprise that Tesla (#9) remains a fixture on the list. Now based in Texas, the company recorded $97.69 billion in revenues in 2024, 100% of which was registered as sustainable in the Corporate Knights methodology. It should be noted, however, that the company did suffer several penalties related to a $1.5-million settlement over the alleged mishandling of hazardous waste, and another to a fatality at its Texas Gigafactory.

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Waste-to-wealth winners

Companies at the forefront of the circular economy

Enviri (#11) is a Pennsylvania-based waste-management firm that specializes in complex environmental challenges. Across three divisions, it has recycled nearly 440,000 tons of hazardous material, 3.1 million tons of contaminated soil and 85 million gallons of wastewater – in all, about 92% of the materials it collects. These materials are used to create the company’s “ecoproducts” such as cement additives, construction aggregate, asphalt and cost-effective alternatives to raw materials used in concrete and brick.

CMC (#22) is one of the primary suppliers of the steel rebar used to reinforce the concrete in buildings, bridges and roads across the United States. With 212 facilities, the Texas-based company boasts an impressive record in an industry that has, traditionally, had a large environmental footprint: 17 billion pounds of scrap metal saved from landfills, 82% less energy and 62% less carbon dioxide than traditional steelmaking, and 100% recycled steel in all of its products.

2026 USA 25 Most Sustainable Corporations

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“The Clean200 follows revenues, not rhetoric,” Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights and report co-author, said in a statement. “Even when politics turns hostile, markets continue to reward companies that are supplying what the global economy is structurally demanding – clean power, electrification, efficiency, and resilient infrastructure.”

For the 200 companies that made this year’s list, revenue from sustainable activities reached a record high of US$2.8 trillion, up 12% from last year and 710% from 2017. On average, more than half the revenue (53.7%) at Clean200 companies is sustainable – roughly 15 percentage points higher than five years ago – whereas companies in the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) generate only 16.7% of their revenue from sustainable activities.

“In 2016, we created the Clean200 in response to investors who asked, ‘As we shift away from fossil fuels, what should we invest in?’” Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow and report co-author, said in a statement. “A decade later, the Clean200 continues to demonstrate that the global economy is increasingly driven by companies delivering solutions that reduce dependence on fossil fuels and resource-intensive systems.”

Over the past decade, investors in Clean200 companies beat the benchmark by a wide margin. From July 1, 2016, to January 26, 2026, the Clean200 portfolio returned 282.9%, compared with 221.3% for the MSCI ACWI. The fossil fuel benchmark, meanwhile, returned a much slimmer 111%. In other words, the Clean200 produced about 2.5 times the gain of the fossil fuel benchmark.

The Clean200 is selected from 8,229 eligible companies, of which 103 were excluded. The list employs a wide range of negative screens to exclude: for example, fossil-fired utilities or big banks and insurers financing fossil fuel companies, as well as for-profit prisons, weapons makers and others.

Looking back five years, the Clean200 demonstrates the increasing economic weight of all-in sustainability firms known as “pure plays,” such as electric-vehicle makers and renewable-power generators. Since 2021, the share of pure-play sustainability companies – those for whom more than 99% of revenues are sustainable – has increased by 175%, from eight to 22. Near pure-plays, or those with greater than a 90% ratio, increased 216.7%, from 12 to 38. And those with more than 80% sustainable revenue also increased dramatically, from 22 to 49.

The United States and China have 69 companies on the list between them, 41 and 28 respectively. Five years ago, the United States had 46 companies on the list, and China had 17, which suggests a subtle but marked rebalancing trend. About half the list consists of “middle power” countries: Japan (15), France (12), Canada (11), Germany (11), Spain (8), Brazil (8), South Korea (7), Denmark (7), United Kingdom (5), Sweden (5) and India (5). Sixteen other countries share the remaining 14.5% of the list, underscoring how widely distributed the clean‑economy opportunity has become.

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Corporate Knights trained its lens on a wide universe of corporations to produce its first-ever Latin America–specific ranking. Using the Global 100 benchmarks of sustainable-economy performance indicators, it assessed 55 companies based in the region with more than US$1 billion in annual revenue.

Corporate Knights’ director of rankings Michael Yow said Brazilian companies are more forthcoming than other companies in the region with their disclosure, which helps explain why so many made the top 10 list.

1. Alupar Investimento

One of the largest energy companies in Brazil, Alupar’s transmission lines extend across Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Peru and generate roughly 800 megawatts from power plants it operates. The company has adopted various policies that bolster its environmental bona fides, such as “replacement and recovery of native forest vegetation” and “maintenance of biodiversity of fauna and flora” in areas where Alupar has lines or power plants. Alupar also “conducts periodic assessments of water quality downstream and upstream” of its assets and offers certified carbon credits for buyers of emissions offsets.

2. Neoenergia

Wind is a key component of energy production in Brazil, accounting for 20% of the country’s needs. Neoenergia, which provides electricity to some 37 million Brazilians, has leaned into the renewable resource, with 44 wind farms across seven states. In 2023, it launched its first wind and solar hybrid project, capable of producing up to 600 megawatts in the northeastern state of Paraíba – enough to power more than one million homes. Also, the Neoenergía Institute develops community-based programs that include funding environmental research and cultural activities.

3. Energisa

Brazilian electricity company Energisa is actively decarbonizing its operations and putting its energy transition in practice. The company claims to have avoided the production of 539,000 tons of carbon dioxide in 2024 by closing diesel- and oil-fuelled thermal power plants in the Amazon region. The company has contributed to the restoration of Usina Maurício Reserve, a 300-hectare private reserve in the Minas Gerais state, with tree planting.

4. Enel Américas

Based in Chile but belonging to Italy’s Enel Group, Enel Américas is one of Latin America’s main energy producers and distributors. In 2023/2024, the company increased its renewable-energy capacity to 12,600 megawatts – around 98% of its portfolio. In 2023, the company reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by around one-third compared to the previous year thanks to more renewable-energy production and less fossil fuel generation. Enel also subscribes to a biodiversity policy of “no net loss,” with a mandate that aims to avoid having a negative impact on the environment where the company operates.

5. CEMIG

Brazilian CEMIG operates around 5,000 kilometres of transmission lines across the country and a massive distribution network spanning more than 500,000 kilometres of lines, mostly in the state of Minas Gerais. It generates electricity through dozens of power stations, mainly hydroelectric but also wind and solar. CEMIG has significantly increased its internal use of renewable energy and decreased non-renewables over recent years. It has pledged to cut non‑renewable energy consumption by 40% by 2027 while increasing the share of renewables in its own energy use.

6. Engie

Engie’s gas network is Brazil’s largest, crossing about 4,600 kilometres of territory, but almost 100% of the energy the company generates itself comes from renewable sources like wind, hydro and solar. The company has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 41% since 2017 and also reduced its waste generation and water use. The company touts multiple sustainability awards, including placing 21st on the 2025 Corporate Knights Global 100 ranking.

7. Sabesp

The Company of Basic Sanitation of the State of São Paulo (Sabesp) provides comprehensive sanitation services, including drinking water supply, sewerage and final disposal of wastewater for nearly 30 million people. Last year, Sabesp took part in IntegraTietê, a sanitation program centred in São Paulo city’s Tietê River. Among some 50 initiatives is its Partners for Impact program, which includes environmental management policies around waste and emissions, along with inclusion and social development with communities, such as job creation and education partnerships.

8. Telefônica Brasil

Through its subsidiary Vivo, Brazil’s largest telecommunications company has launched a long‑term forest‑restoration project in the Amazon that will, over 30 years, restore and protect about 800 hectares of degraded land, with the planting, regeneration and conservation of more than 900,000 native trees in one of the most deforested areas of the forest. The company uses 100% renewable energy in its operations and has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2035.

9. Paranaense Energy Company

Brazilian Paranaense Energy Company (Copel) is the main electricity distributor in Paraná state and operates in nine other states in Brazil. It was the first Brazilian electricity company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, in 1997. Copel has committed to reaching carbon neutrality among its Scope 1 emissions by 2030 and, after divesting from coal‑ and oil‑fired thermal plants, now generates 100% of its electricity from renewable sources, mostly hydroelectric power. It has tapped into Paraná’s major chicken-producing industry with pioneering biogas projects that repurpose poultry waste into electricity, and others that convert biogas into renewable hydrogen.

10. Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM)

Chilean Chemical and Mining Society is a major producer of lithium, potassium nitrate, iodine and industrial chemicals, with most of its resources and plants in the northern Atacama Desert in northern Chile, a region rich in minerals. In early 2026, it entered into a major partnership with Ivanhoe Electric for a copper exploration project. The company has come under significant scrutiny for its water usage in a highly arid region, in particular from local Indigenous communities and environmental groups. The company says it is committed to responsible practices and in 2024 invested US$33 million in areas such as environmental evaluations, environmental monitoring and mitigation measures, industrial waste management, and hazardous substance management. That year, according to its last report, the company did not receive fines or sanctions from environmental law enforcement.

Latin America Top 10 Ranking

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1. Canada‘s largest battery storage farm just opened – and it’s Indigenous-led

By Natalie Alcoba, May 13

The headline behind the headline here is that many such projects are coming to fruition all the time now: community-level contributions to a low-carbon future, unfolding around the world at an exhilarating rate. Indigenous ownership is a sign that a project is well-designed.

Read the story

2. How trade threats could lead to a better grid network in Canada

By Victoria Foote, March 12

This story by the British Columbia–based journalist Victoria Foote examines the possibility of dismantling interprovincial trade barriers, which dominated the Canadian political discourse after U.S. President Donald Trump launched his trade war shortly after taking office. Better electricity interconnections between the provinces would be a boon for clean energy and help defend Canada’s economic sovereignty.

Read the story

3. What happened to Canada’s cleantech tax credits?

By Shawn McCarthy, July 11

Canada has the tools to deploy cleantech at a much greater speed and scale, but it’s been slow to use them. This article by our lead energy journalist, Shawn McCarthy, explains how the federal government botched the rollout of its plan for refundable credits for cleantech. Hundreds of billions in low‑carbon investment could be unlocked by this program, once the bottlenecks are fixed.

Read the story

4. To boost competitiveness, EU proposes slashing key climate rules

By Eugene Ellmen, March 3

Our word of the year for 2025 is “backlash,” a concept that has provided the primary narrative for the dissolution of so much of the optimism and ambition of the 2021 to 2023 period. The weakening of Europe’s climate-disclosure regulations represented a major plot development in this story. Despite opposition from sustainability advocates, the main elements of this simplification plan have now cleared the EU legislative process, putting most of the companies originally targeted by the rules now out of their scope.

Read the story

5. First Nations in oil country are converting old wells to geothermal

By Matteo Cimellaro, April 9

Without a doubt, geothermal will be among the biggest stories of 2026. The technology has been winning backers and evading the politicization of other sources of renewable energy throughout 2025, and 2026 will bring many more examples of this kind of story.

Read the story

6. Canada’s chief actuary underestimates climate risks, advocates say

By Mark Mann, August 29

This campaign by Ecojustice and Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health raises the alarm that Canada’s Office of the Chief Actuary is neglecting the systemic risks of climate change. Responding appropriately to climate threats is a challenge for everybody, but the chief risk officer is held to the highest standard.

Read the story

7. Offshore wind is gaining momentum in Atlantic Canada

By Moira Donovan, July 23

How Nova Scotia balances the hurdles and opportunities of major offshore wind development is one of the stories we’ll be following closely in 2026. The province is betting that green hydrogen production will be a core use case for these projects, but that poses its own major challenges, as hydrogen is extremely difficult to transport.

Read the story

8. How some sustainable investors are divesting from Tesla

By Mark Mann, April 8

As ESG-themed investment funds multiply and mature, green investors are acquiring more ways to tailor their holdings to their ideals. When Elon Musk joined forces with Trump’s authoritarian agenda, sustainable investors who wanted to divest from Tesla struggled to find options. This article by managing editor Mark Mann examined some of the intricacies of ESG-themed index investing.

Read the story

9. The transatlantic divide over sustainable investing just got wider

By Mark Mann, Sept 5

The rift between U.S. and European investors has widened to a chasm this past year, with many in the EU now treating sustainability and climate as core elements of risk management rather than just marketing. Pension funds, in particular, have emerged as a key pressure point for climate advocates, given their long‑term investment horizons and exposure to climate‑related risks.

Read the story

10. Economists say Ottawa should rethink tariffs on Chinese EVs

By Victoria Foote, October 1

This will continue to be one of the hottest topics for Canadian sustainability advocates: should Ottawa open the door to low-cost Chinese electric vehicles, or should we continue shielding Western automakers from China’s heavily subsidized industry? Climate advocates should also be wary that if major Eastern markets stumble on their EV rollout in 2026, as Western markets did in 2025, the global electrification narrative would be seriously weakened.

Read the story

These five op-eds sparked the most conversation this year:

1. The facts of climate progress are the antidote to pessimism

By Rick Smith, February 21

Rick Smith is the president of the Canadian Climate Institute, and he contributes a monthly column to Corporate Knights called Climate Progress. Smith trains a level eye on new developments in climate policy and the green economy, and our readers tend to pay close attention to what he’s saying. The broad theme this year is that when you look beyond the United States, there’s plenty to celebrate, and even on the state and municipal levels, things are looking up for sustainability implementation.

Read the op-ed

2. Radical reforms are needed to make MBAs a force for good

By Danny Parys, Oct 14

Capitalism itself is increasingly under fire, as widening wealth inequality, growing concentration of capital and deepening unaffordability push societies closer to open class conflict. Yet rarely do these critiques focus on the role of business education. This commentary by Danny Parys in Montreal struck a nerve.

Read the op-ed

3. Three big shifts that can transform and modernize Canada’s economy

By Ralph Torrie and Mitchell Beer, April 10

Here, Corporate Knights research director Ralph Torrie and Mitchell Beer, the editor-in-chief and publisher of The Energy Mix, have collaborated to produce an overview of Torrie’s Climate Dollars project, which provides a province-by-province transition plan to a net-zero economy by 2050.

Read the op-ed

4. Trump’s tariffs threaten Canada’s food security. It’s time to go local.

By Justin Abbiss, March 11

A lot is happening in agricultural innovation and food distribution, and we’re keen to follow not only the energy transition but also the shift toward a more regenerative, sustainable food system.

Read the op-ed

5. Just because Trump wants to kill DEI doesn’t mean CEOs should

By Shilpa Tiwari, January 20

The backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion in business looked bleak at the start of the year, as high‑profile U.S. companies dismantled DEI teams under political pressure from Donald Trump and other anti‑equity agitators. Yet, as Shilpa Tiwari argues in this essay, DEI isn’t a political accessory but a core business survival strategy – and CEOs who retreat in the name of “neutrality” risk aligning themselves with a status quo built on exclusion.

Read the op-ed

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