The Co-operators Group Limited has, for the third year in a row, been recognized among the 50 Best Corporate Citizens in Canada by Corporate Knights, an organization dedicated to the promotion of responsible business practices in Canada and the advancement of social and environmental sustainability worldwide. The list, released at a Corporate Knights event in Toronto last night ranked The Co-operators as the number three corporate citizen in Canada.

Corporate Knight's annual listing is based on publicly available environmental, social, and governance indicators including Board diversity, resource use, sustainability mandate and oversight, senior level compensation in relation to sustainability criteria, and organizational transparency.

Co-operatives took the top three spots and four co-operatives placed in the top 10 of the list - Desjardins as number one, Vancity as number two, The Co-operators in third and Mountain Equipment Co-op in sixth place. While it is incredibly fitting that co-operatives ranked at the top of Corporate Knight's list in IYC 2012, it is not surprising given the natural alignment of our business model with a sustainable approach to business.

This ranking provides us an opportunity to celebrate our success and the impact of our work to 'build a better world' along with an opportunity to compare our progress along side that of other leading Canadian businesses. It demonstrates the need for us to continually challenge ourselves to innovate and implement best practices. As a catalyst for a sustainable society we prioritize partnering and collaborating to work together and create solutions.

To view the complete list and ranking of the top 50 companies, click here.