Corporate Knights

APRIL 18, 2024

A convoy of tractors was making its way to a Dutch government building in February when Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted out his support for farmers revolting against the EU’s regulatory push to drive down climate emissions: “I’m pro-environment, but I support the farmers! Farming has no material effect on climate change.” The online reaction was swift, with stats, charts, links and memes filling replies from all sides.

Net Zero 363

Net Zero Regenerative Carbon Offsets Supply Chains 363

Corporate Knights

APRIL 17, 2024

M atías Muchnick is no stranger to surprises. As an entrepreneur who shifted his finance bona fides to the world of artificial intelligence, testing out hypotheses and seeing what sticks is his bread and butter. But in the dynamic world of plant-based food, even those on the vanguard of revolutionary change may pinch themselves from time to time. Nine years after Muchnick created NotCo, a start-up launched in Chile with a mission to use technology to move the needle on sustainability, the traj

Development 158

Development Manufacturing 158

Corporate Knights

APRIL 17, 2024

The federal government’s budget includes more than $52 billion in new funding over the next five years to tackle affordability, build more homes and enhance tax fairness. But in terms of its climate investments, it fell short. In particular, the budget, released Tuesday, failed to clarify how the government plans to make up for its $14-billion climate funding shortfall – the gap that Corporate Knights has identified between federal commitments and funds disbursed as of the end of fiscal year 2

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Supply Chains Supply Chain Clean Technology Manufacturing 192

Corporate Knights

APRIL 16, 2024

When Chris Bryson sees a problem, he has a lot of trouble looking away. In the early days of the pandemic, when pet adoptions were on the rise, he started fostering a cat. That cat quickly became two cats, and then he added another two cats. Eventually, he was fostering eight cats in his apartment. “And then I thought, ‘Wow, I can’t keep doubling this or this is going to be a problem.

Development 158

Development 158

Corporate Knights

APRIL 15, 2024

Some plant-based brands have struggled to lower their prices so they’re on par with meat and dairy products. But while beef burgers, bacon and chicken nuggets might be easier on household budgets, they have all sorts of planetary and socio-economic costs that don’t show up on receipts. Forests Livestock farming is responsible for almost 40% of global deforestation , mostly in the vital rainforests of the Amazon.

UNEP 166

UNEP Climate Change 166

Corporate Knights

APRIL 15, 2024

Some plant-based brands have struggled to lower their prices so they’re on par with meat and dairy products. But while beef burgers, bacon and chicken nuggets might be easier on household budgets, they have all sorts of planetary and socio-economic costs that don’t show up on receipts. Forests Livestock farming is responsible for almost 40% of global deforestation , mostly in the vital rainforests of the Amazon.

UNEP 130

UNEP Climate Change 130

Corporate Knights

APRIL 15, 2024

By late February, the Smokehouse Creek wildfire in the Texas Panhandle had become the state’s first ever “gigafire,” a label saved for blazes that tear through more than a million acres. From a region that’s home to more cows than anywhere in the United States, images of cattle running from the “monster” blaze went viral, reminding us, yet again, that bad weather keeps getting worse.

Academics 322

Academics Waste 322

Corporate Knights

APRIL 11, 2024

In 1983, a French oceanographic research institute invited an invader to the country’s northern shores. The Japanese seaweed wakame, which grows in fettuccine-like ochre ribbons, had already made itself at home on the French Mediterranean coast after hitching a ride on an oyster boat from Asia in the 1970s. But the decision to introduce this foreign breed of kelp to three islands off the coast of Brittany was made with the intention of farming it as a commodity.

Climate Change 268

Climate Change Banking Development 268

Corporate Knights

APRIL 8, 2024

First in Singapore to publish Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD); aligning with Target 15 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework* Conducted International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Standards gap analysis; expanded disclosures in CDL ISR 2024 to include Group data with the aim for full alignment by FY 2025 First corporate to secure the OCBC 1.5°C sustainability-linked loan, Singapore’s first net zero-aligned loan City Developments Limited (CDL) has

Triple Bottom Line 130

Triple Bottom Line Net Zero CDP Integrated Reporting 130

Corporate Knights

APRIL 11, 2024

In 1983, a French oceanographic research institute invited an invader to the country’s northern shores. The Japanese seaweed wakame, which grows in fettuccine-like ochre ribbons, had already made itself at home on the French Mediterranean coast after hitching a ride on an oyster boat from Asia in the 1970s. But the decision to introduce this foreign breed of kelp to three islands off the coast of Brittany was made with the intention of farming it as a commodity.

Climate Change 208

Climate Change Banking Development 208

Corporate Knights

APRIL 10, 2024

Tom Rose felt like he was in a blockbuster movie when, on August 23, 2022, a cavalcade of black Suburban SUVs pulled into his town of Stephenville, Newfoundland, and disgorged the chancellor and vice-chancellor of Germany, the prime minister of Canada and a mass of other dignitaries. Standing in the receiving line, the 52-year-old mayor and former strawberry farmer took in a moment that he now believes may go down as one of the most significant in Newfoundland history.

Shipping 174

Shipping Net Zero Decarbonize 174

Corporate Knights

APRIL 9, 2024

On the world stage at Davos 2024, Canada’s minister of finance, Chrystia Freeland, declared that “right now we’re living through a moment which is comparable only to the Industrial Revolution.” She was referring to the green transition, and the opportunities and challenges that lay before us as world leaders race to decarbonize their economies. In a pitch to convince foreign investors to put their money in Canadian industries, Freeland said the federal government has “a suite of policies for the

Clean Technology 315

Clean Technology Net Zero Decarbonize Climate Change 315

Corporate Knights

APRIL 5, 2024

The federal carbon tax increase is now in effect, and will raise gas prices by three cents per litre in most Canadian provinces. The hike prompted complaints from seven premiers and a recent parliamentary showdown , culminating in a failed vote of non-confidence in the Liberal government. Yet this ongoing debate overlooks a far costlier carbon tax: fossil fuel subsidies.

Climate Change 303

Climate Change 303

Corporate Knights

APRIL 1, 2024

The world is inching ever closer to 2050, the target date set in Paris in 2015 for countries to reduce their emissions to net-zero. While some still believe that this goal is attainable, cutting carbon may be more gradual than many might expect. That’s especially true today as three new forces – inflation, deglobalization and changes in clean tech investments – are impacting the energy transition in new ways.

Supply Chains 130

Supply Chains Supply Chain Net Zero Manufacturing 130

Corporate Knights

APRIL 2, 2024

Last month, a United States appeals court judge temporarily suspended the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) new climate-risk disclosure rules amid legal challenges. To date, at least 19 Republican-led states have sued the SEC, in part over alleged concerns that the agency’s rules violate companies’ First Amendment right to free speech because they “compel” companies to disclose certain information.

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Greenwashing Climate Change Banking Development 180

Corporate Knights

APRIL 3, 2024

When you live far from the sprawling fields befitting utility-scale solar and wind farms, it’s easy to feel like clean energy isn’t coming online fast enough. But renewables have grown at a staggering rate since 2014 and now account for 22 percent of the nation’s electricity. Solar alone has grown an impressive eightfold in 10 years. The sun and the wind have been the country’s fastest growing sources of energy over the past decade, according to a report the nonprofit Climate Central released We

Manufacturing 158

Manufacturing Development 158

Corporate Knights

APRIL 1, 2024

Ford and Mercedes-Benz lead the automotive world in working to clean up their supply chains, according to a new report with rankings endorsed by a labor and environmental civil society coalition. But the car industry is far from achieving a “truly clean car” and progress is “lackluster,” the scorecard notes. Car companies are increasingly embracing electric vehicles as a new market opportunity exposed by worsening climate and biodiversity crises.

Supply Chains 279

Supply Chains Supply Chain Waste Decarbonize 279

Corporate Knights

MARCH 28, 2024

Every other day, it seems, an oil and gas industry supporter appears on my LinkedIn or X (formerly Twitter) feeds, arguing that Canada needs to ramp up the production and export of liquefied natural gas (LNG). While their interest is clearly economic, many proponents wrap their arguments in dubious claims about Canadian LNG contributing to the global fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Paris Agreement 356

Paris Agreement Climate Change Greenwashing Shipping 356

Corporate Knights

MARCH 27, 2024

Fossil fuel interest groups have mobilized quickly to oppose a new rule issued by the Biden administration designed to speed up America’s transition to hybrid and electric vehicles. The rule, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized on March 20, limits emissions from tailpipes on new cars, starting in 2027. Well before the EPA finalized the new standard, powerful corporate lobbies like the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) had already promised to spend

EPA 158

EPA Manufacturing Digitalization 158

Corporate Knights

MARCH 26, 2024

As of November, homeowners who heat their abodes with oil have been exempt from the federal fuel charge, or carbon tax. This reversal of one of the crown jewels of the federal government’s climate policies added fuel to the heated public debate over the carbon tax. This policy flip-flop, mixed with poor government communication and sustained attacks by politicians that prey on affordability concerns, isn’t advancing Canada’s economic or environmental objectives.

Banking 215

Banking 215

Corporate Knights

MARCH 25, 2024

Bring it on. That was the governing Liberals’ response to Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre’s call for the next Canadian election to be a “carbon tax election.” Both parties are suiting up for battle. Carbon pricing is embedded in the Liberal brand, and they are doubling down in their support for it, even as some question whether the policy has passed its “best before” date.

Decarbonize 264

Decarbonize Banking Manufacturing Development 264

Corporate Knights

MARCH 21, 2024

Transportation is the largest source of planet-warming gases in the United States, which makes reducing tailpipe pollution as quickly as possible essential to meeting our climate goals. The Biden administration took a huge stride toward that goal Wednesday when it unveiled the tightest limits the nation has ever placed on vehicle emissions. The rule, which follows three years of deliberation among regulators, automakers, and others, places increasingly stringent standards on the amount of CO2 an

Decarbonize 150

Decarbonize EPA Climate Change Manufacturing 150

Corporate Knights

MARCH 1, 2024

While some Canadian pension funds “made helpful but modest tweaks” to their climate policies in 2023, even the leaders in the field lagged behind international peers in their efforts to build climate urgency into their investment choices and exclude fossil fuels from their portfolios, a watchdog group reports this morning. Among the 11 funds surveyed, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which manages retirement savings for more than 22 million Canadians, “stands out as the bigges

Net Zero 186

Net Zero Greenwashing Paris Agreement Decarbonize 186

Corporate Knights

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

Biking within Black and Brown communities is complicated. While non-motorized transportation is an important tactic for reducing emissions, many people still associate biking with something that kids do — or think of it as the last resort for people who can’t afford cars. In BIPOC communities, that is compounded by external factors such as perceived or realistic safety issues, police harassment, and lack of access and infrastructure due to decades of disinvestment.

Development 290

Development 290

Corporate Knights

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

As the climate crisis escalates, there are urgent and difficult choices that need to be made to drastically reduce our carbon emissions before more irreparable damage is done. Many have argued the energy industry needs to change to reduce carbon emissions , but one concern that remains is the consequence this will have on economic prosperity. Discussions vary across interest groups.

Development 326

Development 326

Corporate Knights

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Oil and gas companies have for years marketed fracked gas from B.C. as a global climate solution, with some industry boosters even going so far as to call Canada’s supply of the fossil fuel the “cleanest in the world.” But an impending flood of liquefied natural gas exports from western Canada to Asia could make it harder for countries there to achieve their national climate targets and contribute to tens of thousands of additional deaths due to air pollution.

Shipping 314

Shipping Carbon Offsets Climate Researcher Climate Change 314

Corporate Knights

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

In December, a federal judge found that Enel Green Power, an Italian energy corporation operating an 84-turbine wind farm on the Osage Reservation for nearly a decade, had trespassed on Native land. The ruling was a clear victory for the Osage Nation and the company estimated that complying with the order to tear down the turbines would cost nearly $260 million.

Development 335

Development Divestment Banking 335

Corporate Knights

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Weak regulations, low demand, and a lack of skilled labour are blocking service providers along Canada’s deep retrofit supply chain from scaling up operations to make homes safer, more climate resilient , and more affordable to heat, says a recent report by Pembina Institute. The need to address these blockages is critical, the clean energy think tank writes [pdf] in a new report, noting that Canada’s building sector contributes 13% of the country’s total emissions.

Supply Chains 218

Supply Chains Supply Chain Decarbonize Net Zero 218

Corporate Knights

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

Across France, Italy and Belgium last week thousands of farmers descended on capital cities to express their deep discontent with the European food system. The scenes were dramatic. Parked tractors brought traffic to a standstill in Paris, and on Thursday burning piles of hay and debris sent up huge, dark plumes of smoke in Brussels. The protests show no sign of slowing down and are expected this week across Italy, Slovenia and Spain.

Net Zero 246

Net Zero Development 246

Corporate Knights

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

While white women may speak of breaking through the “glass ceiling,” for many Black women, it’s more like a “concrete ceiling.” Black women experience unique and formidable barriers in the workforce that are not only difficult to break, but also obscure their view of career advancement opportunities. A comprehensive study in 2020 exposed the harsh reality of Black representation on Canadian corporate boards: Out of 1,639 board positions across eight major Canadian cities, only 0.8% were occupied

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Corporate Knights

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

For decades, Indigenous communities in northern Alberta have voiced concerns about pollution from the region’s oil sands facilities contaminating the air they breath. Extracting bitumen from the sands has emitted all sorts of harmful chemicals that drift downwind and have even been linked to elevated cancer rates in at least one community. A recent study shows this problem might be a lot worse than the oil industry has let on.

Climate Change 221

Climate Change 221

Corporate Knights

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Last month, reporter David Gelles, of The New York Times, wrote that at Davos this year, the climate crisis had largely been “relegated to the back burner.” That was not my experience. While the CEOs and decision-makers that attended the annual World Economic Forum meeting seemed more worried about things other than climate change (the potential for another Donald Trump presidency and artificial intelligence), they were also more excited about the gathering multitrillion-dollar economic opportun

Paris Agreement 276

Paris Agreement Net Zero Sustainable Investment Climate Change 276

Corporate Knights

JANUARY 25, 2024

Corporate Knights reached out to conservatives in Canada , the U.S. and the U.K. who are hoping to steer their parties toward a more sustainable future. We asked all three the same question: what is your prescription for green conservatives? Read our introduction here. In 2006, David Cameron, then leader of the Conservative Opposition, travelled to the Arctic to be photographed “hugging a husky.

Net Zero 352

Net Zero COP26 Shipping Development 352

Corporate Knights

JANUARY 25, 2024

Corporate Knights reached out to conservatives in Canada , the U.S. and the U.K. who are hoping to steer their parties toward a more sustainable future. We asked all three the same question: what is your prescription for green conservatives? Read our introduction here. Political movements are ironic, indeterminate, inspiring and infuriating. Conservatism and environmentalism exemplify how movements’ identities and relationship to each other evolve, often dramatically.

Climate Change 243

Climate Change Decarbonize Development 243

Corporate Knights

JANUARY 24, 2024

Corporate Knights reached out to conservatives in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. who are hoping to steer their parties toward a more sustainable future. We asked all three the same question: what is your prescription for green conservatives? Read our introduction here. Check back January 25 for the rest of the package. There is a habit among politicians, on all sides of the political spectrum, to judge a policy not on its merits but on its lineage.

Climate Change 192

Climate Change Decarbonize 192

Corporate Knights

JANUARY 24, 2024

Electoral systems in Western democracies have always been a seesaw, teetering every term or two between parties, hinging, with a creaky moan, a little to the left or to the right. For the most part, everyone has agreed that our collective world functions best with clean air, clean water and plenty of preserved green spaces. The climate crisis changed that.

Climate Change 332

Climate Change Paris Agreement Net Zero Clean Technology 332

Corporate Knights

JANUARY 23, 2024

In November 1959, some 300 businessmen, scientists and government officials gathered at Columbia University in New York to celebrate the first hundred years of commercial oil exploitation in the United States. The mood was triumphant: fossil fuels were the lifeblood of the world’s largest economy, powering the postwar boom, industrial expansion and the suburban American dream.

Greenwashing 345

Greenwashing Net Zero Climate Change Digitalization 345