3. Real-life case study

Top 10 companies with the best CSR reputation:

1) 3M

• The company’s “cool roofing granules” are four times more reflective than conventional granules, helping to decrease overall heat retention and cooling costs.

• Since 1990, it has cut its worldwide greenhouse gas emissions by 77 per cent and has reduced total volatile organic air emissions by 96 per cent.

• Earlier this year, and for the seventh time, 3M was named a winner of the Energy Star Sustained Excellence Award for its global energy conservation efforts.

2) Adidas Group

• Uses environmentally innovative materials in certain product lines. Its Supernova Glide 3 running shoe is made with 50 per cent recycled polyester and 100 per cent recycled polyester laces.

• The adidas Group is committed to using 100 per cent “Better Cotton” in all its products by 2018. “Better Cotton” is produced more sustainably than traditional cotton, by cutting water consumption considerably and addressing pesticide management, crop rotation and labour conditions.

• Has partnered with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus’s micro-finance organization, Grameen Bank, to manufacture a low-cost shoe for the poor in Bangladesh.

3) Bank of Montreal

• Accessibility initiatives have resulted in an increase in business with Aboriginal customers, from $1.4 billion in 2008 to $1.7 billion in 2010.

• One of two investors in the Greening Canada Fund, a first-ever carbon emissions reduction fund exclusively targeting large Canadian corporations. The fund will purchase and redistribute carbon offset credits sourced from social and non-profit organizations.

• In March, the company launched the BMO Eco Smart Mortgage at a market-leading rate, making it more accessible to mainstream customers.

4) BCE Inc.

• For every cellular phone tower built for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, the company consulted with First Nations groups and located First Nation burial grounds prior to construction.

• Contributed $10 million toward the construction of a Youth Virtual Health Centre, providing small Quebec communities with easier access to medical specialists.

• Has contributed $250,000 toward the construction of the LEED-certified Centre for Sustainable Development in Montreal, home to several NGOs with a sustainability focus.

5) Best Buy Co., Inc.

• Hosts “Tech it Away” e-waste drives at Canadian schools to collect and recycle used electronics, in exchange for grants. In 2010, Best Buy and three Vancouver schools diverted 54,000 kg of e-waste from landfills, with each participating school receiving $10,000 in technology grants from Best Buy.

• Partnered with ECOtality, a leader in clean electric transportation and storage technologies, to install Blink electric-vehicle charging stations at select Best Buy stores. The company is also working with Mitsubishi Motors and power company Eaton Corporation to support electric vehicle ownership.

6) BMW

• In 2010, it integrated its sustainability scorecard throughout the entire BMW Group. Every project must now be assessed in terms of resource consumption, emissions and social impacts.

• The BMW Guggenheim Lab, a mobile laboratory that will travel to nine major cities worldwide over six years, will be launched in August. Acting as a community centre, gathering space and think tank, the lab will be led by architects, designers and scientists to address environmental and social innovations.