Who defines the best corporate citizen?

TORONTO - At dawn this morning, Corporate Knights President and Editor-in-Chief, Toby Heaps, challenged Maclean's Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Ken Whyte to a public debate. Corporate Knights seeks to reduce the confusion created, in its opinion, by Maclean's decision to launch a cover story in its current issue titled "Canada's 50 best corporate citizens"-eight years after Corporate Knights pioneered its annual issue on the "Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada." The Maclean's "Canada's 50 best corporate citizens" issue is dated June 22, the exact date that independent magazine Corporate Knights distributes its eighth annual "Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada" issue as an insert in the Globe and Mail newspaper to 95,500 subscribers across the country.

"While we welcome newcomers to the corporate responsibility realm, it's unfortunate that Maclean's seems to have taken a run at our market share by using a trademark that is, in our considered opinion, confusing with our distinctive trademark," said Mr. Heaps.

"The good news," said Mr. Heaps, "is that concern about this confusion, shared by many eminent Canadians(*), presents an excellent chance, at a time of economic and ecological upheaval, for Ken Whyte and I to flesh out for the Canadian public, what exactly is a good corporate citizen, and how one goes about defining one."

The Corporate Knights Best 50 methodology for grading corporate citizenship, developed with financial support from Industry Canada (see www.corporateknights.ca/best50), has helped raise the rigour and professionalism of what it means to be a good corporate citizen. Corporate Knights defines it as a company that fulfills its part of the social contract, while innovating solutions to pressing social and environmental challenges of our time.

Corporate Knights' ranking, subjected to outside scrutiny and review by Deloitte since 2007, applies a transparent methodology (see www.corporateknights.ca/best50) that calibrates important metrics from pension fund health and responsible accounting to executive pay and shareholder conflict. Many of these metrics that Corporate Knights has been tracking for years have recently moved to the forefront of the business pages with the crackdown on tax havens and the pension fund crunch.

(*)A group of eminent Canadians, including Sheila Copps, David Runnalls, and Johanne Gélinas (go to www.corporateknights.ca for full list), acting in their individual capacity, have put forward their names in support of the below three points.

1. The "BEST 50 CORPORATE CITIZENS IN CANADA" is distinctive of Corporate Knights.

2. The "BEST 50 CORPORATE CITIZENS IN CANADA" is one of the prime definers of corporate responsibility and corporate citizenship in Canada.

3. It is my opinion that Maclean's foray into this field using "CANADA'S 50 BEST CORPORATE CITIZENS" will create confusion in the marketplace.

Corporate Knights, Inc. is an independent Canadian-based media company that publishes the world's largest circulation magazine with an explicit focus on responsible business. The mission of Corporate Knights Inc. is to humanize the marketplace. Corporate Knights publishes the annual "Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada" and the annual "Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World."