The Best 50 ranking was first developed back in 2002 to track the sustainability journeys of Canada’s most environmentally and socially conscious companies. This year’s list shows that corporate Canada’s ethical vanguard is not only actively reducing its carbon footprint, but finding new and creative ways to connect with their customers, create fairer workplaces and develop more prosperous and resilient communities. 

Look at Stantec (#2), for example. The Edmonton-based engineering consulting firm generated 60% of its revenues from sustainable projects such as remediating contaminated worksites in Nunavut, designing a climate-first watershed management plan for Manchester, U.K., and helping the government of Abu Dhabi build a recycled water system that supplies local, desert-bound farms with recycled water from two wastewater treatment plants.

Or consider the Quebec financial giant Desjardins (#37). As it works toward net-zero emissions by 2040, the cooperative bank offers a plethora of pro-social programs for climate adaptation, such as cash incentives for hail-resistant residential siding and affordable flood insurance to Canadians living in high-risk locations not covered by private insurance. Desjardins also supports affordable housing, health programs for its employees and home ownership for First Nations communities.

The Royal Canadian Mint (#5), too, is doing some heavy lifting on the environmental front. In addition to punching out loonies and toonies, Canada’s national mint has installed money-saving geothermal heating and cooling at its main Winnipeg plant, calculated its full-scope carbon emissions and embarked on a program to source materials from recycled electronic devices. 

The purpose of the Best 50 is to shine a light on the large companies leading the way to a more sustainable economy.

 — Toby Heaps, Corporate Knights publisher and CEO

These programs offer proof that businesses can genuinely move the needle on real issues that matter to Canadians and to the environment. Yes, greenwashing and window-dressing still dominate the business landscape, but rankings like the Best 50 prove that progress is possible. Even the best companies have flaws. But on the whole, this list demonstrates that many Canadian firms are preparing themselves for increasing change and creating value by prioritizing transparency, innovation and action. 

2025 Best 50 ranking table

*N/A: Not applicable. Banks, asset management and insurance peer groups are not assessed on the sustainable investment KPI. The weight of this KPI has been reweighted to the sustainable revenue KPI.

Ahead of the curve

The Best 50 is derived from a data set of companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The potential contenders include Crown corporations, large co-ops and credit unions, and members of the S&P/TSX Renewable Energy and Clean Technology Index. Corporate Knights researchers rate these companies on 25 key performance indicators covering resource management, sustainable revenue and investment, employee and financial management, and supplier performance.

The companies on the list present an unexpected cross-section of the economy, from consumer-product manufacturers to banks, big telecoms, insurance companies and government-owned entities such as Export Development Canada, Hydro-Québec and Farm Credit Canada. Not surprisingly, the industries most represented on the list are power-generation companies and power-transmission firms. 

The true stars of the ranking are the companies with the highest scores in the two most heavily weighted indicators: sustainable revenue and sustainable investing. 

For revenue, Boralex — this year’s top ranked company — Innergex, Polaris Renewable Energy and Greenlane Renewables are four power producers that already derive 100% of their earnings from renewable energy sources. The only other “pure play” company is EcoSynthetix of Burlington, Ontario, which produces 100% organic biopolymers that can replace petroleum-based chemicals in wood panels, pulp-based products and personal care items such as hair gel. 

The sustainable investing category measures how much of their capital budgets the Best 50 companies are investing in sustainable products and services – an early indicator of the green future to come. Five on the list get top marks: Boralex, Innergex, Polaris, Greenlane and EcoSynthetix.

Best 50 companies are pouring 56.4% of their capital spend into sustainable investments compared to just 8.7% for average Canadian companies.

Several more companies cluster around 90% and above, including two telecommunications providers, BCE and SaskTel. Another big spender on sustainability is the Société de transport de Montréal, established in 1861: proof that the future doesn’t belong to just the young, but also to the restless.

Same direction, different progress

The Best 50 class of 2025 demonstrates that Canadian firms continue to take advantage of opportunities in the green economy, even though the average sustainable revenue at the ranking companies dipped somewhat to 41.3%, down from 43.1% the previous year. Looking to the future, they are now putting an average of 56.4% of their capital spend into sustainable investments – on par with 56.7% last year. By comparison, the average sustainable revenue for the 343 companies assessed in this ranking was 9.5%, and the average sustainable investment was 8.7%.

Some companies on the Best 50 are making real progress on cleaning up their supply chains. Canada Goose (#34), which has been criticized in the past for using coyote fur and sourcing down from geese raised in inhumane conditions, is among those who made the list for the first time this year. The Toronto-based producer of upscale outdoor wear achieved this feat by developing a secondary market for used clothes to reduce textile waste, eliminating “forever” chemicals from its products, embracing renewable power and abiding by the Responsible Down Standard, a third-party certification program that prohibits live-plucked feathers and incentivizes animal welfare. A company spokesperson says that Canada Goose “ceased all manufacturing with fur in 2022” and that “the decision was made to sell through existing inventory to minimize waste.” 

Similarly, Gildan Activewear (#47), the Montreal-based producer of low-cost shirts and fleece, has faced criticism for poor working conditions at its plants in low-wage countries such as Haiti and Honduras. Today Gildan’s motto is “Made with Respect,” and while the company is not off the hook with labour rights advocates, Corporate Knights considers 45% of its revenue sustainable, thanks to the manufacturer’s use of recycled materials, low-impact dyes and eco-friendly production.

“The purpose of the Best 50 is to shine a light on the large companies leading the way to a more sustainable economy,” Toby Heaps, Corporate Knights publisher and CEO, points out. “None of the companies on the list are perfect, and many have landed in hot water.” 

Regardless of rank, all companies that made the Best 50 share one trait in common, Heaps says: they’re betting on change.

Rick Spence is a business journalist and editor-at-large at Corporate Knights.

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The Kingsey Falls, Quebec–based company says its strategy is just as much about business as doing the right thing for people and the environment. Boralex president and CEO Patrick Decostre says the company’s approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) helps it diversify its shareholder base, reduce risk and attract a larger pool of investors, including impact investors.

“For us, and a lot of companies, sustainability is essentially a question of risk management,” says Decostre, who took the top job in late 2020. Since then, he’s been on a mission to accelerate the company’s growth in the wind, solar and storage sectors while optimizing its hydroelectric facilities. The company exited fossil fuels in 2021 after selling its last natural gas power plant in France. 

These efforts have paid off, helping to propel Boralex to the top spot in the Best 50, Corporate Knights’ flagship ranking of corporate citizenship in Canada. Boralex was ranked 15th last year, 21st in 2023 and 23rd in 2022.

Boralex has made several adjustments in recent years to integrate sustainability into its business strategy. “It’s the way to manage correctly all the different risks around us, and not just financial risk,” Decostre says. “We have stakeholders like customers, communities, local municipalities and states who want us to be sustainable because we’re investing for the very long term.” 

To demonstrate its commitment to achieving net-zero across its Scope 1, 2 and 3 operations, Boralex hired external experts a few years ago to assist its team in modelling greenhouse-gas-reduction scenarios. The aim was to have its targets approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a leading science-backed framework for companies to align their emission-reduction efforts with the Paris Agreement.

Boralex received its SBTi nod in August 2024, making it one of the few companies in the renewable-energy sector to earn this approval. 

Boralex focuses on various renewable-energy sources – including wind, solar, hydroelectricity and energy storage – across North America, Europe and the United Kingdom. Boralex was founded by a group of businessmen in 1982. In 1990, the Quebec-based Cascades Inc. acquired the company as part of its foray into the energy sector and commissioned a natural gas co-generation plant in Kingsey Falls. Boralex went public in 1997. Cascades sold its stake in Boralex over the years and exited the business in 2017. Today, Boralex’s largest shareholder is Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. The Kingsey Falls natural gas plant was sold in 2012, followed by the facility in France. 

Now, the company operates 103 wind farms, 13 solar energy facilities, 15 hydroelectric power stations, and two storage units with an installed capacity of 1,085 megawatts in Canada, 734 MW in the United States, 106 MW in the United Kingdom and 1,343 MW in France.

For us, and a lot of companies, sustainability is essentially a question of risk management.

— Patrick Decostre, Boralex president and CEO

The company’s entire electricity sales revenue comes from renewable-energy production. However, Boralex acknowledges that its activities are not entirely impact-free, and its projected growth may also increase its indirect emissions, primarily along its value chain, which accounts for 96% of its total greenhouse gas emissions. 

Decostre says the company is working on sustainable procurement practices and other measures to convince suppliers and partners to commit to reducing their own emissions. “We need to continue to work with the supply chain to incentivize our suppliers to have their own Scope 1 and Scope 2 targets and have innovation and develop technology and things which are better for the environment,” he says.

The company also began linking sustainability indicators, including emission reduction, female representation in management positions, and occupational health and safety, to short-term compensation schemes for senior executives in recent years. 

In its 2024 CSR report, the company stated that 36% of its board members were women, one member was from an ethnically diverse background, and one member was Indigenous. It stated that board resignations and nominations in 2024 resulted in female representation falling short of the target of 40% but that efforts are being made to address the gap when a seat becomes available. The company reported that female representation across the entire organization was 34%, up from 31% in 2021, a result of specific talent-management measures implemented in recent years.

The company’s occupational health and safety performance also improved in 2024, with a total recordable incident rate of 0.42 for the company as a whole. 

Decostre says the investments Boralex has made over the years to gain market share, while also improving its environmental, social and governance track record across the value chain, are paying off. 

Even as some companies are walking back environmental initiatives and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that have been denounced by U.S. President Donald Trump, Boralex plans to continue investing in sustainability and its targets.

To Decostre, it’s just good business. “We’re investing for the very long term, and we need to be a good citizen locally and globally,” he says.

Click here to find out what other companies made the 2025 Best 50.

Brenda Bouw is a freelance writer and editor based in Vancouver.

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Click here to find out what companies made the 2025 Best 50.

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Boralex operates 103 wind farms, 13 solar energy facilities, 15 hydroelectric power stations and two storage units. Collectively, it has an installed capacity of more than 3,260 megawatts at facilities in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Its entire electricity sales revenue comes from renewable production, and it is working toward net-zero across its value chain by 2050.

The Best 50 Corporate Citizens are identified each year from among a universe including all Canadian corporations with at least $1 billion in annual revenues. They are assessed relative to the percentage of their investments and revenues that are sustainable, and to up to 23 other metrics that reflect both global carrying capacities in areas such as carbon emissions and aspirations for greater social equity.

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