Three P&C insurers among top 50 most socially responsible

Desjardins Group, The Co-operators and Intact Financial are three of this year’s best 50 corporate citizens in Canada, as ranked by Corporate Knights magazine.

Desjardins earned second place behind Vancouver City Savings Credit Union while The Co-operators ranked ninth and Intact Financial was slotted at 27th. To determine the top corporate citizens, Corporate Knights took a rules-based approach, evaluating Canadian companies on 14 key performance indicators (KPIs).

A company qualifies for the ranking if it generated at least $2 billion in revenue and had 2,000 employees in 2016; if it is one of the 10 largest co-ops; if it is one of the constituents of the TSX 60; or, was part of the publication’s best 50 ranking in 2016. This year, Corporate Knights added two additional KPIs related to supply chain and clean air productivity to capture increased disclosure practices.

The Co-operators was one company that took a more holistic approach to disclosure this year, says Corporate Knights magazine, referencing the release of the company’s inaugural integrated annual report in April. The report contained and combined information regarding financial, environmental, social and governance practices.

“Integrated reporting provides us with an opportunity to directly connect the value we create with critical issues like climate change, disruptive technologies, economic volatility, shifting demographics and social inequality,” said Robert Wesseling, president and CEO of The Co-operators, in a statement to Corporate Knights.

Overall, Corporate Knights‘ announcement notes that that disclosure practices continued to improve and that an increased number of companies are linking CEO compensation to sustainability performance. In addition, “the country’s top corporate citizens raised the bar, though incrementally, towards greater board and executive diversity,” the announcement states.

This story was originally published by Canadian Insurance Top Broker.