The third annual Clean50 identified 50 individuals and small teams who made a great contribution to sustainability and 15 Projects that made a major impact in Canada over the past two years. The Clean50 Summit 3.0 brought our honourees together for a day of interdisciplinary strategy and solution building. It will take a combination of leadership, collaboration, innovation, energy and, ultimately, political will to move Canada through the obstacles towards cleaner, healthier, sustainable management of our bountiful resources and our uncertain future. Our solutions will require brave new policy, scientific and economic tools, built with long term vision. Here are some of our tool-smiths, whose work is rarely in the spotlight but may shine the way on our journey towards sustainable, equitable, responsible prosperity.

You will find the rest of Canada’s Clean50 (individuals), Clean16 (category leaders) and Clean15 Projects at www.Clean50.com. There you may also enter nominations for next year. Each year, the Clean 50 community grows. While many of our elected and administrative representatives are diverted by pressing short term exigencies from addressing potential long term emergencies, the Clean50 network is hard at work shaping our collective future.

Enviro-Stewards & Tim Hortons

Waste Discharge Reduction

PROJECTS: In-plant measures in Ontario are saving $490,000/yr with an ROI of 260%, and reducing loading to sewer 80%, landfill 70% and GHG emissions 30%. A portion of the savings sponsored 40 BioSand Filters that purify 800,000 L/yr of drinking water and avoid 120 tonnes/yr of GHG in South Sudan, Africa. Fruition Fruit & Fills is a subsidiary of Tim Hortons Inc. Enviro-Stewards Inc. is an engineering firm and Certified B Corporation that helps clients increase their profits, sustain the environment, and compellingly benefit society. www.enviro-stewards.com

Paul Richardson

CEO, Renewal Funds

ANGELS: Paul and his colleagues at Renewal Funds invest growth capital in early stage businesses in the organic food, green products and environmental innovation sectors with the goal of providing strong triple bottom line returns. A pioneer in the social venture capital field, Renewal has been supporting sustainability businesses since the early 90s.

Karen Clarke-Whistler

Chief Environment Officer, TD Bank Group

FINANCIAL SERVICES: Karen developed and leads TD’s environmental strategy, which calls for the environment to be embedded across all aspects of the bank. This strategy led TD to become the first North American based bank to be carbon neutral and to the founding of TD Forests, which works to grow and protect North American forests. Karen has been a key advocate for building TD’s renewable financing.

Francisca Quinn

President and Founder, Quinn & Partners Inc.

CONSULTANTS: Francisca was named a 2014 Clean50 honouree thanks to her work with leading Canadian companies in reducing their environmental footprints and achieving high sustainability engagement scores from employees, customers and analysts. She uses business analytics and organizational change tools to design, implement and communicate industry-leading corporate sustainability programs. Francisca strives to set a personal example for sustainability by applying best practice at work and at home.

Tim Faveri

Director, Sustainability and Responsibility, Tim Hortons Inc.

RETAIL & CONSUMER PRODUCTS: Tim Faveri, Director, Sustainability and Responsibility provides joint oversight to the Tim Hortons Coffee Partnership, a grassroots capacity building program with a goal to improve the lives of small-scale coffee farmers in regions where the company sources its coffee. Since 2005, Tim Hortons has invested nearly $7 million and worked with more than 3,400 farmers, positively impacting the lives of more than 17,000 people in project communities.

Neil Pegram

Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility Manager, Morguard

BUILDING: DESIGN, REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT:There are few organizations globally that have set 25 year sustainability objectives. At real estate company Morguard, Neil led the development of such a sustainability strategy including 6 long-term objectives that are tied to a rigorous definition of a sustainable society. Neil also developed the company’s first sustainability report to align with GRI.

Jeanette M. Southwood, P.Eng., FEC

Urban Development & Infrastructure Leader – Canada Global Sustainable Cities Leader, Golder Associates Ltd.

CONSULTANTS: Jeanette is a dedicated leader in her profession and as a volunteer, honored with Ontario’s “Leading Women Building Communities” Award and as a Fellow of Engineers Canada. Her work unites the Sustainable Cities, Federal, Rail, Real Estate, Waste, and Transportation businesses at Golder, a global firm of over 8,000, providing consulting, design, and construction services in earth, environment, and energy.

Bryce Conrad

President and CEO, Hydro Ottawa

TRADITIONAL ENERGY GENERATION: Bryce and his team have made Hydro Ottawa the largest municipally owned producer of renewable power in Ontario. Their portfolio of hydroelectric and landfill gas generating stations has grown to more than 320,000 MWh of clean energy annually. This achievement is borne from the company’s belief that success lies in capturing and leveraging core competencies and expertise in new ways to translate them into revenue-earning opportunities.

Peter Love

President, Love Energy Consultants Inc.

TRADITIONAL ENERGY GENERATION: President of the Energy Services Association of Canada and Adjunct Professor at York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, Peter has been advocating a culture of conservation since the early 70’s when he was part of the team that developed the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse Recycle). Ontario’s former Chief Energy Conservation Officer, Peter now serves on corporate and non-profit boards and is a volunteer Advisor to the Cleantech Practice at MaRS.

Kate Whalen

Senior Manager, University Sustainability and Director, Sustainable Future Program, McMaster University

EDUCATION: By bringing together McMaster and the broader Hamilton community, Kate has facilitated implementation of over 80 sustainability initiatives in less than 4 years, Including: development of McMaster’s sustainable procurement policy; providing opportunities for over 300 students to engage in for-credit, experiential, sustainability-related learning; and creation of interdisciplinary courses focused specifically on sustainability.

Andrea Goertz

Senior Vice-President, Strategic Initiatives and Chief Communications and Sustainability Officer, TELUS

TECHNOLOGY AND TELECOM: Andrea is advancing TELUS’ triple bottom line approach to business, focusing on the social, economic and environmental impact of the national programs she oversees. Her team’s corporate real estate consolidation strategy includes the development and retrofitting of LEED-certified buildings in major Canadian centres and the creation of Work Styles, which sees almost 60% of eligible employees working remotely.

Lloyd Switzer

Senior Vice-President, Network Transformation TELUS

TECHNOLOGY AND TELECOM: Lloyd drives the sustainable transformation of TELUS’ networks, plus its 10-year energy reduction initiative. This includes construction of two state-of-the-art Internet Data Centres designed to LEED Gold status that are 80% more efficient than traditional facilities. In 2013, the team eliminated 42.7 GWh in annualized energy waste – equivalent to the carbon sequestered annually by 435,000 seedling trees.

Greg Nevison

Senior VP for Construction, Deltera Inc. (a Tridel Group Co.)

Jamie James

President & Founder, Tower Labs

BUILDING: DESIGN, REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT: Greg and Jamie have worked together over the past decade to help transform one of Canada’s most successful real estate developers into a leading green builder. In 2010, they set up Tower Labs as an independent, not-for-profit green building technology accelerator that validates and promotes green building innovations through pilot and demonstration projects in buildings under construction.

Kaz Flinn

Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility, Scotiabank

FINANCIAL SERVICES: Leading Scotiabank’s Corporate Social Responsibility function since 2005, Kaz has been instrumental in the establishment of the Bank’s environmental policy and signature environmental program – EcoLiving. This unique program helps Canadians become financially better off by showing them, through multiple channels, how to save money and energy at home and ease the pathway to green home projects and practices.

HP & The Lavergne Group

“Closed Loop” Plastic Recycling Program

PROJECTS: From offering free and convenient recycling in more than 50 countries, through the HP Planet Partners Program, to putting the plastics from your returned cartridges back into new cartridges, HP’s leadership in sustainability is clear. Working with a Canadian innovative plastics recycler, HP has been able to reduce the carbon footprint of the plastics in ink cartridges by up to 33%.

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