Three hydroelectric companies in Canada were named in the top three spots on the Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada list for 2020.
Hydro-Quebec was No. 1, Innergex Renewable Energy No. 2 and Brookfield Renewable Partners No. 3.
Each company was very close in terms of the percent of “clean” revenue generated, with Hydro-Quebec at 98.5%, Innergex at 100% and Brookfield at 99.3%.
As of December 2020, Hydro-Quebec had a fleet of over 60 hydroelectric generating stations with a total capacity of 36,700 MW. Innergex manages a large of 79 generating facilities with a net installed capacity of 3,101 MW (gross installed capacity of 3,801 MW), of which 40 are hydroelectric plants, 32 wind farms and seven solar parks. Brookfield Renewable’s portfolio consists of hydroelectric, wind, solar and storage facilities and totals about 21,000 MW of installed capacity.
However, Corporate Knights noted that while greenhouse gas emissions is the measure on which it has put the most emphasis, national emissions have barely budged over the past 20 years and in fact have increased 2% from 2002 to 2019 (the most recent base year before the COVID-19 pandemic). At the same time, this is a significantly better situation than would have been the case if emissions had grown at the same pace in the past 20 years as they did in the 1990s. Regardless, to achieve Canada’s 2030 goal of cutting emissions roughly in half by 2030, the country will need to reduce emissions 15 times faster than is happening at the moment.
Of the three, Hydro-Quebec stood out for its percentage of non-male board directors, with 68.8%. The other two were below 28%. Corporate Knights said, “the glass ceilings in Canada’s corporate boardrooms have been breached.” They reported that non-male members make up almost one-third of directors, double their share in 2002. However, the country is on track for 40% of directors to be non-male by 2030, while the government of Canada has issued a 50% challenge to reach board gender diversity by 2030.
In addition, racial diversity on large corporate boards has grown to 9% of members being non-white, compared with 4% in 2011. This number still needs to double for it to more fairly reflect Canada’s total population mosaic, Corporate Knights said, which is 27% racially diverse, including Indigenous peoples, as of the most recent census.
On the pay gap topic, the gap between the CEOs on this list and their average worker is less than half that of run-of-the-mill big business, Corporate Knights said.
Overall measures of the 2022 Best 50 Corporate Citizens are:
CEO-average worker pay ratio is 74:1, board gender diversity if 36.7%, executive gender diversity is 26.6%, executive racial diversity is 12%, cash taxes paid is 11.6% of EBITDA, clean revenue is 36.8%, clean investment is 33.8% and carbon productivity (which measures how much revenue a company generates per tonne of emissions) is C$1,517,909 (US$1,179,086).
Corporate Knights launched its “quest for a more humane form of capitalism, placing people and the planet ahead of profits” 20 years ago.