Canada’s Greenest Employers announced

TORONTO—A new breed of employers, in both the private and public sectors, are creating remarkable workplaces that minimize the environmental impact of their operations, and are attracting a new generation of talented employees and customers.

That’s the message from this year’s winners of the Canada’s Greenest Employers competition, announced this morning by the editors of the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project at Mediacorp Canada Inc.

“In the early years of the competition, environmental best practices were largely employee-led and community based,” says Richard Yerema, Managing Editor of the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project. “Today, the best employers are improving many of those early projects and have established formal initiatives and long-term commitments to help mitigate the harmful impacts of their operations.”

Canada’s Greenest Employers recognizes employers that create a culture of environmental awareness. Winning employers, selected by the editors of Canada’s Top 100 Employers, are evaluated using four main criteria: (1) unique environmental initiatives or programs they have developed; (2) whether they have been successful in reducing their own environmental footprint; (3) whether their employees are involved in these programs and contribute unique skills; and (4) whether their environmental initiatives have become linked to the employer’s public identity, attracting new employees or customers.

Here are a few examples of how this year’s winners are leading environmental changes in their workplaces and beyond:

• Employees at Vancouver-based Mountain Equipment Co-Op / MEC conduct ‘dumpsters dives’ each year to look for new ways to reduce waste — the retailer was one of the pioneers in eliminating single-use shopping bags in 2008 and, two years later, introduced a “sushi-roll” packaging technique for MEC-branded gear, an improvement that eliminated the use of approximately 140 tons of plastic packaging.
• Along with installing 1.4MW of solar generating capacity on its buildings, the City of Markham hosts an annual “Battle of the Buildings” competition to challenge employees across the city to reduce electricity consumption.
• Telecommunications giant Bell Canada added over 40 electric vehicle charging stations for employees who need to plug-in at work, partnering with Add Énergie and the Québec government to install the charging stations across the province.
• Hydro Ottawa manages a unique student apprenticeship program that sees summer students make recommendations to senior staff on improving environmental sustainability – past recommendations include establishing an employee ‘Green Team’ and a mobile app that lets Hydro Ottawa customers pay their monthly bill online.

Canada’s Greenest Employers 2018 Winners:

Aramark Canada Ltd., Toronto ON
Assiniboine Credit Union Limited, Winnipeg MB
BC Housing Management Commission, Burnaby BC
BC Hydro, Vancouver BC
Bell Canada, Verdun QC
BlackBerry Limited, Waterloo ON
Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited, Toronto ON
Capital Regional District / CRD, Victoria BC
Co-operators Group Ltd., The, Guelph ON
Dentons Canada LLP, Vancouver BC
Desjardins Group / Mouvement des caisses Desjardins, Lévis QC
DIALOG, Calgary AB
Diamond Schmitt Architects Inc., Toronto ON
Durham College of Applied Arts and Technology, Oshawa ON
EfficiencyOne, Dartmouth NS
EllisDon Corporation, Mississauga ON
Emterra Group, Burlington ON
Farm Mutual Re, Cambridge ON
Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited, Oakville ON
General Motors of Canada Company, Oshawa ON
Griffith Foods Ltd., Toronto ON
Hatch Ltd., Mississauga ON
Hemmera, an Ausenco Company, Burnaby BC
Home Depot of Canada Inc., Toronto ON
HP Canada Co., Mississauga ON
Humber College, Toronto ON
Hydro Ottawa, Ottawa ON
IKEA Canada LP, Burlington ON
Ivanhoé Cambridge Inc., Montréal QC
Keilhauer Ltd., Toronto ON
KPMG LLP, Toronto ON
Kwantlen Polytechnic University / KPU, Surrey BC
Labatt Brewing Company Limited, Toronto ON
LoyaltyOne, Co., Toronto ON
Manitoba Hydro, Winnipeg MB
Markham, City of, Markham ON
Matrix Solutions Inc., Calgary AB
McGill University, Montréal QC
Metrolinx, Toronto ON
Mohawk College, Hamilton ON
Mountain Equipment Co-op, Vancouver BC
Nature’s Path Foods, Inc., Richmond BC
Ocean Wise Conservation Association, Vancouver BC
Ontario Public Service / OPS, Toronto ON
Perkins+Will Canada Architects Co., Vancouver BC
Printing House Ltd., The / TPH, Toronto ON
Red River College, Winnipeg MB
Reliable Controls Corporation, Victoria BC
Reunion Island Coffee Ltd., Oakville ON
Rogers Communications Inc., Toronto ON
Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto ON
SaskTel, Regina SK
Sheridan Nurseries Limited, Georgetown ON
Siemens Canada Limited, Oakville ON
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto ON
Symcor Inc., Mississauga ON
TD Bank Group, Toronto ON
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. / TMMC, Cambridge ON
TransLink (South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority), New Westminster BC
UBC / University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC
University of Alberta, Edmonton AB
University of Northern British Columbia / UNBC, Prince George BC
University of Toronto, Toronto ON
University of Victoria, Victoria BC
Vancouver City Savings Credit Union, Vancouver BC
Vancouver, City of, Vancouver BC
Veridian Corporation, Ajax ON
Whistler Blackcomb, Whistler BC
YMCA of Greater Toronto, Toronto ON
York University, North York ON