Recent Articles
Feds launch consultation for Sustainable Development Strategy
Feds launch consultation for Sustainable Development Strategy
Today the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, released the draft 2016–2019 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) for a 120‑day period of public consultation. Which environmental sustainability targets the Government of Canada should aim for over the next three years, and how those targets can best be measured and reported.
Corporate sustainability is changing fast. Is your boss?
New survey reveals many businesses may struggle to retain crucial ISO14001 environmental management standard, unless board level executives start to engage with green issues How involved is your company’s board in the organisation’s environmental management efforts?
Fairtrade first choice for growing numbers consumers
Double-digit growth in sales of Fairtrade wine, flowers and coffee reveals continued consumer enthusiasm for ethical products, despite market turbulence. In 2015 UK shoppers ate more Fairtrade bananas and drank more cups of Fairtrade coffee than in 2014.
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4 tools to tell if your company is walking the walk on CSR
Talk is plentiful in the world of corporate sustainability — companies engaged in triple bottom line activity often go to great lengths to make sure everyone knows about what they are up to. Often, this communication comes in the form of press releases and corporate sustainability reports, which flood the web in a seemingly endless stream.
How the World’s best companies demonstrate their sense of purpose
How do you communicate your company’s sense of purpose — what you stand for in simple terms — in a way that is authentic, transparent and honest? Increasingly, the answer for many of the world’s biggest companies is to highlight their sustainability work.
EDC boosts green bonds
Export Development Canada (EDC) has issued a new US$300 million, 1.25% fixed-rate green bond to support Canadian companies in the budding clean tech and renewable energy sectors that are deploying their technologies at home and abroad.
Why this could be an investment opportunity.
Investing directly in green energy projects just became a whole lot easier for Canadians looking to shift their savings away from fossil fuels. CoPower, a start-up co-headquartered in Toronto and Montreal, has just launched a retail “green bond” that raises money for specific pools of solar, geothermal and energy-efficiency projects.
New round of funding for Canadian cleantech
Continuing to support and! invest in Canada’s cleantech sector—and the companies that strive to improve the environmental and economic impacts of technology through innovation and entrepreneurship —Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) is once again offering funding for Canadian cleantech development and demonstration projects.
UK uses 33% less stuff than in 2001
IKEA made headlines when it openly mused about Western economies “reaching peak stuff”, but there is fresh evidence the insatiable appetite for more stuff might finally be leveling out. New figures from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that the amount of raw materials consumed by the UK economy fell from 15 tonne per person in 2001 to just over 10 tonnes in 2013.
White House aims to put a value on ecosystem conservation
The White House has issued a directive (PDF) to point federal agencies toward building ecosystem-services valuation into their plans, investments and regulations. The directive, released late last year, will help agencies synthesize conservation’s ecosystem benefits with its value to society.
The circular economy moves from theory to practice
Practically speaking, the goals of the circular economy are to shift the take-make-waste linear industrial system in big and meaningful ways to create closed loop systems. The result is a net positive or restorative impact measurable at the scale of an economy, creating shared value with environmental, economic and social benefits.
What does gender have to do with sustainability?
Take your pick of terminology: balance; equality; empowerment; fairness. The point is that gender matters now more than ever — not just for the sake of individual women, but for the prospects of the global economy, the environment and society at large.
MBA students in Canada tackle sustainability to get a competitive edge
Sonja Hiemisch quit her job at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt to travel halfway around the world and take her MBA at York University’s Schulich School of Business. Hiemisch, who wanted to get more out of her career, was drawn to York because it has one of the best MBA sustainability programs in the world.
University of Calgary launches sustainability strategy
The University of Calgary is taking a sustainability pledge. After a two-year review on sustainability, the University of Calgary is moving forward with strategies that will see the institution advance both education and campus practices towards being more responsible.
Al Gore ‘extremely optimistic’ climate crisis can be turned around
With the same humor and humanity he exuded in An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore spells out 15 ways that individuals can address climate change immediately, from buying a hybrid to inventing a new, hotter “brand name” for global warming.
Government policy
Canada, U.S. target methane in bid to curb climate change
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Barack Obama are expected to commit their two countries to slash methane emissions from the oil and gas industry by at least 40 per cent as part of a bilateral approach to curb climate change.
Ontario PC leader Brown announces revenue-neutral climate strategy
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown has staked out new ground on climate change, announcing to delegates at his party’s weekend convention a climate-change strategy that includes carbon pricing but is revenue neutral.
Climate change politics blinds us to effects of dirty air
It is the greatest environmental hazard of the age. Nothing focuses our concern for the future more, divides rich and poor, exercises science, business, politicians, old and young. It is an existential threat, a generational battle. All political and financial resources must be concentrated on stopping climate change.
Financing sustainability
How to make a profit while making a difference
Can global capital markets become catalysts for social change? According to investment expert Audrey Choi, individuals own almost half of all global capital, giving them (us!) the power to make a difference by investing in companies that champion social values and sustainability.
Apple issues green bonds in first sale
Apple has issued $1.5 billion in bonds dedicated to financing clean energy projects across its global business operations, the largest green bond to be issued by a U.S. corporation, the company’s head of environmental policy said Wednesday.
Sustainability professionals
Is fear getting in the way of corporate climate action?
Last week, I attended the annual GreenBiz 16 conference and the Edison Electric Institute Strategic Issues Roundtable. One conference was for sustainability professionals trying to help their companies and society avoid a 4-degree world, the other for utility strategy folks trying to maintain current standards (99.9 percent uptime; 4-6 percent profit to shareholders) in the face of a rapidly changing reality.
Clean technology
Clean-tech alliance ask Trudeau change stimulus priorities
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the heads of 51 technology and investment firms have laid out recommendations they feel will give British Columbia’s emerging clean-tech industry a much-needed boost.
Managing waste
U.S. plastics industry pursues zero net waste
The Plastics Industry Trade Association Monday launched the Zero Net Waste program, a tool for members to use to evaluate waste reduction opportunities and maximize landfill diversion. The ZNW program will provide plastics companies with a concrete set of resources they can use to pursue, and achieve, zero net waste in their facilities and offices.
Tossing out the trash — space station style
The International Space Station just got a whole lot tidier. A pair of NASA astronauts released a capsule, using the Canadarm2 robotic arm, loaded with 1.5 tons of trash Friday as the space station soared over Bolivia. The capsule should re-enter the atmosphere and burn up harmlessly over the Pacific on Saturday.
Water management
Nestlé test of Elora well gains limited support from critics
A group of citizens is concerned by a Nestlé Waters Canada plan to pump 1.6 million litres of water daily out of a well in Elora. And part of the problem is that there’s no thorough federal or provincial data about how much water there actually is in the region’s aquifer.
Wildlife and business
Mass extinction threatens the world’s pollinators — and its crops
Bees, butterflies, bats, and birds have three things in common: They all have names that start with ‘b’, they are all pollinators, and they are all in serious danger. A United Nations-sponsored study released Friday reports that the world’s pollinators — and the crops that depend on them — are experiencing a trend of deep decline toward mass extinctions.
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Industry Events
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Greenbuild 2024: Built to Scale
Nov 12 2024
to Nov 15 2024
Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA -
Sustainable Finance Forum 2024
Nov 28 2024
to Nov 29 2024
Shaw Centre, Ottawa