Environmentalism used to be a case of David and Goliath: activists on inflatable dinghies sidling up to giant whaling vessels in the North Pacific, facing off against loggers in Clayoquot Sound, picketing corporations thought to be harming Earth.
The tides are changing. Increasingly, non-profit environmental groups are teaming with companies that want to operate more sustainably. Businesses tap into the expertise of conservationists as they green their operations both internal and external.
Since 2005, Catalyst Paper Corp., a producer of specialty printing papers headquartered in Richmond, has worked voluntarily with World Wildlife Fund Canada to further its environmental commitment. As one of WWF-Canada’s Climate Saver partners, Catalyst has cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 70% relative to 1990 levels: the equivalent of taking 250,000 cars off the road.
“We believe that collective action is the best way to address the risk of global warming,” said Lyn Brown, Catalyst’s vice-president of corporate affairs and social responsibility. “We see good value in looking to the expertise of credible and science-based groups such as WWF, which can engage with us both critically and constructively as we strive to make better business decisions and improve our sustainability performance.”
The partnership with WWF-Canada has helped Catalyst pursue fuel-switching, energy-saving and recycling initiatives in its B.C. mills. Its participation in Climate Savers has even allowed it to translate its gains into industry-changing, earth-friendly product offerings.
On June 28, 2007, Rolling Stone magazine débuted its first issue printed on Catalyst Cooled paper: a special edition dedicated to global warming. Produced with no net increase in greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, Catalyst Cooled makes Catalyst the first company to have manufactured carbon-neutral paper on a mass scale. Rolling Stone continues to publish on manufactured carbon-neutral paper made at Catalyst’s Port Alberni mill.
“The GHG-neutral promise means that we account for and offset emissions that are within our direct control,” Brown said. “That includes doing things that reduce our greenhouse-gas emissions as much as possible, like switching to renewable, carbon-neutral fuels, reducing energy consumption and improving equipment-efficiency.”
The product, Brown said, would not have materialized had Catalyst not undertaken “a thorough review of its operations, with an eye to identifying emissions-reductions opportunities” through Climate Saver.
According to Darcy Dobell, vice-president, Pacific region, at WWF-Canada, helping companies like Catalyst achieve success in sustainability is part of her organization’s mandate.
“We reject the notion that there is an inherent conflict between business and the environment, economy and ecology,” she said. “We’re not an organization that sees business as inherently antagonistic to good sustainability practices. Rather, we believe that there is an enormous opportunity for the business community to make a huge contribution to improving our relationship with the planet. Our aim is to engage the people who have the ability to make the biggest difference.”
Based in Vancouver with franchises across the Lower Mainland, in Toronto and in Seattle, Frogbox Inc. provides reusable containers as alternatives to cardboard moving boxes. While the company was built on commitment to green, founder and president Doug Burgoyne felt he could do even more, even better, shortly after Frogbox’s launch in 2008.
“When we started the business, we looked at everything we could possibly do to minimize the environmental impact,” he said. “We used solar hosting for our website, we used biodiesel … but we didn’t really measure the impact of that.”
Frogbox entered into partnership with Climate Smart Businesses Inc., a social enterprise launched by non-profit Ecotrust Canada that helps businesses measure and reduce their carbon footprints while cutting costs.
“We wanted to minimize the operational impact of our service,” said Burgoyne, “and that’s where Climate Smart came in really handy, because it helped us to measure it and understand where our greenhouse gases were really coming from.”
One strategy that Frogbox implemented was a software-based routing system for its delivery trucks.
“We wanted to reduce our fuel costs by 20%, and we wanted to reduce our greenhouse-gas emissions per box delivered by 30%,” Burgoyne explained. “Now we can lock customers down to sort out our orders in batches so we’re not driving [inefficiently] all over the city.”
Businesses interested in the emerging sustainable-seafood sector may face challenges. SeaChoice, an initiative of the David Suzuki Foundation with several other environmental organizations, works with companies like Overwaitea Food Group Ltd. to overcome obstacles and maximize success.
“This idea sounds very simple, and … who would not want healthier oceans and more sustainable seafood? But to make that idea real in today’s world … [is] very tough,” said Overwaitea president Steve van der Leest. “We know that with the experts that we have in the SeaChoice organization helping us find practical solutions … we can make a difference.”
Overwaitea, which operates 124 grocery stores in B.C. and Alberta, began working with the David Suzuki Foundation and SeaChoice to “come up with a sustainable seafood policy,” van der Leest said. “They have, in our opinion, the best science in the world on this topic.”
The partnership bore fruit on April 21, 2010, when Overwaitea announced that it would make sustainably farmed closed-containment Coho salmon available to consumers: the first food retailer in Western Canada to do so. SeaChoice had helped the company identify a Washington-state supplier that met its high sustainable-seafood standards.
“Just giving consumers a better choice isn’t the only way to make change,” said Jay Ritchlin, program director, marine and freshwater conservation, for the David Suzuki Foundation. “Sometimes policies have to change, or practices have to change, and Overwaitea has committed to help us work with its suppliers, the people who grow the agriculture products and fish for the wild-caught products.
“Sometimes it’s important to be able go with a major business partner to government and to say [that] we really do need to change the way we monitor or manage our fisheries, so that everybody knows that things are getting better and it’s not up to each and every individual to try and solve everything [alone].”
David Suzuki, who was on hand for the Earth Day announcement, said, “Environmentalists have fought. We’ve fought against bad practices, pollution of the air, the water; against clear-cut logging; and it’s become very clear to me that, worthy as our causes are, we’re not going to make it if we don’t begin to work together with other sectors.
“As the corporate sector begins to realize that you can’t just ignore the environment – it’s critical not only for other people but also for their businesses – and begins to try to align its policies and practices with true sustainable ideas, that’s where the action is as far as I’m concerned.”