Responsible Green Business

Canada’s top executives and experts convened in Toronto this month to attend some of the foremost conferences in the country addressing sustainable business practices. The month kicked off with the Annual Summit of Canadian Business for Social Responsibility where luminary Summit speakers like Ray Anderson and Justin Trudeau shared insights on the future of leadership and the strategies for a more socially responsive business model. The Good Green Jobs for All conference brought together over 600 participants into a workshop setting the following weekend to generate solutions to the current need for equitable employment opportunities. A week later, the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) inaugurated their first annual Community Power Conference to share and establish best practices for sustainable energy projects that are owned and developed by local community residents. The meetings were all led by passionate and celebrated speakers who offered glimpses of a business future that is very bright, and definitely green.

The Rise of the Conscious Corporation and CSR

CBSR is a business-led non-profit that advises companies on business decisions that improve performance while contribute to a better world. Their Annual Summit hosted discussions about transforming business and propelling companies into the post-recession economy. No longer seen as a burden, speakers and attendees alike championed corporate social responsibility (CSR) as the mechanism and the message that will help companies to persist (even thrive) in a changing marketplace. Building social and environmental priorities into corporate strategy involves setting benchmarks for monitoring and measuring the impact of business activities on the natural, built and social environment. Summit speakers noted that there was a growing requirement for companies to demonstrate a commitment to ethics, to invest in auditing and to communicate their activities in a transparent way. For speaker Jeffrey Hollander, co-founder and executive chairperson of Seventh Generation, this requires a willingness to talk about what you as a company are not doing. Seventh Generation was one of the first companies to publish their CSR report and make themselves accountable to the information disclosed. While this was an intimidating decision at first, it functioned to increase consumer trust and gain advantage over competitors. They have found that their decision to publicly disclose their plans encourages transparency among other companies.

CBSR also presented research on how an organization’s reputation and brand image has increased in importance as it becomes clear that a company is not only scrutinized by consumers and stakeholders for more its products but its values as well. This signals a shift in how we understand business and summit speakers agreed that brand power is being gained by companies leveraging their ‘good acts’ in the community. Old marketing techniques are being slowly replaced and rivaled by campaigns that support CSR objectives instead, and these dollars are well spent. New models of collaboration and public/private partnerships are happening under the CSR banner to fulfill expectations for businesses to go further than offering product solutions but to invest in opportunities to demonstrate its commitment to the environmental with as well.

And to the question: When do you know that CSR has entered the mainstream? The clear answer came: when the executives or employees responsible for implementing CSR into the business become the CEO’s.

Good Green Jobs for All

As Toronto grapples with a 10.1% unemployment rate, the Good Green Jobs for All conference endeavoured to construct a community-driven plan for expanding a green job sector that would help stimulate economic recovery. The event was packed with a diverse and excited audience made up of youth, labour, community and social justice representatives plus municipal politicians. The speakers set up the day’s discussions by describing a vision for building on the  precedent-setting projects that already exist in Toronto and push forward a new kind of industrial development that creates work from the creation of green infrastructure, empowering youth and manufacturing jobs in the process. Participants then brainstormed plans for wise infrastructure spending, and building local economies through initiatives like local procurement policies.

Community Power

OSEA’s Community Power Conference was chaired by Dr. David Suzuki and saw 80 local Ontario utility providers in attendance along with industry leaders, government officials and local groups. Over 450 delegates helped give this inaugural conference a deep sense of a community as they celebrated Ontario’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act and the truly realizable dreams of a sustainable future for the province. Hot topics included the Micro-FIT and Feed-in Tariffs and showcasing the latest technology for renewable energy systems. Dozens of case studies were highlighted over the course of the weekend showcasing the attractive return on investment in renewable energy for individuals and businesses. Their slogan "Community Power - it’s everybody’s business now" couldn't ring truer to emphasize the opportunity that the feed-in tarriff presents: that every citizen of Ontario has an opportunity to be a power generator and a conserver, and has the right to get paid for being a green entrepreneur.