Download Chris Hohn's presentation: Achieving Climate Goals through Corporate Activism

The British High Commission in Canada, in partnership with Corporate Knights, is hosting a virtual event on Wednesday 6^th October at 12:00 EDT.

Around the world and in Canada, companies are seizing the opportunity to lead on the net zero transition. In this roundtable, leading Canadian companies from a range of sectors will share their net zero journeys – why they made bold 1.5C aligned commitments, the challenges they faced, and how they overcame them. Our panelists will cover four themes: capital mobilization, clean energy transition, non-financial disclosures, and SMEs.

Video welcome:

Nigel Topping, United Nations High-Level Champion for Climate Action

Keynote Speaker:

Sir Chris Hohn, Co-founder and Chair, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and Founder and Managing Director, TCI Fund Management

Moderator:

Diana Fox Carney, Fellow, Balsillie School of International Affairs

Panelists:

Kerry Adler, Founder, President and CEO, SkyPower Global

Marc-André Blanchard, Executive Vice-President and Head of CDPQ Global

Theresa Jang, EVP and Chief Financial Officer, Stantec

Jacqueline Prehogan, Co-founder and Chief Brand Officer, Open Farm Inc.

The British High Commissioner to Canada:

"We owe it to future generations to act now and act quickly."

Q&A | Submit an advance question for our panel

What net-zero leaders are saying...

Ellio

EcoAdvisors

Ethical Profit Accounting Agency

Starting imperfectly and seeing small wins is more important than spending too much time trying to find a perfect solution and never getting started at all.

Samantha Richardson, Founder

Following a childhood passion for sustainability, I saw the importance of combining sustainability into business practices, not just as a good corporate citizen but for profit as well. Going carbon neutral was easy thanks to Bullfrog Power. Once I began travelling and taking flights for work, that created a new challenge. I wanted to do better than just buying carbon credits to offset this carbon footprint, but it is hard to find accessible information to understand the impacts of what can be done. In this process, we tried not to focus on finding the ‘perfect choice’, just a better one than we were using. This sometimes means having to review this regularly as new information becomes available, or new opportunities are presented. 

It’s important to set this kind of goal, as it motivates you to start your net-zero journey. You won’t build it overnight, but taking steps in the right direction allows you to build on your successes over time. Starting imperfectly and seeing small wins is more important than spending too much time trying to find a perfect solution and never getting started at all.

Geotab

"Our planet is relying on us all to take bold, collective action, now."

Neil Cawse, CEO

As a global technology leader in connected transportation, Geotab plays a pivotal role in enabling the electrification of fleets and the supporting infrastructure. We don’t just believe in sustainability; it is at the core of our purpose — transforming the way the world moves people and goods by helping organizations accelerate and transition to more sustainable fleets.

This is why we felt it was so important to act ourselves — to align with the Paris Agreement targets and limit global warming to well below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Compiling our greenhouse gas inventory was the first, but by no means easy, task — it was a company-wide effort, but it was made a bit easier because there was so much employee enthusiasm and a deep commitment to get the job done.

Next, we set an attainable and near-term science-based target, committing to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50 per cent in 2030 from a 2019 baseline. Importantly, we committed to achieving net-zero emissions for Scopes 1, 2, and 3 by 2040.

We are ready to get to work — to set a course and make our climate change commitments happen and to do better things for the planet. Your organization should make a commitment and plan too. Our planet is relying on us all to take bold, collective action, now.

Metrio Software

Stantec

At Stantec, we create communities—and we want those communities to thrive. We can’t accomplish that without doing our part to limit the impacts of climate change. 

Theresa Jang, Chief Financial Officer

Stantec is committed to achieving carbon neutrality for 2022 emissions and operational net-zero by 2030. Our Board of Directors, C-suite, and employees are fully committed to achieving these ambitious targets to reduce our carbon footprint. 

Our first step was setting 1.5 C science-based emissions reduction targets. We’ve initiated our action plan, which includes significantly consolidating office space, transitioning to using renewable energy, reducing travel, and embracing a flexible remote work strategy. To address the challenge of residual emissions, our Innovation Team is working on adding renewables to the grid and finding nature-based ways to capture carbon.

As engineers, designers and scientists, we also provide our clients with the expertise and solutions to help them achieve their net-zero ambitions. We’re proud that almost half of our annual revenues support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

At Stantec, we create communities—and we want those communities to thrive. We can’t accomplish that without doing our part to limit the impacts of climate change. 

WSP Global

ABOUT RACE TO ZERO

Race to Zero is the UN-backed global campaign rallying non-state actors – including companies, cities, regions, financial and educational institutions – to take rigorous and immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030 and deliver a healthier, fairer zero carbon world in time. Already, over 31 regions, 733 cities, 3,067 companies, 624 educational institutions, 173 investors have joined the campaign.

Led by the High-Level Climate Champions for Climate Action – Nigel Topping and Gonzalo Muñoz – Race To Zero mobilizes actors outside of national governments to join the Climate Ambition Alliance, which was launched at the UNSG’s Climate Action Summit 2019 by the President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera.

All members are committed to the same overarching goal: reducing emissions across all scopes swiftly and fairly in line with the Paris Agreement, with transparent action plans and robust near-term targets. 

If your company is thinking about joining the Race to Zero campaign, you can learn more here.