Inaugural ranking of fastest-growing sustainable companies in Canada

With companies headquartered across Canada, the inaugural batch of Future 50 companies spans the clean energy spectrum, from less energy-intensive plant protein to green hydrogen and artificial intelligence energy-efficiency plays. These companies are on the vanguard of decarbonization. Among provinces, British Columbia leads with 17 companies included in the 2022 list.

Corporate Knights, a Canadian media and research B Corp committed to advancing a sustainable economy, has been producing global corporate and fund rankings for nearly 20 years. While its flagship ranking profiles the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, the Future 50 Fastest-Growing Sustainable Companies in Canada features emerging companies whose energy and innovation leave them poised to be the market leaders of the future. Through their exceptional leadership, these 50 companies are shaping Canada’s ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) landscape to go beyond operational metrics to the core impact of a company’s products and services.

“All companies are now in the business of dealing with climate change. The Future 50 are full of solutions to accelerate the clean energy economy, and they are putting them on the shelf faster than any other companies in Canada. Our reason for devising this list is our belief in the success of these companies being pivotal to creating a more sustainable Canada, as well as acting as inspiration for other entrepreneurs,” says Toby Heaps, founder and CEO of Corporate Knights.

The Future 50 ranking includes companies that derived at least 50% of their revenue from clean energy activities that align with the International Energy Agency clean energy definition (as contained in the Corporate Knights Clean Taxonomy Database). The average year-over-year revenue growth among publicly traded Future 50 companies was 244 per cent in 2020/2021, compared to 43 per cent revenue growth for the S&P/TSX Composite (which was higher than usual due to the bounce-back from the COVID dip in 2020).

Meanwhile, privately held Future 50 companies saw an average growth in capital raised of 1,450 per cent, compared to 724 per cent for all privately held companies in Canada over their past two most recent years of fundraising rounds, according to S&P Capital IQ.

While Canada is home to many game-changing innovators, the Future 50 list is a source of inspiration. Consider this year’s top-ranking private and publicly traded companies: Alberta-based Eavor Technologies and Ontario-based Next Hydrogen Solutions.

Eavor pulled in $63 million from its fundraising round in 2021, a whopping 17,175 per cent growth rate from its $367,000 private placement in 2020. Eavor is delivering “the world’s first truly scalable form of clean, baseload and dispatchable power” using looped water streams that tap the heat deep underground to augment solar- and wind-powered electrical grids.

Next Hydrogen Solutions earned $178,000 in 2021, growing the company’s 2020 revenues of $2,000 by 8,800 per cent. It is committed to decarbonizing the global economy by reducing green hydrogen generation costs. Not only is Next Hydrogen bending this cost curve, its water electrolyzers “generate MW-scale clean hydrogen faster than traditional water electrolyzers.”

According to Statistics Canada, the environmental and clean technology products sector produced $67.5 billion of value for the Canadian economy in 2020, employing 322,972 people.

To address the climate crisis, a vast array of solutions will be required. This year’s Future 50 companies, headquartered across Canada, act as a reminder that inter-provincial collaboration will be key to lowering emissions and securing a more sustainable future.

The inaugural Future 50 ranking was launched in partnership with Alberta Innovates.