Not just specific coastal communities or the threat of drought, but to our collective physical and mental health as well. Corporations stand exposed to risk no matter what sector they’re in and leading companies across Canada are working to understand where the greatest gaps lie.

It’s why Corporate Knights has decided once again, with sponsorship support from the Canadian Industry Partnership for Energy Conservation (CIPEC), to carry forward the annual Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada ranking into its 17^th year. CIPEC helps organizations increase profits by improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Corporate Knights places the highest degree of emphasis on transparency and continuity in our quest to reflect which companies are leading the way to a more sustainable world. While we [strive to] avoid making changes to our methodology, every decade we make a significant update to reflect the evolution of corporate sustainability practices and disclosure.

The first time we did this was in 2005 for the Best 50, when we moved from a “black box” third party-sourced research model to a transparent set of indicators from the public domain.

This year, we have taken an equally important step to update our weighting system from equal weight for each metric to a rules-based weighting guided by the relevance of each key performance indicators (KPI) for each industry, placing more emphasis on metrics that matter most for each industry. The energy KPI, for example, will carry more weight for a company in a sector that accounts for a substantial portion of total energy use (within the universe of ranked companies) than it will for a company in a sector that accounts for a relatively small portion of total energy use.

Second, a clean revenue KPI has been added. It is calculated using multiple research sources that identify potential clean revenues on a product/service segment basis. Findings of potential clean revenues of 10 per cent or more of total revenues are then confirmed via manual inspection of financial statements and sustainability reports on a company-specific basis.

While there will be some growing pains adjusting to these new goal posts, we are confident it furthers our quest and will help enhance feedback loops that reinforce a sustainable economy. Companies can take our assurance that these are the new goal posts and with the exception of minor refinements from year to year, the criteria will not be undergoing any major changes in the next five years.

Class of 2018

The top company this year is Hydro-Québec, the iconic public utility that has been working hard to rebuild trust among its consumers (see here for more). Following second is Toronto Hydro, which has enjoyed success in recent years reducing its carbon footprint, reducing waste and enacting a climate change adaptation plan.

In third place is Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions, a company that has been aggressively championing sustainable operating practices within the real estate industry. Rounding out the top five are two Saskatchewan-based firms: mining company Cameco and agricultural term lender Farm Credit Canada.

A mix of sectors appear on this year’s Best 50 list, demonstrating the diverse nature of Canada’s economy. International banks, telecom companies and energy utilities are particularly prominent, along with various other participants within the extractives industry.

Companies headquartered in seven provinces are featured on the ranking, with Ontario and Québec accounting for a combined 30 of the top 50. B.C. and Alberta tied with seven apiece, followed by Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nova Scotia.

See the full Best 50 results here.

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The post Introducing the 17th annual Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada appeared first on Corporate Knights.

The 2018 Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada ranking was sponsored by CIPEC – the Canadian Industry Partnership for Energy Conservation – which helps organizations increase profits by improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Click here to go back to the ranking landing page.

The post 2018 Best 50 results appeared first on Corporate Knights.

“A few years ago, they were shy of putting the logo on them,” says Éric Martel, president and CEO of the public utility, which manages the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Québec.

Hydro-Québec has been working to improve its corporate culture in recent years, the results of which have helped it earn the top spot on the Corporate Knights’ 2018 Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada list. Hydro-Québec was fourth on the list in 2017.

Recharging corporate culture

Since he took over the top job in July 2015, Martel has been on a mission to improve customer satisfaction and employee engagement, with a goal to make Hydro-Québec a more attractive place to work, as well as to boost its reputation in the community.

Martel says the organization had some “serious challenges” around customer satisfaction when he came on board. At that time, 82 per cent of customers said they were satisfied with the public utility. “My concern there was that it meant about one person out of five wasn’t satisfied, which is a lot,” he says. “Maybe we’re a monopoly, but it’s a privilege… and we should be the best one in customer service.”

Employee morale was also low, with less than two-thirds of employees saying they felt engaged, according to internal surveys.

Martel went across the province with an aim to meet nearly every employee, while also improving customer service through extended hours and increasing communication and transparency around its decisions, including rate increases.

“When you do a cultural transformation like this, you need to set the tone from the start,” he says.

The strategy appears to be working. In 2017, 92 per cent of customers said they were satisfied, up from 82 per cent in 2015, according to Hydro-Québec surveys. Employee engagement increased to 76 per cent in 2017, up from 62 per cent in 2014.

Developing diversity

Martel also continued with Hydro-Québec’s goal to boost diversity across the organization. Today, about 7.3 per cent of its approximately 19,700 employees are Indigenous or members of visible or ethnic minorities. That’s up from about 2.9 per cent a decade ago.

“We still have a long way to go to be more representative,” he says. “I think it makes us stronger. It’s opening up the talent pool… and will make us a better company years from now.”

The board and senior management are also diverse: Half the combined team of 16 executives are women. Among the organization’s top 162 managers, 52 are women, or 32 per cent, which is up from 25 per cent of the 152 top managers in 2013.

“When we do our succession planning, this is always the discussion: How do we make sure that we give women the opportunity to grow within the organization, based on their potential?” Martel says.

Going greener

While the company is largely green – 99.5 per cent of its production is renewable from hydroelectricity – Martel says its goal is to hit 100 per cent, but there’s no specific timeline. The remaining 0.5 per cent is due to the fuel-power electricity generation that’s required in more remote locations that are off the grid.

In the meantime, the company is working on some energy-efficiency alternatives, including a microgrid project underway in Lac-Mégantic, the Québec town devastated by a rail disaster in July 2013. Hydro-Québec is building a microgrid in the municipality’s new downtown that will include about 30 residential and commercial buildings. It will feature up to 1,000 solar panels (300 kW installed capacity), batteries able to store 300 kWh of energy, smart homes and buildings equipped with consumption management systems and charging stations for electric vehicles.

Martel describes it as a lab for the organization to test the integration of technology and power, which can then be used in other regions.

“They had the will to do it,” Martel says of Lac-Mégantic’s participation. Plus, it was a good opportunity, given the community is rebuilding after the train tragedy.

Boosting brand loyalty

While Martel says Hydro-Québec is on the right track to improving its overall corporate social responsibility, his goal is to make continuous improvements in areas ranging from customer satisfaction, employee morale, diversity and energy efficiency.

“I’d like the population of Québec to be proud of what we are doing externally and for our employees to be extremely proud of working here.”

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The Top Foreign Corporate Citizens in Canada list consists of the top 15 performing foreign companies* operating in Canada, according to the Corporate Knights Sustainability Rating methodology.

*All companies which earn least $1 billion in annual revenues in Canada and are not listed or headquartered in Canada are assessed

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