The Corporate Knights Summer 2025 issue explores how co-operatives are solving some of Canada’s most pressing issues, from affordability to climate change or inequality.
“Co-ops aren’t some marginal alternative – they’re a well-established practice in this country,” Daniel Brunette, Director of External Affairs at Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada, told Corporate Knights, the sustainable-economy media and research organisation which compiled the list.
The Corporate Knights edition, which hails “the return of the collective economy” looks at how “co-operatives are stepping into the spotlight to solve our most pressing challenges”.
It gives the example of Kincardine Ladies Fitness Co-operative, launched in 2013 when the a chain of fitness centres for older women closed the branch in their Ontario town. It bought the leftover workout machines from the old site, rented a cheaper property, and is still operating today.
“Throughout history, co-ops have filled such voids,” says Corporate Knights, “picking up where governments or companies or services have left off. But there’s a growing seænse that, at this moment, co-ops could and should be playing a much more active role in the global economy.”
includes stories about housing, food, energy, and financial co-operatives, as well as a call by Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada for more support for the model.
Large Canadian co-ops Desjardins and The Co-operators were named among the Best 50 Corporate Citizens.
Ranked fourth, insurer Co-operators is the highest ranked finance business on the list, standing out for its high relative proportion of revenue (26.4%) that is defined as ‘sustainable revenue’ by Corporate Knights. The result is also driven in part by Co-operators CA$7.05bn in impact and transition investments; a high percentage of gender diversity in its executive leadership team; a relatively equitable CEO to worker pay ratio; linking executive compensation with net-zero targets; and the number of paid sick leave days offered to its employees, among other indicators.
Of Desjardins, ranked at 37, Corporate Knights said: “ As it works toward net-zero emissions by 2040, the co-operative 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 rankings were topped by Quebec renewable energy business Boralex Inc.
