Environment Minister Peter Kent sets the tone of Canada’s carbon policy for the next four years in his first interview after the federal election that resulted in a Conservative majority. Instead of cap-and-trade or carbon tax regime, Canada will introduce sector based regulations, starting with the transportation, coal, and oilsands sectors.
Continue readingAuthor: Derek Wong
Carbon49 - a blog on sustainability for Canadian businesses: Federal Election Reshapes Canada’s Climate Policy Landscape
History was made in Canada’s federal election on May 2. Conservative gets majority goverment while New Democrat serves as Opposition for the first time. How will this alter federal policies on energy, environment, and climate change? Let’s examine the parties’ environmental platforms, their gains and losses, followed by how Canada’s federal policies may change.
Continue readingCarbon49 - a blog on sustainability for Canadian businesses: Unilever’s Triple Win Sustainability Strategy
Unilever is the top Food & Beverage company on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Through Bullfrog Power, Unilever recently became the largest commercial purchaser of renewable energy in Canada at 59,000 MWh per year. What is Unilever’s sustainability strategy and why do they do it? To find out, I took a tour of their Brampton plant and talked to John Coyne, Vice President and General Counsel of Unilever Canada.
Continue readingCarbon49 - a blog on sustainability for Canadian businesses: Sustainability Becoming Required Course In MBA
Leading business schools in Canada and around the world are adding sustainability to their required MBA curricula. Oxford in the U.K., INSEAD in France, and York University in Canada are some of the business schools with required courses in sustainability. This can be seen as an indicator that sustainability has become a core business competency needed to effectively compete in today’s and tomorrow’s environments.
Continue readingCarbon49 - a blog on sustainability for Canadian businesses: Investment Bank, VC, Credit Rating Agency Talk Sustainability
How does sustainability affect raising capital? How do investment banks see sustainability when analyzing opportunities? What’s the point of view from venture capital firms? How does sustainability affect a business’ credit rating? This article looks at the current views from Standard & Poor’s, Toronto-Dominion Bank, MissionPoint Capital and others on this matter. We also look at what a business can do to attract capital.
Continue readingCarbon49 - a blog on sustainability for Canadian businesses: Smart KPIs for Sustainability
In any corporate sustainability project, whether it is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, paper use, or supply chain waste, choosing the right key performance indicators is a critical ingredient to success. At the conference on Environmental, Social and Governance Issues hosted by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, Cathy Cobey from Ernst & Young talked about how to choose smarter KPIs.
Continue readingCarbon49 - a blog on sustainability for Canadian businesses: Top Five Posts of 2010
As 2010 draws to a close, I look back at all the blog posts in the first year of Carbon49. Judged by the highest view counts, here are the top five. They cover a range of topics including solar, sustainability as the next big trend, feed-in tariff for renewable energies, greenhouse gas professionals, and investors’ growing concern with climate change risks.
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