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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That hard work is often hard to see, the product of millions of Canadians and thousands of businesses quietly, persistently adopting new approaches to life and work, eschewing waste, prioritizing collaboration and generally learning to do more with less. Since 2002, Corporate Knights has recognized this work by publishing the Best 50 list of Canada’s top corporate citizens – the businesses that prize sustainability as well as commerce.

Now in its 23rd year, the Best 50 helps track how Canadian businesses are meeting the low-carbon and green-transition challenge – as well as where they’re getting stuck in the process.

You already know many of these companies – you’ve ridden their buses (Société de transport de Montréal), pocketed their coins (Royal Canadian Mint), used their phone networks (BCE, Telus and Rogers), shopped there (Canadian Tire) or bought the T-shirt (Gildan Activewear). The companies that made the Best 50 are mostly corporations with more than $1 billion in annual revenues, as well as Crown corporations, large co-ops and members of the S&P/TSX Renewable Energy and Clean Technology Index. What sets them apart is their commitment to doing business differently – they’re companies that derive significant revenue from greener products and services, invest in increasingly sustainable projects, and prioritize equity in their operations.

Crucially, the companies’ average sustainable investment (as a percentage of total investment) hit 58.9% this year, up 9% over last year’s 49.7% – that’s compared to just 8.4% for the average large Canadian corporation.

2024 Best 50 ranking table

*Indicates a tie as a result of a formula correction
**Revised rank due to a formula correction

“How a company invests its capital expenditures today is a major determinant of how sustainable its revenue will be tomorrow. The fact that we’re seeing a significant jump in sustainable investments among Best 50 companies tells us that more corporate leaders see sustainability as a business imperative,” says Michael Yow, director of corporate rankings at Corporate Knights. There’s also evidence that companies can do better by doing good. Since the inception of this list on June 1, 2002, the stock prices of publicly listed companies on the Best 50 have outperformed the S&P/TSX Composite Index by 80% (as of April 30, 2024).

Driving into first place

In first place on the list this year is a different kind of public company: Société de transport de Montréal (STM) gets 85.4% of its revenues from delivering greener public transit. Better still, Corporate Knights researchers found that 82.3% of STM’s capital investments (up from 45.8% last year) now go toward building low-carbon infrastructure – including the expansion of its Metro line and a large underground garage to support subway service expansion.

Beyond cutting carbon, STM stands out for its commitment to equity and inclusion. In an era of runaway executive compensation, its CEO earns just 5.2 times more than the company’s average worker – well below the Best 50 average of 76 times. In addition, women make up half of the company’s board of directors, and STM has committed to “universal accessibility,” striving to minimize barriers to the use of transit for all its customers – even as it maintains a personalized para-transit service.

Second-place Stantec, which calls itself “a global leader in sustainable design and engineering,” is also committed to building sustainable cities. Ranked as the world’s ninth-most-sustainable company earlier this year on Corporate Knights’ Global 100 list, Edmonton-based Stantec has built its latest three-year strategic plan on “purpose-driven growth.” To Stantec, the climate crisis is one big opportunity; it’s focusing in particular on the energy transition, coastal resilience, ecosystem restoration, smart cities and international development.

The Best 50 includes many firms in industries central to the energy transition, such as power generation and transmission (which includes a whopping 14 companies, from giants such as Hydro-Québec and Ontario’s Hydro One to renewables specialists such as Innergex – last year’s top company – and Brookfield Renewable). But the list also identifies values-based companies in many other sectors, including manufacturing (six), communications (five), banks and insurance (four), and rail transportation, engineering services and forest products (two each). More evidence that any company, in any industry, can choose a more sustainable path.

The fact that we’re seeing a significant jump in sustainable investments among Best 50 companies tells us that more corporate leaders see sustainability as a business imperative.

–Michael Yow, director of corporate rankings, Corporate Knights

This year’s Best 50 list also demonstrates that the road to the future is not perfectly straight. For instance, CEOs are still pushing the limits on executive compensation. While the average ratio of CEO pay to average employee pay dropped this year to 76:1 from 108:1 among last year’s Best 50 cohort, that stemmed mainly from unusually large decreases at just two companies compared to 2023. Our researchers report that, of the companies appearing on both years’ lists, 21 firms green-lit increases in their CEO pay ratios, and just 13 managed decreases.

In another sign of fitful progress, executive gender diversity improved to just 28.4% this year, versus 26.8% last year. But while there are still more CEOs named Michael than there are female CEOs in Canada, 12% of Best 50 companies are led by women. Especially making their presence felt are Marie-Claude Léonard, a 20-year STM veteran who leads the top firm on the list; Tracy Robinson, appointed CEO of Canadian National Railway in 2022, who is the first Canadian woman to run a national railroad; Marie Lemay, who heads the most-improved organization, the Royal Canadian Mint; and Mairead Lavery, who runs Export Development Canada, the company with the lowest ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay.

Climate commitments legend

1.5°C: Business Ambition for 1.5C

SBTi: Science Based Targets initiative

FCCA: Fashion Charter for Climate Action

NZAM: Net-Zero Asset Managers Initiative

NZAO: Net-Zero Asset Owners Alliance

NZBA: Net-Zero Banking Alliance

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Click here to find out what companies made the 2024 list of Canada’s Best 50 corporate citizens.

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Yet in the transit-friendly annals of Montreal mobility, STM last year was overshadowed by a fresh-faced regional counterpart, the very new light-rail operator known as Réseau express métropolitain (REM). Last summer, VIPs gathered for the ribbon cutting of the first leg of REM’s shiny new LRT network, which is operated by a public–private partnership, will cost $8 billion and will eventually connect the island with its mainland suburbs. REM had barely carried its first passengers before it made international news, thanks to per-kilometre construction costs that came in dramatically lower than most comparable transit ventures.(REM has also faced criticism for construction delays and missed deadlines.)

However, STM’s accomplishments for 2023, though far less sexy, are much more salient in terms of Montreal’s push to slash emissions. The agency’s ridership finally broke free of the post-pandemic/work-from-home doldrums, reaching 82% of its pre-2020 levels – the third highest for all North American transit operators and well ahead of rivals like the Toronto Transit Commission (73%) and New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (65%). Even more remarkably, STM’s 2023 ridership jumped by 21% from 2022, reaching almost 230 million trips.

“Our vision is to be a leader in sustainable mobility,” says CEO Marie-Claude Léonard, who’s been with the agency 21 years and CEO since 2022. “This leads us to go even further in integrating sustainable development at the heart of all our organization’s activities. Our ambition is that each of our actions and decisions take into account the impacts on human life, the planet and economic sustainability.”

So here’s the question: what exactly makes a transit agency sustainable, above and beyond its raison d’être as well as the convenient fact that Quebec’s electrical grid is almost entirely green? As it turns out, STM – which tops this year’s Corporate Knights Best 50 ranking – has several answers to what may seem like an obvious question.

Take, for example, its bus fleet. As with many municipal transit operators, those vehicles were, once upon a time, entirely diesel, meaning they spewed fumes, particles and carbon into the city’s air. But STM has moved quite aggressively to replace its end-of-life diesel buses with hybrids and electrics. Today, 42% of its buses fall into one of those two categories, and the agency is aiming to have an entirely electric fleet by 2040 (i.e., no more hybrids). The plan is to house them all in a vast underground garage (albeit one that has gone way overbudget).

NYC’s MTA, by contrast, is still fiddling around with a hydrogen fuel cell bus pilot, while the TTC, which has been running hybrid and some electric buses for several years, is bogged down with supply chain issues as it tries to transition its fleet.

Another: the organization, like most others these days, has put out all sorts of ambitious long-term strategic plans that aim to cut carbon. But STM has made sure its senior management team has skin in the game. “The performance contracts of our managers, executive committee and CEO include targets related to service offering, health and safety, and employee mobilization, all of which contribute to maximizing the benefits of public transit,” it says.

What’s going on here is that STM has focused on driving ridership growth, a goal that transit aficionados love but which requires more effort from politicians, who love to announce big-ticket expansion projects and then turn up at the VIP events when they open.

It’s true that STM has a big project on the books: a five-station extension of the Metro network. But the agency is intent on rebuilding all that ridership lost during and after the pandemic, which is tough sledding, as many other cities have discovered. (Its capacity to build out the subway network further is sharply limited by funding freezes imposed by the provincial government, as well as competition from REM’s light-rail network.)

Our ambition is that each of our actions and decisions take into account the impacts on human life, the planet and economic sustainability.

—CEO Marie-Claude Léonard

Part of its fleet transition strategy, for instance, is intended to provide riders with the smoother and quieter rides that e-buses deliver. “The fact that they emit fewer GHGs will attract new customers that are looking for even more sustainable ways to commute,” the agency says.

STM is also pushing to steadily expand the network of bus priority routes – that is, those with bus-only lanes and traffic lights programmed to give buses a head start. “In 2023,” according to an agency spokesperson, “34% of bus trips made use of reserved lanes and 39% made use of priority traffic lights.” Again, the goal is to get riders to their destinations as quickly and conveniently as possible – an approach that is known to drive up ridership numbers (and thus reduce the use of carbon-emitting private vehicles).

The agency moved to add security on its vehicles and in its stations following a threefold jump in complaints from riders about the presence of homeless or intoxicated people and open substance abuse. While STM is hardly unique in contending with this particular set of rider gripes – symptomatic of the housing affordability crisis that afflicts so many big cities now, as well as the opioid epidemic – the agency tries to cast its response as a way of building loyalty and increasing, or at least not losing, ridership.

Whatever Léonard and STM’s 11,000-plus employees are doing, it seems to be working. Unlike the inhabitants of many other big cities, Montrealers appear to have gotten back into the transit habit, which surely comes as close to the definition of sustainability as it gets these days.

Click here to find out what other companies made the 2024 Best 50.

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In the past few years, energy economics have flipped to the point where renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels. Companies have also discovered that happy, healthy employees, customers and communities create healthier markets – and happier shareholders.

More than ever, Canadian companies are getting this message. Since 2002, Corporate Knights’ ranking of Canada’s Best 50 Corporate Citizens has been tracing public and private companies as well as Crown corporations with more than $1 billion in revenues. Our researchers probe 25 key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess how firms manage their resources, employees and finances in comparison to their peer group, with 50% of each company’s score tied to the percentage of their revenue and investments that qualify as sustainable. For the Best 50, that percentage keeps climbing.

Tellingly, the 2023 list is dominated by renewable-energy players high in sustainable revenue. Topping the Best 50 this year (up from second place in 2022 and 20th in 2021) is a pure-play clean energy company: Innergex Renewable Energy. The Longueuil, Quebec–based renewable-power producer operates 40 hydroelectric facilities, 35 wind farms, 11 solar farms and one energy-storage facility in Canada, the U.S., France and now Chile. It has 11 more projects in the works (see page 52 for profile). In fact, Innergex is the only pure-play renewable-energy company on the Best 50 (giving it 100% sustainable revenue). The company has also continually improved on its disclosure of environmental indicators, which helped it climb to the top of the ranking.

In second place this year (up from third in 2022 and 14th in 2021) is Brookfield Renewable Partners, the renewable-energy platform of Brookfield Corporation, the former Brascan empire (which got its start providing electricity in Brazil). With a market cap of $20.2 billion, more than seven times Innergex’s $2.7 billion, Brookfield Renewable produces 25,400 megawatts of electricity through hydro, wind and solar facilities in Canada, the U.S., Colombia, Brazil, Europe and Asia. The company’s latest annual report says it’s also focusing on investing in “emerging transition asset classes” such as carbon capture and storage, recycling and biogas, “where our initial investment positions us for potential future large-scale decarbonization investment.”

In third place is Hydro-Québec, which was the top company in 2022, 2021 and 2018. While the company largely maintained its sustainable revenue from last year, competition is growing fiercer as more renewable-energy companies jump ahead.

The “most improved” company on the list is Canadian National Railway. It climbed from 35th place to seventh this year thanks to a notable increase in investments mainly aimed at rail network safety and integrity, as well as track infrastructure network resiliency and information technology initiatives. These investments totalled $2.5 billion, or 85% of CN’s total investments, in 2021.

Edmonton engineering firm Stantec scored highest on the Best 50 when it came to the percentage of its executives’ variable pay linked to sustainability targets. With 26,000 employees and 350 offices on six continents, CEO Gord Johnston says the fast-growing company has been focused on building better communities for more than a decade. Initially, “community” meant including parks or public artworks in urban projects or adding water parks to water treatment plants. But over time it came to encompass designing buildings for mental health, promoting accessibility standards far beyond those of local building codes, and partnering with Indigenous communities to stimulate economic development. Johnston says that “we scaled community” to include not just cities, but whole countries, the world and the climate.

How does your company or employer compare to the Best 50?

Here are a few indicators to consider. The average percentage of sustainable revenues achieved by 2023 Best 50 companies is 46.3%, up from 36.8% in 2022, and nearly 10 times the 5% earned by the average large Canadian company (ALCC). They’re sinking more investment money into the green economy, too: the percentage of total investment dollars put toward sustainable investments is just shy of 50% for this year’s Best 50, up from 33.8% in 2022 – and eight times greater than the ALCC’s 6%. Some 78% of Best 50 companies link executive pay to sustainability goals, versus just 40% of other companies.

On the diversity front, the numbers are still far from where they need to be, but the average Best 50 firm has achieved executive gender diversity of 26.8%, versus 21% for the ALCC. The boards of directors of Best 50 companies have a gender diversity rate of 39.3%, versus 31% for the ALCC.Companies are even further behind when it comes to hiring racially diverse leadership.Though board racial diversity among Best 50 companies improved slightly from 8.8% last year to 11.7% this year, executive racial diversity dropped from 12% to 10.6% this year.

Best 50 bring home higher returns

Overall, the data consistently show that shares of the Best 50 outperform their “less-best” industry peers. Corporate Knights researchers compared the stock performance of the public companies on the 2023 Best 50 versus that of the S&P/TSX Composite Index. Since 2002 (the year we published our first Best 50 list), Best 50 companies have rewarded their shareholders with 128% higher returns than the overall composite index. It’s evidence that the “triple bottom line” (profit, people and planet) doesn’t compromise the single bottom line – but expands it.

2023 Best 50 ranking table

*Indicates a tie as a result of a formula correction
**Revised rank due to a formula correction

Winding road to sustainability

But for billion-dollar corporations in particular, sustainability is a journey, and progress is rarely predictable. Rogers’ (no. 29) recent takeover of Shaw Communications, for instance, has been roundly criticized for reducing competition in Canada’s telecom industry. (And Rogers’ decision to pay CEO Tony Staffieri $31.5 million during his first year pretty much blows up the company’s CEO-to-employee pay gap). Rogers’ arch-rival, Telus (no. 10), has been embroiled in a recent labour dispute that left its unions bristling. And Teck Resources (no. 32) has recently been in the news for its controversial plan to splinter off its carbon-heavy coal mines, which have become an ESG liability for investors. Though the Vancouver-headquartered company has installed $1.2 billion worth of water treatment technology in the Elk Valley, “chronic toxicity impacts” persist in Elk Valley waters, according to the B.C. government.

Nonetheless, all three of these companies earned their Best 50 rankings. Teck scored highly in relation to its peers in part because 6.8% of its revenue comes from recycled minerals and minerals needed for the low-carbon transition. Rogers secured the 29th position because 55% of its investments involve improving telecommunications infrastructure, a key component of the energy transition. Rogers also earned points for its energy-efficient data centres and its refurbishing and recycling of used devices. Telus earned 10th spot, as it scored highly against its peers on sustainable revenue and sustainable investment as well as on all four diversity metrics. No company makes the right decision every time. But two decades into the Best 50, the ranking proves that a large number of Canadian companies are willing to evolve and invest in a cleaner, more equitable future.

The real bottom line is that business and the planet constitute a closed ecosystem – in this fragile biosphere the smartest companies know that putting sustainability first is the ultimate key to lasting success.

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

Climate commitments legend

1.5°C: Business Ambition for 1.5C

SBTi: Science Based Targets initiative

FCCA: Fashion Charter for Climate Action

NZAM: Net-Zero Asset Managers Initiative

NZAO: Net-Zero Asset Owners Alliance

NZBA: Net-Zero Banking Alliance

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Now the Quebec government has announced that wind energy will become a larger piece of the province’s energy puzzle – as it will for the rest of the planet. One Longueuil-based company, betting big on wind and solar, is well positioned to fill the rising demand, at home and abroad. And that company has risen to the top of Corporate Knights’ 2023 ranking of Canada’s Best 50 Corporate Citizens. 

Three decades of renewable energy

For more than 30 years, Innergex Renewable Energy has developed, owned and operated clean electricity facilities in Quebec. The company was founded in 1990 after the provincial government called for private sector bids to develop small hydro-generation facilities. A decade later, Innergex began scouting out locations for wind turbines in the Gaspé region, partnering with TransCanada Corporation (now TC Energy) on its first wind energy bid.  

Having acquired B.C.’s Alterra Power Corporation in 2018 and Chile’s Energía Llaima in 2023, Innergex is now the largest independent renewable-energy company in both Canada and Chile, with expansion plans in the U.S. and France. Today, the $870.5-million company has a gross installed capacity of 4,244 megawatts (MW) of wind, solar and hydro – that’s more installed renewable capacity than the entire province of Ontario. And it plans to double that by 2025.

The ambitious energy transition plans of both the U.S. and Canada will require a lot of new clean energy. The U.S. government has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 52% by 2030 from 2005 levels, and Canada is aiming for a 40 to 45% reduction. Innergex CEO Michel Letellier plans to take advantage of these greening trade winds. 

“There are few gains to be expected from hydroelectricity,” says Letellier at his Longueuil office on the South Shore of Montreal. Although a third of its facilities rely on hydroelectricity, Innergex plans for a diversified future. “The best sites for dams are occupied. And we won’t get more than 1.5%, maybe 2%, additional output from [existing hydro facilities]. In Quebec, wind power is the most promising.” 

Decarbonization, energy security and independence will translate into growth for renewable-energy producers, confirms Anne Perreault, senior portfolio manager at Desjardins Global Asset Management. “Investors like that Innergex is diversified [solar, wind, hydro and batteries] and operates in several countries. But they have questions about financing growth. Currently, 84% of the credit line is used. So partnerships will need to be formed.”

A solid partner: Hydro-Québec

Since February 2020, Innergex has had a solid partner: Hydro-Québec. The Crown corporation (which topped the Best 50 ranking three of the last four years) paid $661 million in exchange for a 19.9% stake and committed to investing $500 million in joint projects. “The absence of reference shareholders made us too vulnerable to predators. We needed a shareholder who, without necessarily holding a majority stake in the capital of a company, has a stake large enough to influence its decisions,” says Letellier. “Every public company wants to maximize shareholder value. However, in our industry, value is not measured per quarter. We look at the long term. Hydro-Québec protects us from stormy weather.” 

So far, this strategic alliance has resulted in one joint venture: acquiring the 60 MW Curtis Palmer portfolio of run-of-river hydroelectric plants in New York State. “We definitely want to establish other partnerships with Hydro-Québec, both in the U.S. and Quebec,” Letellier says.

On both sides of the U.S.-Canada border the future looks bright: governments are adopting policies and tax credits to encourage the rapid deployment of renewable-energy projects. Through the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and budget measures announced in Canada, governments have trumpeted new incentives for renewables. But tax credits are only part of the equation to transition to renewable energy; transmission lines are critical to move the electricity generated to where it’s in demand. 

“Our biggest challenge, in Canada and the U.S., is the interconnectedness of projects. All the developers aim for the same locations, creating bottlenecks. We desperately need more pipes,” says Letellier, referring to the need for more transition lines. The U.S. Midwest, for example, could be a Klondike for solar and wind power, but the majority of potential customers are in urban areas on the coasts. 

No renewable-energy company will reach its targets without greater distribution capacity, Letellier explains. “Who will build those new transmission lines? Public utility companies? Private sector? This complex ownership structure and construction costs explain the lack of lines.” 

Agreements with 31 Indigenous communities

Also critical to renewable-energy projects are community relationships. Innergex prides itself on its close ties with the communities that live near its projects. Things have changed since the big hydro projects of the 1970s, says Fred Vicaire, CEO of Mi’gmawei Mawiomi Business Corporation, Innergex’s Indigenous partner in Mesgi’g Ugju’s’n wind farm, in Gaspésie. “For many decades, we were just a box to check for companies to say, ‘We can do the project, we consulted with First Nations, and we will give them some royalties.’ We don’t want royalties from companies installing infrastructure in our territory. We want to own the projects 50/50 and get operating revenue from them.” 

The Mesgi’g Ugju’s’n (MU) wind farm, located on public land in the regional county municipality of Avignon in Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula, is indeed a 50/50 partnership between the three Mi’gmaq communities (Gesgapegiag, Gespeg and Listuguj) and Innergex. The first phase of MU is a 150 MW project. The second phase will add 102 MW.

Innergex has signed agreements with 31 Indigenous communities. “They go beyond financial terms,” says Vicaire. “These agreements take into account our way of life, including respect for hunting territories and lands used for traditional medicinal plants, for example.” 

There are agreements, and there are agreements, cautions the Innergex CEO. “Unfortunately, over the years, too many renewable-energy companies have lacked transparency, negotiating with two different financial models: one designed for First Nations, showing no profitability, and one for the board and shareholders, which was profitable. An unequal relationship dating back to the fur trade era.” 

“Since the early days, Innergex has believed in the three Ps: people, planet, profit,” he adds. “Every company aims for a return, but we’ve always believed it should be reasonable and never at the expense of the other two Ps.” 

Partnerships can be challenging, especially when the partners don’t have access to the same equity. For the first phase of the MU wind farm, Innergex brought in more equity, says Vicaire. But the second phase “is different,” he says. “We have access to the First Nations Finance Authority. It finances projects at rates below prime, as municipalities would for large infrastructure projects.” 

The green and the greening

Innergex’s relationships with Indigenous communities contribute to a strong “S” in the company’s ESG ratings. They also helped secure its spot at the top of the Best 50 ranking. As a pure-play renewable-energy business, the company scored top marks on sustainable revenue and sustainable investment, which were both at 100%. It also scored in the top quartile on energy productivity and carbon productivity.

Like Premier Legault, Letellier sees batteries in his future. He says that the next frontier for renewables is energy storage – keeping electricity flowing when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. Becoming an expert in deploying energy-storage technologies is part of Innergex’s strategic plan for 2020 to 2025. One battery project is already operational near the Yonne wind farm in France. Two others are under development in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. 

“We need all the help we can get to manage consumption,” Letellier says. “And it is clear that one day not so far away, every house will have its battery.”

Diane Bérard is an independent-solutions journalist based in Quebec. 

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