The media, however, loves to produce ranked lists however misguided in this and many other areas. And readers must like it too since articles with a number in the title get more click-throughs than those without, sigh. Readers – look for real content not top ten lists please!

Jane Garthson
President, Garthson Leadership Centre

A few questions while I've gotten your attention.

1) Why did you pull the link to the complaint letter that Jason Steeghs provided (first commenter)? I was teasing one of the signatories, and then I found the document has vanmoosed.

2) What percentage of you mag advertising revenue comes from companies in your top 50 list?

3) The document you provided states:
"The weightings and full details for the baseline and KPI indicators are available for purchase in the form of Sector-Specific Reports on demand by contacting the Corporate Knights Sales Group at sales@corporateknights.caThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it "

Sorry, but I ain't paying.

4) In your O&G sector, you list these factors:

Oil and Gas
• GHG intensity
• Water intensity
• Renewable energy portfolio
• Aboriginal relations

Why does a given O&G company earn a higher score for owning renewable assets if the return they earn on that asset is greater than their cost of capital? In other words, it doesn't cost them anything (unlike say a carbon tax which comes off as an expense), in fact probably earns them a profit ,and in all likelihood, any projects that a company undertakes, would probably be heavily subsidized – and hence could be provided by private companies that specialize in those areas.

Democracy Watch does not in any way suggest, or appear to suggest, "that we can't recognize banks or insurance companies who excel" "until they reach a state of perfect enlightenment" as Mr. Shepherd misleadingly claims.

Democracy Watch's criticism is that no one has the information necessary to rank the banks or insurance companies level of corporate responsibility. The improvements in information flow that Mr. Shepherd claims have not provided details about which companies banks and insurance companies are lending, investing or insuring with more than $1 trillion.

Lending, investing and insuring (along with customer service, about which few details are also known) are the core activities of these financial institutions. If you don't have the details about a company's core activities, it is impossible to know if they act responsibly, and therefore it is clearly irresponsible to rank its level of responsibility.

It amounts to whitewash because most people will very likely only look at the top 50 list and assume those doing the ranking had the detailed information needed to do such a ranking.

Can't say I agree with many of these assessments – especially since the very business activities of many of these should have left them off the list! In my opinion, you can't call an oil company "socially responsible", even if they stress a good work/life balance for employees and implemented water recycling at the Oil Sands. Hello?! The Oil Sands are the single most environmentally destructive project on the planet!!

Sorry Jantzi – I'm sure all your hearts are in the right places, but I'm not impressed with this kind of high-profile, media-catching "buzz" list that does little to add to legitimate value to corporate responsibility.