Canada's best Cleantech companies

Last Friday the opening bell of the TSX was rung by Toby Heaps, editor of Corporate Knights, and representatives of the Cleantech 10™, a list of Canada’s best publicly and privately held companies in the Cleantech realm.

The Corporate Knights Cleantech 10™ was compiled by Corporate Knights Inc. and Cleantech Group LLC, the leading provider of Cleantech indices and information globally. The CK Cleantech 10™ was determined by first looking at technology-driven growth companies that have big impacts on resource efficiency and the environment—not simply those re-branding themselves as ‘green.’ A set of 18 screening criteria were applied to all TSX companies that Cleantech Group LLC use for their broad Cleantech Index. While the TSX has a large number of Cleantech stocks, they tend to be younger and smaller, so the screening criteria was applied with some leniency to allow for a rounded out top-ten list. A heavy emphasis was placed on purity (percentage of revenues or income from Cleantech business, and whether or not it’s really ‘clean’) and quality (strategy, management, financial strength, sector leadership). Other key criteria included growth, earnings, liquidity, capitalization, technology/intellectual property, and overall impact.

This year’s winner was Wesport Innovations, a company held in a number of SRI portfolios. "The growth of Canada's clean technology sector is the result of visionary companies who recognize that escalating energy and environmental concerns have created a tremendous opportunity for economic growth, job creation, and global leadership in a low carbon economy," said Karen Hamberg, Director, Sustainability & Environmental Performance for Westport Innovations Inc. "Westport strives to reduce its environmental impact in its operations as well as deliver significant economic, environmental and energy security benefits to customers with quality heavy-duty engine solutions."

For more information on the Cleantech 10™ and the Cleantech Next 10 Emerging Cleantech Leaders, click here.


The CK CleanTech 10™ 2009:

1. Westport Innovations (Vancouver, BC)
2. RuggedCom (Woodbridge, ON)
3. WaterFurnace Renewable Energy (Fort Wayne, IN)
4. Magma Energy Corp. (Vancouver, BC)
5. 5N Plus (Montreal, QC)
6. Canadian Hydro Developers (Calgary, AB) - in the process of being purchased by TransAlta
7. Carmanah Technologies Corp. (Victoria, BC)
8. NEO Material Technologies (Toronto, ON)
9. Stantec (Edmonton, AB)
10. Hemisphere GPS (Calgary, AB)