This is a global problem, however, to succeed companies, corporations, organizations and governments must work together on innovative solutions. Canada’s green initiatives include everything from companies developing clean energy sources to technology that pulls excess carbon from the atmosphere. While engineers and scientists bring their expertise to the R&D side of the equation, CPAs are creating environments that make innovation possible.

Here are some inspiring stories of CPAs who are driving their organizations towards their net zero, green goals:

Vimali Pathmanathan, Director of Finance, Opus One Solutions, Toronto

Opus One Solutions, a firm that develops software to help energy grids transition to renewables, was acquired by GE Digital in December 2021. Vimali Pathmanathan, Opus One’s director of finance, helped lead the collaboration with GE’s due diligence team. That meant working long hours, weekends and holidays but, for Pathmanathan, leveraging her CPA skills to affect change in real time is part of why she wanted to work in a green-tech start-up.

Pathmanathan spent much of her early career in public accounting; while she enjoyed it, her work was always about taking care of business after the fact. “At Opus One, I always feel like I’m on the frontlines of decision-making. The CEO always says that finance is his right hand. I explore questions like: if we’re going to develop this product line, do we have enough funding? How many people will we need? It’s an exciting way to work.”

Opus One’s software is all about bringing dated grid tech up to speed with clean power. One way to integrate renewables like solar and wind is to transition grids to a distributed model, where they rely on energy sources at several points instead of a single one, like a typical fossil fuel-based power plant. A notable advantage of decentralized grids is their ability to incorporate “behind the meter” (user-side) energy sources like residential solar panels, which in turn encourage individuals and businesses to invest in renewables.

While that’s good news for decarbonization, running a distributed grid is much more complex than a traditional one from a technical perspective. That’s where Opus One comes in. Its flagship GridOS product, which relies on advanced data modelling, allows utility companies to monitor and manage distributed grids for customers like Australian energy company AusNet Services, the U.K.’s SP Energy Networks and, closer to home, Ontario’s Elexicon Energy.

When Pathmanathan applied for the job, she didn’t fully understand Opus One’s mission, but was attracted to the sector’s accelerating growth. Five years in, she’s developed a keen understanding of its technology. “Climate change is impacting everyone. It’s always on my mind,” she says. “I’ve grown with the company and become more committed to its mission in my five years here. What we do here can have a direct impact the planet.”

Greg Twinney, CEO, General Fusion, Burnaby, B.C.

“Despite the financial success and everything else, I felt that there was something missing from my career. I wanted to leave a positive mark on the world,” he says. “When I learned about what General Fusion was doing through a recruiter, I became incredibly attracted to its potential for a massive positive impact outside of just the financial.”

General Fusion’s mission is to provide clean energy to the world with zero emissions and at a cheaper cost than coal. The technology relies on nuclear fusion, where two light atoms fuse to form a single heavier atom, releasing energy as a by-product —not to be confused with nuclear fission, which is the exact reverse of that process and what nuclear power plants currently use.

Fusion research experiments first started the 1930s though first calculations of the rate of nuclear fusion in stars actually started in the 1920s. Scaling it to commercially viable proportions is a monumental engineering challenge—one General Fusion claims to be well on the way to having solved. In 2021, the company announced a public-private partnership for a fusion demonstration plant, which will be operational by 2027.

Twinney sees General Fusion as the culmination of the skills he’s spent a 27-year career acquiring. “From raising capital to scaling up the infrastructure, commercializing and building the right team to do it, these are skills I’ve used before,” he says. “Finance has the unique ability to be the thread that weaves throughout a company and pulls it together. I’ve got a bit of a playbook for executing that and I’m grateful for it because, in my opinion, applying it to General Fusion will dwarf everything I’ve done before.”

The challenge is formidable but, for Twinney, it’s all about the underlying drive. “When you’re taking on a challenge as difficult as commercializing fusion, it really helps to have a deep and meaningful why,” he says. “I often tell investors, there are easier ways to make a buck, but they may not be as rewarding. We’ve been in the labs for a long time, and we’re just now starting to scale up and demonstrate the power of this technology.”

Susan Koch, COO & VP, Carbon Engineering, Vancouver

Green tech start-ups are Susan Koch’s specialty; as a CFO, she’s led companies whose raison d’etre range from electric vehicle fuel cells to nuclear fusion. Now, in her role at a firm that focuses on commercializing carbon capture technology, Koch is making a difference by marrying green tech and accounting.

“It’s an invigorating work environment,” she says. “These companies attract people who want to make a difference. I love working with engineers and scientists, who tend to be bright, curious and have so many interesting ideas.”

Part of Koch’s strength as a finance executive is her eagerness to dig into the science. “At all these jobs, I’ve had to learn about the technical uncertainties and hurdles that need to be overcome to commercialize a technology. That really keeps the job interesting. Eventually, I developed a reasonable understanding that allows me to speak competently about carbon capture or fusion physics to a lawyer or an accountant.”

Carbon capture, she explains, is a sort of industrial tree. Trees (the leaf and bark kind) absorb carbon dioxide as part of their natural role in the carbon cycle, but they can’t keep up with the rate at which humans put carbon into the atmosphere. “Our technology pulls carbon out of the air using what’s called direct air capture (DAC),” she says. “You can do numerous things with the captured carbon, from sequestering it in underground reservoirs to using it to develop cleaner fuel.”

The technology is proven—now, it’s about scaling up to commercial sized plants. Demand depends in part on government policy that’s favourable to clean tech. DAC’s commercial viability in a given jurisdiction is bolstered by climate-forward policies that put a price on CO2 emissions and/or incent the capture of CO2. One good example is a recent addition to California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which now awards credits for each metric ton of CO2 removed and permanently sequestered.

That policy and the US federal 45Q tax credit program haves helped commercialize Carbon Engineering’s expansion in the U.S.; in partnership with development company 1PointFive, the firm is working on a massive Permian Basin project in the southern United States that, when complete, is expected to pull a million tons of CO2 from the air each year. Commercial projects are also underway in Canada, the U.K. and other markets around the world.

In the meantime, Koch’s enthusiasm to learn and her passion for the sector is sure to continue bolstering the firm’s plans to grow their technology to a climate-relevant scale.

Start your journey to net zero today!

Learn how you can play a part as a CPA in helping your organization transition towards net zero with these free resources to design your strategy.

CPA Canada has a wealth of sustainability resources and practical guidance , from reports to reviews of net-zero disclosures and details of our own commitment. 

About CPA Canada

Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) is one of the largest national accounting organizations in the world and is a respected voice in the business, government, education, and non-profit sectors. It is a progressive and forward-thinking organization whose members bring a convergence of shared values, diverse business skills and exceptional talents to the accounting field. Domestically, CPA Canada works cooperatively with the provincial and territorial CPA bodies who are charged with regulating the profession. Globally, it works together with the International Federation of Accountants and the Global Accounting Alliance to build a stronger accounting profession worldwide. As one of the world’s largest national accounting bodies, CPA Canada carries a strong influential voice and acts in the public interest.

The post Meet the CPAs using innovation to fight climate change appeared first on Corporate Knights.

It’s hard to know where to begin in making an event more sustainable. Between all the travel, food, accommodations and supplies, events can use a lot of resources, but they don’t need to — that’s where we can help.

Explore Edmonton — the city’s Destination Marketing and Management Organization (DMMO) — has made sustainability a top priority in events. We are looking at events differently from the way we plan, prepare for and deliver an impactful event so we can use less energy and reduce the overall impact our events have on the environment.

It starts with a commitment from the top. Our city has committed to cut Edmonton’s emissions in half by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. As the city’s DMMO, our role is to deliver on this commitment as it relates to business events and conferences in Edmonton at the two world-class, large-scale venues we manage. To underscore this important work, we have signed the Joint Meetings Industry Council’s Net Zero Carbon Events pledge and shifted our priority in events to sustainability. But these promises are just the first step.

It’s important to point out that as a DMMO (or DMO in other cities), we are a step ahead — we don’t just market, we manage events in our city. This means we have a role in both the operations of city-owned venues as well as filling them with happy guests. This gives us a leg up in knowing what people want in their events through our marketing work, and subsequently, being able to actually meet those needs (instead of just saying what people want to hear).

Overwhelmingly, event goers want events to be sustainable, which is why we are making this our priority. Unlike many other DMOs, we have a dedicated sustainability team. That means we have a team of experts ready to support and walk event planners from around the world through every aspect of their event to make it more sustainable.

Our work doesn’t stop there. Edmonton is the second sunniest city in Canada with an average of 2,344 hours and 325 days of bright sunshine a year, and we are taking full advantage. One of our venues — the Edmonton Convention Centre (ECC) — is home to Canada’s largest building-integrated solar photovoltaic roof. This means we are producing our own clean, renewable energy on top of our signature glass roof as the sun shines through. This creates about 227,000 kilowatts of solar energy every year — enough to power about 31 average homes. Atop our other venue — the Edmonton EXPO Centre — the installation of the largest urban rooftop solar array in Canada is nearly complete. It’s expected to produce 2.8 gigawatts of solar energy annually, equivalent to about 375 homes, or about one third of the venue’s annual energy consumption.

Inside these venues, we are taking steps to reduce and offset our carbon output. This is exactly why we have partnered with Ostrom Climate, one of the largest and most experienced full-service, carbon management teams in North America to measure and offset event carbon footprints through our Carbon Neutral Events program. Through this program, our Sustainability team provides complimentary consulting and guidance to both reduce carbon emissions at events and offset the unavoidable emissions.

All of this work is putting us on the map across the globe. On September 27 — World Tourism Day — an international docuseries, Sustainable Travel: Where Next?, was released highlighting leaders and influencers in sustainable travel and tourism and how they’re protecting their destinations. The series features initiatives in cities around the world from Norway to Australia to the Caribbean, and of course, right here in Edmonton.

Watch the Edmonton episode and discover how we’re making events in Edmonton more sustainable on our website here.

We are extremely proud of what we have accomplished so far, but we also know there’s a lot more work to do. Up to now, we have hosted six carbon-neutral events at venues across Edmonton with another nine planned in 2022 and 2023. While each is a significant step, our collective goal has to be to make this the expectation. Net zero events are possible — we’re well on our way there, but we can’t let up.

Our promise is to keep building on the work we’ve done and to partner with others around the world who want to take meaningful steps and be part of the much needed change. It’s time we all started thinking differently because the impact we can have together is real.

Explore Edmonton

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