Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Abitibi Bowater VP Denis Leclerc on the forestry sector, the planet, and its future inhabitants

Alternative Channel's Leaders in Sustainability Series

Leaders In Sustainability is an exclusive series of interviews with those at the fore of the sustainability movement, both in the corporate and non-profit sectors.
By Chris Advansun and Kassandra Linklater

Abitibi Bowater, a leader in the forestry sector, shares their plans to also become a trailblazer in environmental sustainability. Alternative Channel’s Chris Advansun recently discussed with Vice President of Sustainability and Environment Denis LeClerc the importance of the company’s new philosophy, the importance of educating children on the environment and finally the importance of questioning everything.

CA - First, tell me about Abitibi Bowater and your efforts to take leadership on environmental sustainability:

DL - First of all, Abitibi Bowater is a new company; it was created at the end of October 2007. Although it was a merger of two companies, Abitibi and Bowater, the result of this merger was a creation of a new entity. The executive team completely reviewed the business model and decided to take a long term vision on leadership, and contrary to all other companies, we don’t want to be a leader in sustainability. What we want is to do the right thing and let others judge if we can be a model for other companies.

In terms of environmental sustainability, as we have reviewed that as well, we’ve identified three important aspects. The first one is that we need to be profitable, second, we want to be sustainable and third, we want to be responsible; the three words that best describe our journey to sustainability. As a new company, the senior management decided that sustainability was a key factor and that’s why they created a new position – Vice President of Sustainability and Environment. Since the creation of the company, we’ve done a lot of work talking to our people internally and talking to stakeholders, customers, and suppliers to really have a better understanding of what sustainability means for a forest-product company.

The result was that we came up with key drivers for the new company. The first, which is a global key driver, is the environmental footprint, so as a company we are committed to reducing our environmental footprint. We have also identified four other key drivers.

The first one is related to climate change. Our predecessor companies, Abitibi and Bowater, have done an excellent job in reducing their green house gas emissions. Actually the two companies, Abitibi and Bowater, if you compare the statistics with the year 2000, have reduced 35% of their green house gas admissions which is very significant. But we know we can do more and we can do better. We are working to find ways to use more green energy; so using biomass energy, even landfill gas, and working on improving the efficiency at our mills by using the best equipment. We have a task force to evaluate all of these options but our goal, our aspiration is to be a carbon neutral company. Since we are a major forest product company and we have a very significant lumber operation, we are working right now, using the World Resources Institute methodology and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, to make sure that we have the best tools to calculate our carbon footprint.

The second key driver is responsible fibre sourcing. Abitibi Bowater right now has 95% of its woodland operations certified. We want, by the end of the year, to be at 100% and even today with 95% certified that’s over 50 million hectors of forest. That makes Abitibi Bowater number one in the world, in terms of forest certification. Also, another well kept secret is the fact that we are using a lot of recycled fibre. Actually, I believe that we are the biggest recycler of old newspaper and magazines in North America. So we do recycle a lot of fibre, and we have a business to collect paper in North America and in the UK. Responsible fibre sourcing means using as much certified, recycled fibre as possible.

The third one is product stewardship. Do you know what our customers are asking us now?

CA - What is that?

DL – Well, normally they ask us for a good paper that will have a good run-ability, good price, good service, but now customers are switching. What they are asking us is, “how can you help my company to reduce its carbon footprint?” In terms of product stewardship, we want to provide our customers with solutions to help them limit their environmental impact.

In May we announced the creation of two new grades of paper. We have created an innovative paper that uses 50% less fibre, water, and energy than the traditional paper made for the same usage. We are committed to providing our customers with solutions that will help them reduce their carbon footprint.

Finally, stakeholder-relations is something that is very important. Of course we can’t please everyone but we want to be in a position to consider how we can team up with our stakeholders to create more beneficial partnerships. We have five roads: the first is that we are an employer, we have to deal with employees and unions, we are a neighbour for the community, we are also a supplier so we need to deal with customers, we are a partner, we partner with Government, NGO’s, suppliers, so we have a role there. And finally the fifth one, that we should never forget, is we are also an investment. So these factors are all important parts of our new sustainability road map.

CA - That’s great. Getting back to stakeholders, is it sometimes difficult to deal with, in particular non-profits, and in some cases just the general public, who have misperceptions about the forestry industry and its impact on the environment?

DL - It is a challenge, it is a major challenge. I don’t pretend I have all the answers but the impacts of its operations are very visible and it is also very emotional. I don’t know too many people that can look at a freshly harvested region and see it as beautiful. Maybe a forest engineer who sees that it is well done but generally it is against nature to see that. I would definitely say that the forest industry is a natural target due to the emotional impact. It will always be a challenge and the forest industry, in my mind, will always be a target. First, it is difficult because we can’t bring people into the forest and show them what we do. Second, what I often say to reporters is, don’t always believe what you are told. In fact, don’t believe me, don’t trust me, go and check the facts, and that what I am saying is true or not. It is important to develop this critical mindset, to always question everything. I am always urging NGO’s, the government and the population to say, “I want to know more.”

CA - I think this is great, I think this gives us a great sense of the company. I am also interested in what motivates you personally, how else is the environment important to you?

DL - First of all, I would like to say I have one of the best jobs on the planet, for the planet. Yes, we have a lot of challenges and it is difficult to explain everything, but it is a fantastic job and even though we are going through major restructuring, the forest industry will continue to play a vital role, not only on the social economic aspect but also on the environmental aspect. I also believe the forest industry will be a major positive player in the global solution to climate change. Right now we are talking about climate change, but what is going to be the next big global issue? Probably biodiversity and the forestry sector is also a major player in that issue.

Why am I so excited about it? Probably, because it has given me the opportunity to improve upon what we’re doing and help make a significant contribution towards sustainability.

For example, after our interview I am going to talk about the environment to 500 students on their last day of school. This year their theme was the environment. At lunch time, each students will leave the school with a small tree. And it’s not meant to be a gift; they have a challenge to take care of these trees. So that is just one example of my interests, to make sure that our children will do two things, one that they will be different than me when I was at their age so they will act in a positive manner towards the environment and the second one is that I hope when they are at my age, that the planet will be better than it is today

CA – That’s fantastic. I want to thank you for sharing Abitibi Bowater’s story.

DL – You’re welcome. Thank you.

Image credits (from top): 1) Denis Leclerc, Vice President of Environment and Sustainability at Abitibi Bowater; 2) One of Abitibi Bowater's mills in Thorold, Ontario; 3) Promotional image of Eco Laser, one of Abitibi Bowater's new "hybrid" paper lines; 4) Aerial image of Abitibi-Bowater's Thorold, Ontario mill.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Newsletter: Be the change you want to see in the world

Click here for the original Newsletter E-mail

Jeremie Poirier: profile of a social entrepreneur
Alternative Channel's Kassandra Linklater connects with Jeremie Poirier, founder of Toronto-based Million Dollar Youth, a non-profit education and fundraising organization run by youth, for youth. To read or comment on this article, click here.



When Good Elements Go Bad
David Suzuki and Faisal Moola track the environmental consequences of excessive amounts of nitrogen from sources such as road and industrial run-off, untreated sewage, and, most of all, fossil-fuel combustion and agricultural fertilizers. To read this article, click here.

Social Entrepreneurship, “the new Britney?”

Alternative Channel's Kassandra Linklater connects with Jeremie Poirier, founder of Toronto-based Million Dollar Youth, a non-profit education and fundraising organization run by youth, for youth.

It is undeniable that we currently live in the golden era of connectivity. At any hour of any day, one can stream live news broadcasts on their computer from halfway across the globe. Advertisements can be watched over one's phone, and through voice-over-internet, geographical distance is becoming a thing of the past. Many predicted that this new "global village" would help humanity reach an era of increased peace and would create monumental steps towards the eradication of world poverty. But alternatively, mass connectivity has made room for an age of televised birthday parties costing in the hundred's of thousands of dollars and the idolization of pop stars with shaved heads. Questions tend to arise, whether in regards to the lack of civic engagement or the apathetic disregard of social issues, when which teen celebrity has been arrested makes the evening news.

Fortunately for the future of society, many people have started to ask these ever important questions. Although the idea of philanthropy has been around for hundreds of years, in the last twenty or so there has been an emergence of a concept that combines both the principles of business with the ideas of social responsibility. This trend is best known as Social Entrepreneurship (SE). Compared to traditional entrepreneurship, where success is measured based on profit, the success of a social entrepreneur or their organization is based on the positive societal impact that they create. Although social entrepreneurship is usually categorized as being a part of the not-for-profit sector, there has been an emergence in recent years among the for-profit sector as well. As citizens realize that it is up to them, as Ghandi once remarked, "to be the change they want to see in the world," more and more organizations are starting to get involved.

Youth especially have caught the "social entrepreneurship bug," as it is an avenue that allows their opinions to be heard. Generation Y has realized that, whether they are prepared or not, they will be inheriting the future and it is up to them to make it a peaceful and prosperous place. Million Dollar Youth (MDY) which "provides youth with the skills necessary to be successful social entrepreneurs," is just one example of a youth-driven organization. Founded by Jeremie Poirier, Million Dollar Youth's mission is to "provide service learning opportunities for 16-30 year olds in order to make a positive difference in their lives and the lives of others."

When asked why he started this organization, Poirier stated that he founded MDY, "after a service mission to Peru where I saw a school in such terrible condition that no teacher wanted to teach there. Coming from Canada, I had never witnessed anything like this. I felt it was important to help people in need and show the world that young people can make a difference." As is the case with most entrepreneurship ventures, social entrepreneurs are not exempt from the difficulties of implementing a concept from the ground up. Poirier commented in regards to his own challenges that, "as a social entrepreneur, I have faced many of the same challenges as an entrepreneur. As an 18 year old social entrepreneur, there are benefits and disadvantages; one benefit to being a young social entrepreneur is that I find it much easier to get meetings with influential people. I am given the time to prove myself, the hard part is doing just that. One disadvantage to being young is that people will say they will help you but, as you do not have credibility, they often never come through with that assistance."

When asked about whether he believed that the title of "social entrepreneur" should be limited to organizations that are not-for profit or if it should be an all-encompassing label, Poirier stated that, "I believe that a social entrepreneur's goal is to come up with and implement creative ideas that will help better the world – they measure their success on the amount of social change they create. Often, for-profit organizations are focused almost solely on meeting financial targets, not on measuring the positive impact they have on society, which would lead me to conclude that unless there is a major shift in the way for-profit organizations (businesses) think/run (ie. Think capitalism with a conscience... maximize the profits while minimizing the negative impact on society), the term social entrepreneurship should remain in the hands of the non-profit sector."

To conclude, it is fundamental fact in business that everything has a lifecycle and more often that not, the expiration date comes sooner rather than later. When asked if he believed the trend of social entrepreneurship too might fade, Poirier responded, "If you take a look at the trend in Ontario, governments, non-profit organizations, and for-profit organizations are increasingly becoming involved in Social Entrepreneurship. A very successful Social Entrepreneurship Summit a few months ago at MaRS in Toronto is an example of its growing popularity. It's the new Britney Spears." With a vision in tow, social entrepreneurs are committed to providing innovative solutions to pressing social problems. So in era of Facebook, SMS, and yes, Britney, maybe, just maybe, social entrepreneurship will be the silver lining along the horizon.

When good elements go bad

David Suzuki and Faisal Moola track the environmental consequences of excessive amounts of nitrogen from sources such as road and industrial run-off, untreated sewage, and, most of all, fossil-fuel combustion and agricultural fertilizers.

If you've been following news about the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games, you may have seen photos of thousands of workers trying to clean huge swaths of algae from the waters and beaches in co-host city Qingdao. The algae have proliferated over a third of waters where sailing events will be held.

This is not an unusual occurrence, but it is a symptom of an underlying problem with potential repercussions far more serious than hampering Olympic events or adding to the negative publicity surrounding China's games. The blooms – along with a host of other problems – are caused by excessive amounts of nitrogen from sources such as road and industrial run-off, untreated sewage, and, most of all, fossil-fuel combustion and agricultural fertilizers.

Because it is a major component of proteins and the atmosphere, nitrogen is a vital element in the biosphere. In the soil, nitrogen stimulates growth in plants. Normally, bacteria in soil can take atmospheric nitrogen and combine it with hydrogen to create a molecule that plants can use. We can "fix" nitrogen from the air into fertilizer in a process that takes a lot of heat from fossil fuels.

Applied on farmers' fields, this artificial fertilizer induces plant growth, but scientists believe that this has resulted in nitrogen entering the Earth's soils at more than twice its natural rate. This ripples out from the land to affect freshwater and marine ecosystems. Besides giving Chinese Olympic organizers headaches, algal outbreaks have also contaminated drinking-water supplies used by millions of people.

Excess nitrogen can also disrupt or change plant-growth patterns (including contributing to the spread of invasive species), poison freshwater environments, deprive ocean ecosystems of the oxygen needed to support aquatic life, and even contribute to global warming.

In one particularly troubling example of the impact of all this nitrogen, scientists predict that a massive "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico will grow to more than 26,000 square kilometres this summer, which is more than 50 percent greater than the yearly average since 1990. That's an area about half the size of Nova Scotia! Dead zones are caused by nitrogen and phosphorous washing into the ocean and stimulating growth of excessive amounts of algae and other plants, which then starve the area of oxygen.

Ironically, the increase is fuelled in part by the rush to find alternatives to fossil fuels that contribute to global warming. Farmers along the Mississippi River have been planting more corn and using more fertilizer to meet the demand for corn-based biofuels. Corn's shallow roots don't hold and absorb all of the fertilizers, so much of it washes into streams that flow into the Mississippi, which drains into the Gulf of Mexico.

In a process known as eutrophication, the nitrates and phosphorous from the fertilizers, along with carbon from the air, stimulate growth of algae and other nuisance plants in the water. When the plants grow, die, and decay, they block the sun and use up oxygen, thus decreasing the supply of dissolved oxygen in the water. This process occurs in lakes as well as oceans. The decayed plants also fall to the bottom and create layers of slime on the lake or ocean floor. Scientists say these dead zones are growing in size and number, with as many as 200 now believed to have formed in the Earth's oceans.

Nitrogen also contributes to global warming, through fossil-fuel emissions and other human activities such as agriculture, as well as by eutrophication. Nitrogen itself is harmless and makes up 80 per cent of our atmosphere, but nitrous oxide, a byproduct of nitrogen from fossil fuels and agricultural practices, is 300 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide – although carbon dioxide is far more prevalent in the atmosphere.

Because we know where much of the excess nitrogen in the environment comes from, we know how to reduce the levels. First, we must cut back on fossil fuels. But we can also reduce our use of chemical fertilizers, in agriculture, on golf courses, and even in our own back yards. We may not be able fix the problem in time for the 2008 Olympics, but we need to get on it now, or we'll have far bigger problems to contend with than where to hold Olympic sailing events.

Take David Suzuki's Nature Challenge and learn more at davidsuzuki.org.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Newsletter: Not Your Everyday Corporate Executive

Click here for the original Newsletter E-mail

Meet Clif Bar & Company's In-House Ecologist
What sort of company would appoint an ecologist to its corporate team? Alternative Channel recently caught up with Elysa Hammond, resident ecologist and environmental visionary at Clif Bar & Company. Join us as Elysa offers a glimpse of what it's like to be inside a company acutely concerned with all things ecological. To read or comment on this article, click here.





Thinking of an eco-friendly business name? You might want to rethink using the word "green!"
Green Jobs Website WorkCabin.ca draws attention to the dizzying soup of words and phrases that businesses are using to convey their environmental conscience. To read this article, click here.

Meet Clif Bar & Company’s In-House Ecologist

Alternative Channel's Leaders in Sustainability Series

Leaders In Sustainability is an exclusive series of interviews with those at the fore of the sustainability movement, both in the corporate and non-profit sectors.

What sort of company would appoint an ecologist to its corporate team? Alternative Channel recently caught up with Elysa Hammond, resident ecologist and environmental visionary at Clif Bar & Company. Join us as Elysa offers a glimpse of what it's like to be inside a company acutely concerned with all things ecological.

What is Clif Bar doing to take leadership on environmental sustainability?

We began what we call our Journey Towards Sustainability in 2001 with the sourcing of organic ingredients and the launch of an employee education program to help people understanding sustainability. Challenging ourselves to reduce our environmental impact in everything we do—from the field to the final product—we have expanded our program to focus on five key areas: organic food and agriculture; packaging; shipping and transportation; climate action; and sustainability partnerships. By coordinating our efforts around these specific areas we have not only been able to significantly reduce Clif Bar & Company’s impact on the environment we have also created a structure that provides us with a continual source of new opportunities for improvement.

Image at left: Elysa Hammond with daughter Amy and dog Nikki.

What partnerships have you created to enhance your role as a leader in sustainability, with non-profit organizations or government?

Since its inception, Clif Bar & Company has partnered with a wide range of non-profit organizations that provide essential funding to projects that protect and conserve wild places; promote people’s health and people-powered sports; support solutions to climate change and work to create more sustainable food systems. These partner organizations have been invaluable guides on our Journey Towards Sustainability and have allowed us to create innovative and inspiring programs for our consumers. Among others, these partnerships include the Breast Cancer Fund, the Organic Farming Research Foundation and Focus the Nation: Global Warming Solutions for America.

What influences have brought about this environmental stewardship imperative? Does the pressure come first from clients and outside constituencies, or more from internal sources, such as employees, executives and investors?

Clif Bar & Company’s owners, Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford, and its employees have always had a deep appreciation for the outdoors and the environment. As a privately-held company, Gary and Kit had the freedom and the opportunity to integrate this passion for the environment into the Company’s business model through the creation of Five Bottom Lines: Sustaining our Business, Sustaining our Brands, Sustaining our People, Sustaining our Community and Sustaining the Planet. Equally-weighted and interdependent, these Bottom Lines direct the Company’s business, sustainability and community efforts.

Image at right: Clif Bar & Company's signature and best-selling product line.

How does Clif Bar cultivate a corporate culture centered on environmental stewardship and community engagement? Is it a challenge to get ‘buy-in’ at all levels of the company?

Because we measure Clif Bar & Company’s performance with Five Bottom Lines, the Company’s environmental stewardship and its community initiatives are integrated into every area of the business and are weighted with equal importance to traditional business metrics. As a decision-making framework this model not only serves as inspiring platform for discussion and education amongst employees, it also empowers people to explore, develop and launch innovative ideas that are in tune with the Company’s priorities.

What motivates you personally to do what you do? Are there other things you do in your life to reduce your impact on the environment, beyond your role at Clif Bar?

I absolutely love my job at Clif Bar because I have the opportunity to work on a daily basis with a company and people motivated to make a real difference in the world. And because of this work in sustainability, new doors have opened for me where I try to contribute to related institutional change. For example, I’m on the Mayor’s Environmental Advisory Committee in my home town of New Rochelle, New York where we are promoting green building legislation, bike trails, urban tree planting and sustainability education. I also serve on the advisory board for Focus the Nation, an organization that led a national day of education on global warming, the largest teach-in in U.S. history.

Image above: Clif Bar & Company's bustling recycling center (more action than the shipping/receiving department).

On a more personal note, I’m working with my church community to help create a climate action program and my husband and I just bought our first home, a 100-year old fixer-upper that we are trying to green. Thus far we’ve had an energy audit, painted the walls and refinished the floors with ‘”green” materials, set up a compost bin, switched to CFLs and picked out an energy star refrigerator. Most importantly, we’ve recycled a lot of used home goods—all that stuff you find out you don’t really need when you move-- through our local Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore.

To learn more about Clif Bar & Company, its products, corporate culture or environmental stewardship, feel free to visit the company's website.