Industry Leaders Identify CSR Challenges

Making a business sustainable is challenging. Just ask any sustainability manager. Or 14 of them.

Making a business sustainable is challenging. Just ask any sustainability manager. Or 14 of them.

On September 25, 2012 our Leadership Council – comprised of 14 representatives of industry leaders recognized for their environmental and social responsibility – gathered in Toronto to discuss the challenges they face in their organization.

The roundtable was facilitated by our Executive Director and Management Professor for the Richard Ivey School of Business, Tima Bansal. The group was led through a process of sharing and capturing their sustainability challenges, ranking them in importance and then prioritizing the ones that should be closely investigated by the research community.

The resulting report 2013 Canadian Business Sustainability Challenges – to be released in December – reveals their Top 10 list and provides insight into what Canadian businesses need to consider when going green.

NBS’s Leadership Council meeting attendees:

• 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

• 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:

• Paul Berto, Director of Corporate Communications and External Affairs, The Home Depot Canada

• Mona Frendo Director, Policy Co-ordination and Regulatory Affairs, Industry Canada.