Corporate Knights

History

Corporate Knights Inc. was co-founded in 2002 by Toby A. A. Heaps and Paul Fengler. Fengler was an International Relations and Russian Language graduate, and Heaps majored in Economics and International Development. The pair created the magazine as a "halfway house between Adbusters and Forbes", according to Heaps.

The magazine was first published in the wake of the accounting scandals at Enron and WorldCom with the objective of holding companies more accountable while recognizing that "power is where the money is, and if you want to make social change, it’s through business." Heaps has made clear since the magazine was founded that there's no pretending that corporations are saints. "There are no Mother Teresas here. But these are the best we've got." As such, two of the magazine's major goals has been to publicize positive business practices and rank the sustainability performance of companies.

CK has expanded both its reach and research over the past decade.

CK Media

Corporate Knights magazine is a business and society publication focused on how companies, markets and governments are advancing social and environmental sustainability worldwide. Calling itself "the magazine for clean capitalism", it highlights and analyses trends around sustainable corporate practices and investment products. In 2012, an overhaul of the magazine's content and design was conducted. On June 6, 2013, the National Magazine Awards Foundation named Corporate Knights "Magazine of the Year". The publication was also nominated for having Best Feature Package and Best Artistic Package in 2012.

There are approximately 110,000 copies of Corporate Knights magazine distributed quarterly through the Washington Post and Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. The magazine is also direct-mailed to corporate and political decision makers worldwide. Its largest presence is in North America and Europe. A digital version was launched in spring 2012 through iTunes in partnership with e-publisher PixelMags, and another 6,000 digital copies are distributed through the Globe and Mail's Globe2Go e-paper delivery service.

CK Media also produces an e-newsletter and is active on social media. In 2013, the magazine launched a mobile app called CK Ranker that lets any company rank its sustainability performance and compare itself against industry peers. The magazine published its November (Winter 2013) issue on paper made from 60 per cent wheat straw, a first in North America, part of a partnership with Prairie Paper Ventures, a company co-founded by actor Woody Harrelson, who appears on the issue's cover.

Corporate Knights Research

The Corporate Knights research division produces corporate rankings, research reports and financial product ratings based on corporate sustainability performance. A significant portion of this research is used in the rankings and reports published in Corporate Knights magazine.

Reports and rankings

Corporate Knights magazine issues annual rankings, special reports and annual awards for companies. Some of which are listed below (date indicates the year each began):

Annual Rankings

In 2005, CK started the first annual list of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations. This annual ranking is a comprehensive data driven analysis of the world's largest public firms. It has been recognized as a leader in transparency and industry best practices for sustainability rankings, according to SustainAbility’s Rate the Raters project. The Global 100 seeks to mainstream sustainability in the business community to demonstrate that large, successful companies in a range of industries can be fiscally responsible, financially successful and focused on sustainability.

Since 2001, CK has published the annual list of Canada’s top corporate citizens. Companies are transparently ranked on their relative carbon, water, waste and energy impacts as well as citizenship indicators including pension fund quality, board diversity, ratio of CEO-pay to lowest paid worker, and tax dollar generation, as well as sector specific indicators such as renewable energy investments (for financial companies) and respect for human rights (for resource extraction companies).

Corporate Knights began publishing a special report on the cleantech sector in 2006, when it created its Cleantech 10 and Next 10 lists of established and up-and-coming Canadian clean technology companies. A Cleantech 10 list of U.S. companies was also created in 2012 in partnership with the Cleantech Group. In 2013 the magazine shifted gears by focusing its coverage on the Cleantech Group's Cleantech 100 list of global cleantech leaders, part of an effort to better represent its North American (and global) readership.

The magazine created its annual sustainability ranking of Canadian MBA schools in 2003. Called Knight Schools, the special section periodically ranked engineering and other professional schools over the years. In 2013, a decision was made to expand the ranking beyond Canada.

Awards of Distinction

This was a one-of award. In 2006, Corporate Knights solicited the input of prominent Canadians, including Elizabeth May, Maude Barlow, Sheila Copps and Monte Hummel, to rank the environmental impact of Canadian Prime Ministers.

Selected as having accomplished the most to improve Canada's environment, Brian Mulroney was honoured at an Earth Week Gala dinner in Ottawa as the 'Greenest PM in Canadian History'. The event brought together former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Quebec Premier Jean Charest, television host Ben Mulroney, US Ambassador David Wilkins and other dignitaries to recognize Mulroney's positive environmental impact. His government established the Acid Rain Accord, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the Great Lakes Action Plan, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and ratified the Montreal Protocol.

Canadian comedian Rick Mercer provided commentary throughout the evening, which was broadcast live on national television.

Events

Global 100 Dinners

At the annual World Economic Forum in Switzerland, CK hosts the Global 100 Davos Dinner and announces the year’s most sustainable companies. Each year the event has had a theme.

Best 50 Gala

The Annual Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada are announced each summer at a gala in Toronto. Awards of distinction are also presented at this event.

Speakers at Corporate Knights events:

Senior Government Representatives

Corporate & Society Leaders

Notable CK Interviewees

Public policy

Corporate Knights also undertakes initiatives to influence public policy, including a 2006 $100 billion carbon pricing plan for Canada to reach its Kyoto target, convening the first Energy Ministers' meeting on building a transcanadian grid for transporting green electricity from where it is generated to where it is needed, and the Option 13 initiative to make trade implications a central consideration of the Copenhagen meeting in November–December 2009.

In 2007 CK helped put together a working group to explore a Green Power Corridor summit.

Option13 was an 2008 initiative intended to promote three choices for 2013 in the face of climate change. Ralph Nader and CK’s Toby Heaps published an article about it in the Wall Street Journal.

In 2010 CK supported Bill C-300 and testimony was given by Toby Heaps to support the business case for ethical mining.

Key people

Current masthead

Current research staff

Corporate

Notable contributors