Corporate Knights - History

History

The precursors to Corporate Knights were two initiatives launched in 2001 and still updated annually. These initiatives are the Responsible Investing Guide and the Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada. Corporate Knights Inc. was co-founded in 2002 by Toby A. A. Heaps and Paul Fengler. Fengler was an International Relations and Russian Language graduate, and Heaps majored in Economics and International Development. The pair were friends at McGill University and envisaged the magazine as a "halfway house between Adbusters and Forbes," according to Heaps.

Launched in the wake of the accounting scandals at Enron and WorldCom, Corporate Knights magazine started because "power is where the money is, and if you want to make social change, it’s through business." Heaps also stated that "every one of the corporate citizens has black underwear, and we're not going to pretend that they're saints. There are no Mother Teresas here. But these are the best we've got."

Beyond holding companies accountable, Heaps found that "85% of Canadians want to know more about the socially responsible things that companies are doing." As such, one of the magazine's major goals has been to publicize positive business practices. During its first decade of publication the magazine expanded its coverage internationally, reporting from Mongolia, the Congo, Sudan, and India.

CK has expanded its research publications to include the following annual rankings, reports and awards (date indicates the year each began). All are described in more detail below.

• 2001- Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada;
• 2001- Responsible Investing Guide;
• 2005- Knights Schools Ranking;
• 2007- Diversity Report;
• 2007- Most Sustainable Canadian Cities;
• 2007- The Cleantech 10 and the Next 10;
• 2009- Green Provincial Report Card;
• 2012- S&P 500 Clean Capitalism Ranking;
• 2012- Top 10 US-listed Cleantech Companies

Corporate Knights expanded its operations considerably in 2011, splitting into two subsidiaries, Corporate Knights Media and Corporate Knights Capital. Fittingly, this expansion was due in large part to the company’s success with responsible investing. CK closed an investment round with a prestigious group of investors, led by Vancity Community Capital, and the private investment allowed Corporate Knights Inc. to launch Corporate Knights Capital (CKC).

CK Capital

Institutional investors are increasingly interested in investment products that provide satisfactory returns and align with clean capitalism investment philosophies. CKC identifies trends re-shaping economic growth in the 21st century and take into account the risks posed by these trends.

CKC also produces benchmarking and research reports including clean capitalism ratings for over 2000 companies globally. CKC quantifies clean capitalism drivers for the financial marketplace using 11 key performance indicators (KPIs) covering resource management, financial management and employee management. The KPIs were selected with input from institutional investors on the basis of their prevalence in regulated and voluntary corporate disclosures and their overall financial materiality.

These services are especially relevant since CKC claims that of the $30 trillion that companies committed to clean capitalism in the UN Principles for Responsible Investment less than 2% is being invested responsibly.

CK Media

Corporate Knights' magazine is a quarterly publication with American and Canadian versions appearing respectively in the Washington Post and the Globe and Mail. Its focus is how companies and markets are advancing social and environmental sustainability worldwide. The publication promotes discussion about trends in sustainable corporate practices and investment products. CK Media also produces an e-newsletter, podcasts and social media. Corporate Knights hosts an interactive online hub for dialogue about corporate sustainability and also hosts events that connect executives, government officials and society leaders.