While congratulating this year’s 100 most sustainable firms in the “noble pursuit of the idea that business can be a force for good,” Prince Charles urgently called for the sort of leadership represented by the Global 100. He warned that the sum of all countries’ carbon reduction commitments won’t come close to limiting rising global temperatures to an average of 2°C – let alone the essential target of 1.5°. “Rather – and this is the problem – they deliver a 3.2°C increase, which means mass extinction and large parts of the planet being uninhabitable by the end of this century.

“As I’ve been trying to say, for more years than I can remember, what on earth is the point of testing this world, and nature, to destruction?”

The prince noted that with “more businesses, investors, shareholders and consumers recognizing the opportunity that a sustainable future affords,” we can shift the momentum of the private sector and capital markets in line with net-zero.

Echoing his message was Sanda Ojiambo, CEO of the United Nations Global Compact, which leads and supports international businesses on their path to sustainability. She noted that 2020 was one of the warmest years on record, with droughts, floods and rising sea levels having catastrophic effects. One bright spot: “Net-zero commitments by the business sector have doubled in the past 12 months.”

Roundtable moderator Diana Fox Carney led the four CEOs in discussing key steps being taken by the leading firms to align with 1.5°C. Asked whether he believed companies would achieve net-zero by 2050, Jean-Pascal Tricoire, CEO of this year’s top firm, France’s Schneider Electric, noted that, globally, “we are not at the right speed at all … The technologies are here, but what we need is to accelerate the way we design things – the way we design factories,buildings, cities – incorporating those existing technologies, because every decision we make counts.”

Tricoire added, “The buildings we build today … will be burning carbon for the next 50 years. Everything we build/do clean today will have implications for the next 50 years.”

Founded in 1836, during the First Industrial Revolution, Schneider develops electrical distribution products (including off-grid solar storage) and smart automation solutions to make the world more energy-efficient and renewable. Tricoire pointed out that when Schneider began to embrace sustainability 15 years ago, “it was a very lone crusade.” But in those 15 years, the company has tripled in size. Action is its own reward, he said: “We reset the bar every three years to a higher level.”

Like Schneider, Danish wind energy giant Ørsted (number two on this year’s Global 100) has also thrived by enabling the world’s broader journey to net-zero. CEO Mads Nipper noted that his firm is proof that change can happen in a blink, even in the dirtiest sectors. “Just 10 years back, we were one of the most coal- and oil-intensive utilities in Europe. We alone accounted for more than one-third of total emissions in Denmark. Since then, we’ve actually reduced our own emissions by 86%, by making a fundamental green transition.”

Founded in 1972 to develop oil and gas deposits in the North Sea, Ørsted is now the world’s largest developer of offshore wind power, producing 88% of its energy from renewable sources. By 2025, says Nipper, the company intends to be the world’s first carbon-neutral utility: “Our vision is a world that runs entirely on green energy.”

Lawrence Kurzius, CEO of McCormick & Co., a global leader in spices, seasoning and “flavour solutions,” agreed that companies can use existing technologies to future-proof their businesses for carbon. As a first step, he said that every new facility McCormick builds is either silver or gold LEED-certified, pointing out that McCormick co-invested in building a solar farm to power its new headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. “Even though we’re not an energy company, we can certainly source from renewable sources.” Tackling plastic packaging is another key initiative, Kurzius said, adding that McCormick has made a commitment to go 100% circular. Today, 84% of McCormick’s plastic can be recycled, reused or repurposed.

As the top-ranked food company on the Global 100, McCormick has put sustainable farming at the heart of its net-zero plans. The company is leveraging new technology to work with hundreds of thousands of small farmers in 80 countries to help them develop sustainable farming practices – in some cases organizing the farmers into agricultural co-ops and committing to take the co-ops’ full outputs. “I think that that really multiplies the efforts that we undertake ourselves,” Kurzius said.

Roberto Marques, CEO of Brazil-headquartered conglomerate Natura & Co., spoke of sourcing ingredients while preserving the Amazon rainforest by working with the local communities as “guardians of the forest.” Last year, the personal-care company, whose brands include Avon and The Body Shop, committed to being net-zero by 2030 throughout its supply chain, including Scope 3 emissions (those created through use of its products) – “a daunting ambition for us,” Marques said. Natura is also targeting “full circularity” for its packaging by 2030 and intends that by then 95% of its products will be natural, renewable and biodegradable. “We don’t have all the answers today,” he said. “It’s a call to action – for society, for our partners, for the entire community.”

Challenging targets produce results, Marques said: they capture people’s imaginations and spur innovation and collaboration. “We truly believe that by setting the bar high you end up driving innovation. At the end of the day, I don’t think there is room for even competition or political agenda when humanity is at risk.”

Collaboration was at the heart of Prince Charles’s message as well. “For the sake of a safer and more sustainable future, let us join forces and waste no more time. As each of you continues your heroic efforts as members of the Corporate Knights Global 100, I can only offer you my sincere congratulations and ask that you keep going, demonstrating the leadership the world so desperately needs.”

In the spirit of enshrining the rights and value of nature in capitalism, Corporate Knights is inviting the leaders of Global 100 companies to support the Terra Carta, a bold new climate action charter from the Prince’s Sustainable Markets Initiative.

“We are moving more quickly than we were before, but we really need to speed up,” Corporate Knights publisher Toby Heaps said in conclusion. “The good news is the solutions are on the shelf; they’re waiting for all of us to make the bold, smart choices to invest in them.”

Rick Spence is a business writer, speaker and consultant in Toronto specializing in entrepreneurship, innovation and growth. He is also a senior editor at Corporate Knights.

The post CKTV: Prince Charles joins top Global 100 CEOs with urgent call to action appeared first on Corporate Knights.

The economic crisis resulting from the pandemic has forced corporations and governments to deviate from their standard operating procedures, opening up an opportunity for innovation and creativity, said Michael Sabia, who was recently appointed by the federal government to head up the infrastructure bank.

“We need to seize this moment to be creative about how we reposition the national economy for a world that is going to be different, and a very important part of that [effort] is repositioning our economy to be a significantly lower carbon economy,” Sabia told a virtual roundtable hosted by Corporate Knights.

Sabia said that there is plenty of potential for the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) to participate in clean energy projects but that the federal Crown corporation has underperformed to date.

The CIB has a mandate to invest $35 billion in federal funding by 2027/28 but has been criticized for its slow start.

Sabia said the bank should focus less on traditional infrastructure like roads and ports and more on stimulus projects that accelerate the energy transition, including renewable power, interprovincial transmission, low-carbon transportation and digitalization efforts to ensure all Canadians have access to high-speed internet.

The Corporate Knights roundtable was part of its seven-part Building Back Better project that urged the Liberal government to ensure that any economic recovery plan have a climate-change focus.

Addressing the roundtable, Industry Minister Navdeep Bains said Canada will have to be innovative in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis.

He said hundreds of Canadian businesses have responded to the need for medical equipment by changing their operations to produce new products. “That’s the same mindset we have to have when it comes to confronting the climate crisis.”

In a white paper released Wednesday, authors Ralph Torrie, Céline Bak and Toby Heaps said the federal government should allocate $106 billion over the next 10 years for a host of clean energy projects that would create the equivalent of 670,000 full-time jobs per year. More than a third of the federal government investment, $40 billion, would be frontloaded in the first two years (with half dedicated to grants to finance a green renovation wave). Over 10 years, the white paper estimates, the federal investment and complementary policies would crowd in a further $730 billion in mostly private sector investment.

All told, the investments would reduce greenhouse (GHG) emissions by 236 megatonnes annually by 2030, from 2018 levels of 729 megatonnes. That scale of GHG reductions would put the country on track to meet the Liberal government’s target of net-zero emissions by 2050, Bak told the roundtable.

Proposals have included support for a major retrofit program to improve energy efficiency in buildings, planting an additional 800 million trees a year for 10 years, and investments in coast-to-coast electric-vehicle (EV) infrastructure, as well as interprovincial transmission lines to deliver low-carbon electricity and a $40 billion Energy and EV Innovation Fund to help create Canadian champions in fast-growing low-carbon markets where Canada has strong assets, including bitumen-derived carbon fibres, green hydrogen, renewable jet fuels, batteries and EVs.

Other speakers suggested that a green stimulus plan should have goals beyond job creation and emission reductions.

Canadians are now confronting a triple whammy of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and the vivid reminder of the systemic racism embedded in the country’s attitudes and institutions, said Catherine Abreu, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada.

Any green stimulus programs must be based on a “just recovery” Abreu said. Her group was one of 150 civil society organizations that released a document this week proposing “Six Principles for a Just Recovery” for a more equitable and sustainable future.

“This moment is forcing us into confrontation with the vulnerabilities that are built into our economic and social systems,” she said. “There are ongoing crises that lurk behind the current health and economic emergencies . . . So if we are going to tackle issues like climate change, we have to come at them fundamentally as a fight for justice.”

The federal government can pursue reconciliation with Indigenous communities by partnering with them on clean energy projects that deliver health, economic and social benefits to the people, said Terri Lynn Morrison of the Indigenous Clean Energy network.

Morrison said Indigenous people are already major developers and partners in clean energy projects across the country. “They’re ready to seize the opportunity,” she added.

Some economists have questioned whether stimulus spending on clean energy infrastructure is the optimal way to respond to an economic slump precipitated by a health crisis that has forced Canadians into social isolation. Sectors like retail, restaurants and tourism have been hit hardest with job losses, and it’s not clear they would benefit from traditional – or even non-traditional – stimulus spending.

In a blog post last month, economists Dale Beugin and Mike Moffatt argued that green stimulus spending should target areas such as infrastructure, while government should continue to rely on regulation and carbon price to drive climate policy.

Trying to meet the requirements of both recovery and emissions reductions would result in an approach that fails to do either efficiently, they argued.

“Climate considerations should be less constraint and more a radar to help identify non-traditional but job-rich investment opportunities, such as deep retrofits and flood protection for homes and workplaces,” Heaps said via email. “Climate can also be a tiebreaker where two recovery options offer similar economic benefits.”

“In addition to the large investments in green infrastructure, the ‘shecovery’ will likely require significant investments in eldercare and childcare,” he added.

During the roundtable, Ivey Foundation president Bruce Lourie noted that countries like Germany and South Korea have succeeded in providing support for key clean energy sectors. The refrain that “governments shouldn’t pick winners” is a “tired and misguided refrain for us to be using,” he said.

As an example, he cited the promising opportunities for Canada to be a global leader in the emerging market for hydrogen-powered buses and trucks.

Environmental economist David Sawyer said proponents of green stimulus plans should emphasize “co-benefits” that come with investment in emission-reduction projects. They can include not only more jobs but also health benefits from reduced fossil-fuel pollution and greater resiliency to withstand the severe weather impacts of the climate crisis.

Dianne Saxe, Ontario’s former environment commissioner, said Canada needs to find a way to maintain long-term climate-change policies so businesses and consumers have confidence that investments made today are not undermined tomorrow.

“The biggest challenge is how to have stable policies that survive government changes,” she told the roundtable. Canadians need to be active, she said. “Fundamentally, to get durable public policy, we need strong, loud public demand for it.”

The post Final roundtable: Clean economy projects could create 670,000 jobs per year appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Welcome from The Right Hon. Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

Discussion hosted by Diana Fox Carney, economist and public policy expert

Panelists

• Catherine Abreu, executive director, Climate Action Network
• Bruce Lourie, president, Ivey Foundation (and Member of the Taskforce for a Resilient Recovery)
• Tom Rand, managing partner, ARCTERN VENTURES
• Gregor Robertson, global ambassador, Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy
• Michael Sabia, chair, Canadian Infrastructure Bank
• Dianne Saxe, former Environment Commissioner, Ontario

Expert Commentators

• Céline Bak, president, Analytica Advisors
• Karim Bardeesy, executive director, Ryerson Leadership Lab
• Terri Lynn Morrison, director of strategic partnership, Indigenous Clean Energy (ICE)
• Dave Sawyer, chief economist, Canadian Institute for Climate Choices
• Ralph Torrie, senior associate, Sustainability Solutions Group and Partner, Torrie Smith Associates

The post CK TV: Watch our final Building Back Better roundtable appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Addressing a roundtable hosted by Corporate Knights on May 27, Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan said the federal government is working on a strategy that will not only exceed Canada’s existing commitment to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) by 2030, but put the country on a path to net-zero emissions by 2050.

He said Canada’s oil sector – the fourth largest producer in the world – will not disappear over the medium-term and has to be part of a national climate-change strategy.

“Recognizing the importance of oil and gas to our current national economy doesn’t mean we hide from the reality of climate change,” O’Regan said.

“It means we have to have a plan and . . . the plan has to be honest and confront the reality of our economy. That does not hinder us from bold moves,” he added. “It just means we have to make smart ones.”

The minister gave little indication of what those “smart moves” might entail but said they will have to drive dramatic reductions in carbon emissions while maintaining a competitive energy sector.

The Corporate Knights roundtable was part of its seven-part Building Back Better event series. It was held amid growing calls for the Liberal government to ensure its planned post-pandemic economic stimulus program serves to accelerate the country’s transition to a low-carbon economy.

A white paper produced for the session proposed that Ottawa create a $25-billion investment fund that would cover the research and development costs for oil and gas innovation. The fund would also help finance the adoption of those technologies to ensure they are rapidly deployed by industry.

Canada could be a global leader in the production of carbon fibre and activated carbon, both of which are rapidly growing markets, as well as in the production of clean-burning hydrogen for transportation, said the paper, which was co-authored by Ralph Torrie, Céline Bak and Corporate Knights’ publisher Toby Heaps.

Given its exceptional strength and flexibility, carbon fibre could replace steel and other metals in industry and auto manufacturing, while activated carbon is increasingly used in filtration and purification processes.

A proposed $25-billion federal Energy Innovation Fund would generate $100 billion on overall investment, create  50,000 full-time jobs per year over 10 years, and up to $125 billion in sales of zero-carbon commodities for Canadian firms by 2030. It could divert some 30% of current oil sands production to markets where the bitumen is not burned as fuel, thereby reducing its GHG impact.

“We have a lot to lose if we don’t invest wisely now to create an economic engine for the future,” the authors wrote. “At the same time, the current moment offers an opportunity to act quickly and place Canada in a leadership position in fast-growing global markets.”

However, critics contend that any plan for the industry to increase ­– or even maintain – crude production will prevent Canada from reaching its net-zero target in 2050.

“The industry is using the potential for new markets and unbelievable projections of emission reductions to justify their plans to expand production,” Tzeporah Berman, international program director for Stand.Earth, said in an interview.

She noted the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that global oil production will have to decline by 37% by 2030 and 87% by 2050 to put the world on track to limit the increase in global average temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

“The federal government and the industry simply have not come to terms with the need for production declines,” Berman said.

Meanwhile, natural gas producers are eying new opportunities to produce hydrogen, which is touted as a more efficient transportation alternative for trucks, buses and trains than battery-powered motors.

With its abundant natural gas and high quality wind and geothermal resources, Canada is poised to be a world leader in low-cost production of hydrogen, said Dan Wicklum, chief executive officer at the Alberta-based Transition Accelerator, a non-profit group that works to commercialize low-carbon technologies. The hydrogen would be produced from renewable energy and natural gas, with the resulting carbon dioxide emissions captured and sequestered.

“We’re just about the cheapest place on the planet to produce hydrogen,” even with the additional cost of carbon capture, Wicklum told the roundtable. “We could be a globally dominant exporter of a zero-carbon fuel that the world can’t get enough of.”

But while the industry works on potentially game-changing technologies, government should not lose sight of existing opportunities for reducing GHG content in transportation fuels.

Finland’s Neste used to be mainly fossil fuel oil refiner, and has since diversified to produce biodiesel and jet fuel from food waste and fatty residues, which essentially recycle carbon molecules that are already circulating in the economy. As a result of its big bet on biofuels, it now earns half its profits from renewable fuels and has more than tripled in value in the past five years while its oil and gas peers have seen their value cut in half.

Jeremy Baines, president of Neste U.S., was also at the roundtable and said that, by 2040, 70% of the vehicle fleet will still rely on internal combustion engines. Advanced biofuels represent a cost-effective way to reduce the GHG emissions from those engines, Baines said.

“We can’t wait for ‘some day solutions’ when we have solutions today that work,” he said.

The post Roundtable: Oil sands has to embrace new low-carbon technologies to prosper appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Welcome from The Hon. Seamus O’Regan, Minister of Natural Resources.

Discussion hosted by Diana Fox Carney, economist and public policy expert.

Panelists

• Jeremy Baines, president, Neste US
• Linda Coady, executive director, Pembina Institute
• JP Gladu, principal, Mokwateh
• Laura Kilcrease, CEO, Alberta Innovates
• Mark Little, CEO, Suncor
• Steve MacDonald, CEO, Emissions Reduction Alberta
• Dan Wicklum, CEO, The Transition Accelerator

Expert commentators

• Céline Bak, president, Analytica Advisors
• Sara Hastings-Simon, senior researcher, Payne Institute for Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines
• Shawn McCarthy, sustainable finance and climate journalist, Corporate Knights
• Terri Lynn Morrison, director of strategic partnership, Indigenous Clean Energy (ICE)
• Chad Park, lead animator, Energy Futures Lab
• Dave Sawyer, chief economist, Canadian Institute for Climate Choices
• Ralph Torrie, senior associate, Sustainability Solutions Group and partner, Torrie Smith Associates

The post CK TV: Watch our roundtable on Building Back Better with Energy Innovation appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Discussion hosted by Diana Fox Carney, economist and public policy expert

Panelists

• Tzeporah Berman, International Program Director, Stand.Earth

• Valérie Courtois, Director, The Indigenous Leadership Initiative

• Magali Depras, Chief Strategy Officer, TC Transcontinental

• Rob Keen, CEO, Forests Ontario

• Daimen Hardie, Executive Director, Forests International

• David Martin, Chair, WWF Canada

• Jane Rabinowicz, Executive Director, SeedChange

• Darrin Qualman, National Farmers Union, Director of Climate Crisis Policy & Action

Expert Commentators

• Céline Bak, President, Analytica Advisors
• Terri Lynn Morrison, Director of Strategic Partnership, Indigenous Clean Energy (ICE)
• Lara Ellis, Senior Vice-President, Policy and Partnerships, ALUS Canada
• Dave Sawyer, Chief Economist, Canadian Institute for Climate Choices
• Ralph Torrie, Senior Associate, Sustainability Solutions Group and Partner, Torrie Smith Associates

The post CK TV: Watch our roundtable on Building Back Better with Forests and Farms appeared first on Corporate Knights.

These conversations, hosted by economist and public policy expert Diana Fox Carney, will revolve around six themes: Buildings, Power, Transport, Heavy industry, Forests and Energy. Each session will begin with a table-setting analysis prepared by energy and environment expert Ralph Torrie, covering capital requirements, job creation, energy savings, emissions reductions, and the measures required to enable fast rollout.

Our goal: to inspire Canadian decision-makers to seize this opportunity to Build Back Better.

The 60-minute weekly roundtable series kicks off on Wednesday, April 22^nd (the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day).

The series will continue at 11 a.m. each Wednesday through to June 3.

Each event will include reactions and suggestions from expert panelists as well as an opportunity for attendees to make suggestions and ask questions. Following each discussion, updated proposals will be shared with all participants for further refinement to inform a synthesis document to be presented in June.

We hope you can join us.

Corporate Knights Presents schedule:

April 22:  Building Back Better with a Green Renovation Wave

Wednesday, April 22, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. EDT: fresh analysis showing how a post-COVID green renovation wave could help our economy come roaring back, along with reactions from panelists and expert commentators.

Welcome from Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Discussion hosted by Diana Fox Carney, economist and public policy expert, featuring

April 29: Building Back Better by Topping Up our Green Power Sources, Storage and Connections

Wednesday, April 29, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Welcome from Hon. Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities

May 6: Building Back Better by Electrifying our Cars, Trucks and Buses

Welcome by the Hon. Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage

May 13: Building Back Better by Greening Heavy Industry

Join us this Wednesday, May 13, for our fourth roundtable on #BuildingBackBetter by boosting the circular economy, electrifying light-industry and decarbonizing heavy industry.

May 20: Building Back Better with Forests

Wednesday, May 20, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.

May 27: Building Back Better by Fueling Innovation in the Energy Sector

Wednesday, May 27, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.

June 3: Building Back Better: Moving Forward Together

On Wednesday, June 3, we held a one-hour finale of our Green Recovery series.

Welcome from The Right Hon. Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

Panelists

• Catherine Abreu, executive director, Climate Action Network
• Bruce Lourie, president, Ivey Foundation (and Member of the Taskforce for a Resilient Recovery)
• Tom Rand, managing partner, ARCTERN VENTURES
• Gregor Robertson, global ambassador, Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy
• Michael Sabia, chair, Canadian Infrastructure Bank
• Dianne Saxe, former Environment Commissioner, Ontario

Expert Commentators

• Céline Bak, president, Analytica Advisors
• Karim Bardeesy, executive director, Ryerson Leadership Lab
• Terri Lynn Morrison, director of strategic partnership, Indigenous Clean Energy (ICE)
• Dave Sawyer, chief economist, Canadian Institute for Climate Choices
• Ralph Torrie, senior associate, Sustainability Solutions Group and Partner, Torrie Smith Associate

For the latest articles, YouTube posts and reports on all things Green Recovery, check our Green Recovery reports page. 

Get our latest analysis, event videos and reports delivered straight to your inbox by subscribing to Corporate Knights’ Weekly Roundup newsletter

 

The post Event schedule: Building Back Better roundtable dates appeared first on Corporate Knights.