Whether it's altruism tied to a deep concern for the environment or simply a matter of dollars and cents, Canadian companies are increasingly going green and aren't shy about publicizing it.

In the last week alone, a Canadian bank, a national car repair company, and a consulting firm all unveiled new environmental policies. At the International Air Transport Association's annual conference in Vancouver, the world's airlines mused about cutting all emissions by 2050.

The Toronto Dominion Bank claims to be the only Canadian bank to have developed an official policy to measure, report on and lessen its environmental impacts.

What are carbon credits?
Carbon credits or offsets are a type of voucher used to sponsor clean-energy research and projects like planting trees in an effort to counterbalance carbon emissions produced by activities such as flying.

Similarly, Jacques Whitford, a Saint John, N.B.-based environmental science and engineering consulting firm, just announced that it's working on how the business impacts the environment — with aims to go carbon neutral in an effort to be a good corporate citizen.

The company will spend "tens of thousands of dollars in the course of a year" to buy carbon credits from the Carbonfund.org Foundation, which has also partnered with familiar brand names like Dell, Lancome and Yakima.

That contribution will offset the energy use of its 1,600 employees, emissions from flights taken across the country to service its 45 offices, and the emissions its testing equipment releases, said Marty Janowitz, the company's first vice-president of sustainability.

"It really became a fundamental focus of how we're trying to reshape our company," Janowitz said of the decision to budget and pay for its environmental impacts.

Green trend might not have staying power, analyst says

Still, not all industry observers are convinced that the corporate world's green push is here to stay.

'I think there's every possibility that the level of concern will stay higher than it was four or five years ago but it may not stay at high level it's at today.'—Colin Isaacs, CIAL Group

Loblaws took a lead in the late 1980s by introducing green-friendly products to Canadian consumers. The products are more popular than ever but the product line has actually shrunk, said Colin Isaacs of the CIAL Group, an environmental consulting firm that works with the grocery chain and other companies.

The President's Choice Green brand had about 100 different products in the mid-1990s — at a time when environmental concerns were also high on the agenda — but today there are only about 26 on shelves, he said.

The competition didn't all rush to copy Loblaws' green plans then, and there are still companies on the fence now, he said.

"There are companies that believe it won't stick [because] of the big wave of environmental interest in the late 1980s and early 1990s, probably somewhat similar to the wave we're going through now," he said.

"I think there's every possibility that the level of concern will stay higher than it was four or five years ago but it may not stay at the high level it's at today."

Isaacs said an economic downturn might cause even the most noble companies to rethink their environmental policies. Still, there is a small group of corporate presidents or CEOs that have personal, ethical commitments to the environment and probably wouldn't change course, he added.