The list of Canada's "Green 30" — organizations whose employees are most positive about their record on environmental stewardship — was released today, Earth Day, by Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing company.

This year's list of Canada's Greenest Employers was also announced by the editors of the Canada's Top 100 Employers project. Fifty organizations across Canada were recognized on this second list.

Hewitt's list  was compiled from employee feedback using Hewitt's Employee Green Index, which focuses on employers' strategies, activities and efforts to minimize the environmental impact of their operations, products and services.

Now in its third year, the Canada's Greenest Employers competition grew out of two speeches given by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Al Gore at the annual conference on the Canada's Top 100 Employers project in 2006 and 2007. "The competition is unique in that our editorial team takes the time to write out detailed Reasons for Selection, explaining why every winner was chosen," says Tony Meehan, Publisher of the Canada's Top 100 Employers project. "This provides transparency in the selection process and inspires other employers to emulate their best-practices, raising the bar for everyone."

Hewitt's Green 30
As part of the 2010 Best Employers in Canada and Best Small & Medium Employers in Canada studies, Hewitt surveyed over 100,000 employees at 230 organizations regarding their employers' commitment to environmental stewardship. At the Green 30 organizations, an average of 86 per cent of employees have a positive perception of their employers' eco-friendly efforts. At the 30 organizations with the least positive reviews, that figure is 58 per cent.

"Our findings show that employees really see the difference when their employer is focused on developing and implementing environmentally-conscious policies and practices," said Neil Crawford, Hewitt's leader of the Best Employers in Canada study. "Effective green programs and practices may persuade certain employees to join or stay with an organization."

However, more employers are gradually adopting environmentally-friendly programs. While all of this year's Green 30 encourage recycling, waste reduction and/or reduced paper usage, so do 86 per cent of the 30 organizations with the lowest rankings on the Employee Green Index. "The gap is higher with respect to other initiatives," stated Crawford. "The Green 30 are twice as likely as the 30 lowest ranked organizations to subsidize carbon offsets for business travel, sponsor programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from business operations, host events to facilitate participation in Earth Day or Earth Hour, and subsidize the costs of bike storage and/or showers for employees who cycle to work. While there are significant variations in the use of some of these practices amongst the Green 30, they all demonstrate real passion and commitment to reducing the impact of their business on the environment in the eyes of their employees."

The Green 30 list is as follows (in alphabetical order): 
Aecon Group Inc.                                      
BC Biomedical Laboratories Ltd.                      
Bentall LP                                          
BLJC                                              
Cascades Inc.                                       
Cisco Canada                                      
Co-operators Life Insurance Company                   
Delta Hotels                                          
EllisDon Corporation                                  
Envision Financial                                   
G&K Services Canada Inc.                              
Greater Edmonton Foundation: Housing for Seniors      
ISL Engineering and Land Services                     
Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc.                                
LoyaltyOne Inc.                                       
Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics                         
Marriott Hotels of Canada Ltd.                        
McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited              
Mountain Equipment Co-op                              
National Leasing                                      
Nexen Inc.                                           
PCL Constructors Inc.                                 
Public Outreach Fundraising Consultancy Inc.          
Ricoh Canada Inc.                                    
Scotiabank Group                                     
Stewart Weir & Co. Ltd.                               
Stikeman Elliott LLP                                  
TD Bank Financial Group                              
The Co-operators                                     
Vancity Credit Union

Organizations that participate in the Best Small & Medium Employers in Canada (50-399 employees) or the Best Employers in Canada (400 or more employees) studies are automatically eligible for The Green 30 list. The deadline to register for each study - and therefore be considered for the 2011 Green 30 list - is May 31, 2010. For more information and to register online, visit www.hewitt.com/bestemployerscanada.

Greenest Employers
"We've seen a significant increase in the number of organizations that are incorporating environmental values into their culture," says Richard Yerema, Managing Editor at Mediacorp Canada Inc. "These organizations recognize the importance of environmental values to their employees and customers - their initiatives read like a catalogue of best-practices."

This year's list includes some of Canada's best-known employers, plus more than a few less-familiar organizations with remarkable environmental initiatives that the editorial team wanted to recognize. The resulting list offers readers hundreds of great ideas that the winning employers have successfully put in place. A full list of their projects and the editors' detailed Reasons for Selection can be viewed at: www.CanadasTop100.com/environmental

The 2010 Greenest Employers are (in alphabetical order):
Abbotsford Community Services
Aeroplan LP
ARAMARK Canada Ltd.
Bayer Inc.
BC Public Service
Bell Aliant Regional Communications
British Columbia Institute of Technology
Busby Perkins+Will Architect Co.
Certified General Accountants Association of Canada
Christie Digital Systems Canada, Inc.
Compass Group Canada
Davis + Henderson LP
Enbridge Inc.
Enermodal Engineering Ltd.
Enmax Corporation
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
Georgian College
Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co.
Home Depot Canada, The
IKEA Canada Limited Partnership
KPMG LLP
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Loblaw Companies Limited
LoyaltyOne, Inc.
McGill University Health Centre
Mountain Equipment Co-op
New Flyer Industries Canada ULC
Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
Ontario Public Service
Patient News Publishing Inc.
Rescan Environmental Services Ltd.
Research In Motion Limited
Royal Bank of Canada
Sapient Canada, Inc.
SAS Institute Canada, Inc.
SaskTel
Stantec
State Farm Insurance
Steam Whistle Brewing
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
TD Bank Financial Group
Toronto Hydro Corporation
Toronto, City of
University of Alberta
University of Victoria
Vancity Group
Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre
Veridian Corporation
Whistler Blackcomb
Whistler, Resort Municipality of

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