2015 Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada Ranking announced

TORONTO, June 3, 2015 /CNW/ - Corporate Knights today released its Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada list, the definitive annual ranking of Canada's top corporate citizens.

The ranking, which is in its 14th year, transparently measures a diverse range of Canadian enterprises on a suite of 12 sustainability metrics, including greenhouse gas productivity, percentage of taxes paid, health and safety performance and pension fund quality. To ensure "apples to apples" comparisons, companies are ranked exclusively against their industry peers, and scored on a 0-100% scale using only those metrics that are widely disclosed in their respective industries.

The Best Corporate Citizen for 2015 is the iconic coffee retailer Tim Hortons. It performed solidly across the board, with strong showings on waste recycling, water conservation and energy efficiency.

"We applaud Timmys for topping the list, and are hopeful that its sustainability know-how will paint a larger canvass in its new partnership with Burger King," says Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights.

The Corporate Knights Best 50 methodology for grading corporate citizenship, developed with financial support from Industry Canada, has helped clarify and raise the rigour and professionalism of what it means to be a good corporate citizen.

"Companies named to the Best 50 represent the Canadian standard for who is doing the best job of squeezing productivity out of our valuable resources while respecting the social contract with safe workplaces, paying their fair share of wages and taxes and ensuring leadership structures that reflect the rich diversity of our society," added Heaps.

An overview of the methodology for the Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada ranking is available at www.corporateknights.com/Best50_2014 and in the Best 50 2015 issue (Vol. 14.3) of Corporate Knights magazine, found in the Globe and Mail on June 4.

To track progress, Corporate Knights compared the performance of the S&P/TSX 60 companies on five of the Best 50 indicators over the past three years. There is good news on the executive compensation front, but other challenges remain:

• Two out of three companies now link part of their executive pay to sustainability performance;
• The CEO-to-average-worker-pay ratios came down by 12.3 per cent over the past three years. The average CEO now makes 106 times more than the average worker.
• On the other side of the ledger, the total annual greenhouse gas emissions of the S&P/TSX 60 grew by 13.8 per cent over the past three years and now total over 201 million tonnes;
• In regards to taxes, S&P/TSX 60 companies are now paying seven per cent less tax than three years ago. The average company five-year tax rate, calculated as the cash tax paid divided by EBITDA, is now just 13 per cent;
• On the board diversity front, females now make up 18 per cent of directors, moving up at the pace of about one per cent a year. At this rate, it will take until 2047 before we have gender parity in the boardroom.

TSX 60 Members

Fiscal year	Total GHGs (tonnes)	% Tax Paid (5 yr avg)	Sustainability Executive Paylink	CEO-Worker Pay Ratio	% Female Directors
2013	201,581,598	13%	40/60 firms	106	18%
2012	191,803,038	16%	31/60 firms	129	17%
2011	177,408,764	20%	32/60 firms	121	16%

The 2015 Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada, Distribution by Province

Province	2015	2014
Ontario	19	17
Alberta	13	14
Quebec	10	10
BC	6	7
Manitoba	0	1
Saskatchewan	2	1

The 2015 Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada

Rank 2015	Rank 2014	Company name	GICS Industry
1	4	Tim Hortons	Hotels Restaurants & Leisure
2	2	Vancouver City Savings Credit Union	Banks
3	1	Mountain Equipment Co-op	Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods
4	6	Teck Resources	Metals & Mining
5	28	TELUS	Diversified Telecommunication
6	19	Enbridge	Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels
7	5	Mouvement des Caisses Desjardins	Banks
8	3	Bombardier	Aerospace & Defense
9	7	Co-operators Group	Insurance
10	10	Cenovus Energy	Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels
11	22	Sun Life Financial	Insurance
12	9	Toronto-Dominion Bank	Banks
13	34	Hydro-Québec	Electric Utilities
14	39	Stantec	Professional Services
15	29	Celestica	Electronic Equip., Instruments
16	13	HSBC Bank Canada	Banks
17	38	TMX Group	Diversified Financial Services
18	11	Suncor Energy	Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels
19	23	Bank of Montreal	Banks
20	Not shortlisted*	Agrium	Chemicals
21	17	BCE	Diversified Telecommunication
22	24	Enmax	Multi-Utilities
23	14	Capital Power	Independent Power and Renewables
24	43	WestJet Airlines	Airlines
25	59	Pacific Rubiales Energy	Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels
26	27	Kinross Gold	Metals & Mining
27	54	Cameco	Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels
28	77	Manulife Financial	Insurance
29	36	Canadian Tire	Multiline Retail
30	21	Encana	Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels
31	45	Catalyst Paper	Paper & Forest Products
32	8	Husky Energy	Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels
33	20	Canadian National Railway	Road & Rail
34	26	Domtar	Paper & Forest Products
35	16	Intact Financial	Insurance
36	48	Canadian Pacific Railway	Road & Rail
37	30	Cascades	Containers & Packaging
38	31	Ontario Power Generation	Electric Utilities
39	32	Yamana Gold	Metals & Mining
40	18	Transat AT	Hotels Restaurants & Leisure
41	61	Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce	Banks
42	41	Transcontinental	Commercial Services & Supplies
43	12	Royal Bank of Canada	Banks
44	37	Rogers Communications	Wireless Telecommunication Services
45	40	TransCanada	Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels
46	33	Bank of Nova Scotia	Banks
47	49	Federated Co-operatives	Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels
48	74	National Bank of Canada	Banks
49	35	TransAlta	Independent Power and Renewables
50	106	Hudson's Bay	Multiline Retail

*Companies who score in the bottom quartile on the Sanctions score are not shortlisted.

SOURCE Corporate Knights Inc.

Image with caption: "The Summer 2015 issue of Corporate Knights features our annual Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada ranking, and special reports on solar energy and city resilience. Also find profiles of Canada's Greenest Chief Executive and Canada's Greenest Mayor. (CNW Group/Corporate Knights Inc.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150603_C6616_PHOTO_EN_17446.jpg

Image with caption: "The Summer 2015 issue of Corporate Knights features our annual Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada ranking, and special reports on solar energy and city resilience. Also find profiles of Canada's Greenest Chief Executive and Canada's Greenest Mayor. (CNW Group/Corporate Knights Inc.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150603_C6616_PHOTO_EN_17447.jpg

For further information: Toby Heaps, CEO, Corporate Knights, [email protected], 416-274-1432; Michael Yow, Director of Research, Corporate Knights Capital, [email protected], 416-203-4674

Related Links

http://www.corporateknights.ca