Changing the System: The Top 10 Sustainability Challenges for Canadian Business in 2013

Sustainability Challenges for 2013

Producing the List of Challenges

The Sustainability Challenges emerged from a one-day roundtable of 15 senior business leaders who gathered in Toronto on September 25, 2012. These business leaders included Debbie Baxter, Chief Sustainability Officer, LoyaltyOne; Paula Brand, Director, Integrated Decision Making Division, Environment Canada; Grete Bridgewater, Director, Environmental Programs, Canadian Pacific; Karen Clarke-Whistler, Chief Environment Officer, TD Bank Group; John Coyne, Vice President, Legal & External Affairs and General Counsel, Unilever Canada; David Dougall, Director of Accessibility & Sustainability, Research In Motion; Tim Faveri, Director, Sustainability and Responsibility, Tim Hortons Inc.; Brenda Goehring, Corporate Safety, Health & Environment, BC Hydro; Deborah Kaplan, Sustainability Principal, SAP Canada; Peter MacConnachie, Senior Sustainability Issues Management Specialist, Suncor Energy; Matthew McCulloch, Director, Consulting Group, Pembina Institute; Chris McDonell, Manager, Aboriginal and Environmental Relations, Tembec; John Page, Director, Ethics, Environment and Corporate Social Responsibility, TELUS Corporation; Luc Robitaille, Corporate Director Environment, Holcim (Canada) Inc.; Jane Sadler Richards, Butyls Global Specialist, Sustainable Development, LANXESS Inc.

Council members not in attendance included: Paul Berto, Director of Corporate Communications and External Affairs, The Home Depot Canada; Mona Frendo, Director, Policy Co-ordination and Regulatory Affairs, Industry Canada; and Carmen Turner, Leader, Sustainability and Community Engagement, Teck.

The roundtable was facilitated by Tima Bansal, a professor of strategic management at the Richard Ivey School of Business (Western University) and Executive Director of the Network for Business Sustainability. Bansal led the group through the process of sharing and capturing Canada’s business sustainability challenges, ranking them in importance and then prioritizing the ones that should be closely
investigated by researchers. The following list represents the outcome of that discussion.

The 10 Sustainability Challenges For Canadian Business in 2013

1. How can businesses contribute to effective, integrated public policy on the right issues?
2. How can companies best engage value chain, industry and NGO partners to achieve sustainability goals?
3. How can businesses help Canadians become informed, inspired and engaged in a national dialogue about responsible consumption?
4. What corporate structures enable companies to deliver on sustainability goals?
5. How can companies keep their long-term sustainability agenda on track despite leadership changes?
6. How should companies navigate issues regarding Aboriginal rights and entitlements?
7. How can Canadian organizations become more innovative?
8. How can companies embed social license to operate into their strategy?
9. How can business and society prepare effectively for the impacts of climate change?
10. How can companies respond to the proliferation of voluntary and mandatory reporting requirements?