A new list of Canada’s Greenest Employers for 2016 includes companies that have built environmental values into their workplace culture.
Results from Canada’s Top 100 Employers project at Mediacorp Canada Inc., now entering its 10th year, feature a varied group of 65 winners in provinces across the country, including the real estate industry.
Some winners are Cadillac Fairview, Diamond Schmitt Architects Inc. and Perkins+Will Canada Architects Co., retail and manufacturing leaders like IKEA Canada, Home Depot and RONA Inc., facilities such as Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and schools and municipalities, such as The City of Calgary.
Canada’s Greenest Employers share four major traits: unique environmental initiatives or programs, involving employees in these programs, success in reducing their environmental footprint and linking environmental initiatives to its public identity and attracting new people.
For example, Calgary is the first large municipality in Canada to require that all new or renovated city workplaces are LEED-certified, ensuring staff work in buildings designed to the highest environmental standards.
“Today, we’ve moved well beyond the business case to the point where we can say that a large part of Canadian society now expects the organizations they deal with to incorporate sustainable business practices into their operations,” said Richard Yerema, managing editor at Mediacorp.
