Just maybe, however, 2020 will go down as the year we started getting things right. Science broke all speed records for developing effective vaccines. The United States elected a president with the greenest agenda ever. Solar emerged as the least expensive energy source in history. And more political and business leaders are recognizing that society’s vulnerability to COVID-19 is rooted in longstanding inequities and harmful behaviours that are finally being addressed.

All these trends, unexpectedly, helped make 2020 a banner year for Corporate Knights – and for anyone who cares about sustainability and social justice. As we continued our reporting and advocacy, we’ve seen several major advances this year:

• Our Building Back Better roundtable series last spring – masterfully moderated by the unflappable Diana Fox Carney – brought together a host of leaders in business, labour, science and government to explore innovative ways to spark a “green recovery.” The ideas put forth by our numerous experts – in energy, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, transportation and so much more – coalesced into an ambitious summary report whose proposals were endorsed by business leaders across all major sectors and are now seeping into policy agendas on both sides of the Atlantic. A short video of the Canada we could have by 2030 if we act boldly in the coming months and years can be viewed here.
• This fall we launched a follow-up roundtable series, Building Back Better Together, in partnership with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Canada. This alliance demonstrates the growing international interest in collaborating on climate issues, and we can’t wait to see how this trend grows as the United States rejoins the Paris Climate Agreement. 
• To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we worked with Earth Day Canada and the Earth Day Initiative in the U.S. to produce the first-ever Green 50: Top business moves that helped the planet. Our list celebrated such game-changing events as Toyota’s launch of the first mass-produced hybrid car and Ontario’s decision to ban coal-fired power plants (still the world’s single largest GHG-reduction measure). Our goal parallelled that of Earth Day itself, as described to us by the movement’s founder, Denis Hayes: “To try to create enough pressure on governments and companies around the world to be aggressive in their [climate action] leadership.”
• The lockdown also opened a door for us to launch virtual Corporate Knights roundtables, building up a community of more than 5,000 engaged citizens, business leaders and public policy leaders who invested thousands of hours to explore and define the “angel in the details” of what it will take to build back better as we emerge from the pandemic pause. This year’s roundtables culminated in a fireside chat featuring Margaret Atwood, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, and David Suzuki, who offered a rousing call to action to take a moonshot at being the first to land a net-zero-emissions economy. 

Enough about us. I’d like to thank you for your support of Corporate Knights. Your engagement with our magazine, our events, our website and YouTube channel, and with our partners and advertisers is what enables us to go out every day and fight for sustainability and prosperity for Canada, the world and our children’s children. As the race to a zero-emissions economy speeds up and the climate threat grows, the perspective that government and science and business are all in this together is more timely and relevant than ever. We thank you for your support in 2020 and look forward to a more prosperous 2021 – the year we all begin to Build Back Better.

Happy New Year,

Toby Heaps

Founder and Publisher, Corporate Knights

The post My favourite year appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Attempts to reduce transportation-related emissions have proven to be especially vexing, given that passenger (“light-duty”) vehicle trips account for approximately 30% of a city’s total carbon footprint – and cities account for approximately 70% of national emissions. Canadian consumers’ penchant for larger/heavy (less fuel-efficient) vehicles isn’t helping: SUVs and pickup trucks account for 70% of new vehicle sales in Canada

Another troubling but often-overlooked fact: CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions related to the manufacturing phase of a vehicle are responsible for a sizable portion of a vehicle’s life-cycle emissions. So while greener cars are part of the solution, we also need fewer cars to be made and sold.

So how do we catalyze a faster tipping point for decarbonizing passenger vehicle transportation? Governments must introduce policies that will shift consumer behaviour. These policies should be aimed at three objectives: promoting zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), expanding shared-mobility service, and fostering commuters’ embrace of multimodal forms of low-carbon transportation ­– the nexus being the greening of all public transportation infrastructure.

Shared-mobility services ­– commonly referred to as “transportation as a service” (TaaS) – are not limited to taxis and ride-hailing services. Car-sharing services, including Evo and Communauto in Canada, have proven to be popular, and successful, in urban markets where supportive city policies exist – a must for such services to be viable. Aside from car-sharing’s affordability, it also has a smaller carbon footprint, particularly when compared to ride-hailing services like Uber. Many people are surprised to learn that more than half of ride-hailing’s VKTs (vehicle kilometres travelled) are without any passengers in the vehicle. These “deadhead” trips mean that ride-hailing produces up to 69% more emissions than the trips it displaces, according to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Public debate over the challenges of electric vehicles often centres on the lack of charging stations. First and foremost, new policies should be aimed at dispelling consumers’ range anxiety associated with ZEVs. But while the “supply of charging” needs to be addressed in short order, attention should also be paid to initiatives that foster “demand for charging” by promoting the expansion of ZEV-based, shared-mobility services in lieu of private vehicle ownership.

ZEV car-sharing has a number of advantages beyond its low carbon footprint: electrifying car-sharing has the inherent benefit of allowing drivers to “try before you buy,” which in turn can generate word-of-mouth buzz about the appeal of the ZEV driving experience – and best case, with car-sharing’s convenience related to parking (free and preferred locations), might just seduce a would-be ZEV buyer to become a ZEV car-sharing user instead.

Perhaps car-sharing’s most powerful “climate virtues” relate to the second-order (knock-on) effects. Multiple studies indicate that car-sharing yields a handful of desirable behavioural changes. First, there’s the “suppression effect”: ­it encourages car-share members to avoid purchasing vehicles altogether. A highly regarded University of California, Berkeley Future of Mobility White Paper indicates that each car-share vehicle displaces approximately 10 privately owned vehicles – and the emissions produced in their manufacturing along with them. Increasing the use of electric vehicles in TaaS fleets is like “super-sizing” the climate benefits, compared with privately owned ZEVs.

Another effect, and likely the most impactful behavioural change climate-wise, is that car-share users tend to adopt multimodal forms of commuting – meaning that a given commuter trip might be a combination of car-sharing with other low-carbon modes of mobility, such as public transit, walking or cycling.

Finally, another benefit of car-sharing’s affordability is it would make EV access more equitable. Car-sharing is less expensive than taxis (by more than 50%) and ride-hailing (30% to 50% cheaper).  Making ZEVs available to lower-income households via car-sharing also gives them access to the health benefits of a non-polluting vehicle, as well as the cutting-edge safety features that are standard with many ZEV models.

The synergies of coupling the climate virtues of car-sharing with electric vehicles’ low carbon footprint, offers great potential to realize a “green tipping point” for transportation, on a much-advanced timeline.

What federal policies could catalyze that event?

1. Apply Vancouver’s Climate Emergency Action Plan to Toronto and Montreal to achieve 50% ZEV of total vehicle kilometres travelled by 2030 (originally 2040) – reducing annual baseline emissions of 20 megatonnes (Mt) in 2019 to 10 Mt by 2030.

2. Offer a federal $10,000 “ZEV fleet incentive” rebate (double the existing $5,000 under the iZEV program) for 20,000 electric light-duty vehicles, specific to private TaaS operators who own/lease their fleet vehicles ($200 million) and remove the cap of 10 ZEV rebates per year. In turn, provinces, like B.C., should be encouraged to offer a similar fleet-specific ZEV rebate for TaaS (doubling the existing iZEV rebate to $6000), which would be more in line with Quebec’s generous rebate of $8,000.

3. Set up a loan guarantee program of 80% of ZEV loan/lease value, backstopped by a federal guarantee.

ZEV-based car-sharing is climate smart ­– not to mention easy on the pocketbook. Given the narrow time frame that society has to act, can we really afford to wait?

David Punch is the founder of Vancouver-based Sky Energy Capital.

Appendices: View associated tables & charts

The post Electrifying car-sharing could spark green tipping point appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Canada’s auto-manufacturing sector has joined in delivering essential services and is redeploying to produce desperately needed medical supplies, including ventilators. It’s a move that could help countless Canadians. As that essential work continues, many of us are looking ahead at the eventual task of rebuilding Canada’s economy when we finally emerge. Along with immediate financial relief for workers, businesses and communities, discussions are under way about how investments can be made to stimulate our economy for the long term and insulate workers against future shocks.

For the auto sector itself to thrive post-pandemic, significant opportunity lies in creating jobs and stimulating our domestic economy through investments in electric vehicle production. In recent years, we’ve seen a downturn in conventional engine (non-electric) vehicle production in Canada, with plants closing and thousands of jobs lost. A newly released report by the Pembina Institute and the International Council on Clean Transportation found that to future-proof Canada’s auto industry, we’ll need financial investments paired with targeted policy driving electrification.

The future is clearly electric: globally, light-duty electric vehicle sales have grown more than 60% a year since 2012. But Canada produces only one plug-in vehicle model, which accounts for less than 0.5% of domestic light-duty vehicle production.

As the global economy goes low-carbon, demand for electric buses, cars and trucks will only accelerate. We want to ensure domestic production matches demand. The good news is that Canada is well positioned to lead, thanks to a history of auto-making, particularly in Ontario.

The global market for electric heavy-duty trucks and passenger buses is growing rapidly as well, with major companies and cities – including Toronto and Edmonton – investing in electric fleets. Canada has been ahead of the curve on electric heavy-duty vehicle manufacturing, as the sixth largest producer of electric HDVs globally, with production and assembly facilities for electric HDVs concentrated in Quebec. The foundation for growth is already laid. Considering that GHG emissions from freight are projected to eclipse passenger vehicle emissions by 2030, investing in the switch to electrification for heavy-duty vehicles makes environmental sense, too.

Along with light- and heavy-duty electric vehicle manufacturing, we found huge potential for hydrogen fuel cell production in Canada. It’s expected that hydrogen will play a major role in the electrification transition for commercial vehicles. We can build on early leadership in developing and producing hydrogen fuel cell technology, especially for heavy-duty freight vehicles in the long term. With hydrogen and fuel cell companies already in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick, the potential for job growth across the country is ample.

Finally, while federal and provincial investment is critical to give the electric vehicle industry the boost it needs, any support should be complemented by a comprehensive suite of policies. Electric vehicle supply needs an increase in demand, and vice versa. By giving investors and consumers the policy signals they need (research and development funding, financial support for manufacturing plants, a clean fuel standard and a national zero-emission vehicle sales mandate), we can help fuel both supply and demand.

New analysis by Navius Research Inc. estimates that, with a strong national ZEV policy framework, including a zero-emission vehicle mandate and subsidy for electric vehicle manufacturing, the zero-emission vehicle economy could grow to account for $152 billion ($2015) of Canada’s GDP and employ 1.1 million workers by 2040.

With the right investments in manufacturing and retraining for autoworkers, coupled with important policy signals, Canada can become an auto manufacturing heavy hitter again, all while revving the low-carbon economy.

Carolyn Kim leads low-carbon transportation initiatives and is the Ontario director for the Pembina Institute.

Ben Sharpe is senior researcher and Canada lead for the International Council on Clean Transportation.

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