Canada’s Clean50 announced for 2023
by CM Staff
Awardees are reportedly forward-looking leaders representing the most effective and progressive organizations taking on climate change from every sector, balancing mitigation with adaptation.
TORONTO — The Clean50 award is an award that recognizes leaders from across Canada who have done the most to advance climate action and develop climate solutions. The published list acknowledges the recent accomplishments of 50 senior leaders, 20 Emerging Leaders, 25 innovative sustainability projects and reveal 5 Lifetime Achievement Awards, selected from over 1000 nominations collected nation-wide over the past few months.
75 individual Honourees, members of 25 Project teams and 25+ existing Clean50 members engage on Oct. 6 in a full day of discussions, designed to identify actionable solutions to the climate emergency that Canada and Canadians can implement, followed by an awards ceremony.
Awardees are reportedly forward-looking leaders representing the most effective and progressive organizations taking on climate change from every sector, balancing mitigation with adaptation. According to Clean50, the Canada Post team, led by President & CEO Doug Ettinger, for instance, has made significant progress in implementing a plan that will see Canada’s largest crown corporation invest $1 Billion to cut its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 50% over the next 8 years. The City of Halifax is being recognized for their work designed to get city operations to net-zero emissions by 2030 – and the whole city to net-zero by 2050. This is fresh evidence of wide-spread and wide-ranging actions taking place across Canada as responsible actors address the need for an urgent response at scale.
Other winners are expanding networks of hydrogen refueling stations, building massive batteries, putting the largest university in Canada on track for net-zero by 2050 or sooner, driving thought-leadership around climate risk and ESG disclosures, conserving both the land and the nature across 1500 sq. kilometers, inventing new technologies to turn CO2 into algae that can be used as food or put to medical use, and building an 1,800 km long power transmission line that will permit 17 First Nations communities to finally connect to the grid – and stop relying upon polluting diesel generators for power – to identify just a few of the efforts that have been recognized.
“The range of ingenuity demonstrated by these 75 people and 25 projects is just extraordinary”, said award Executive Director Gavin Pitchford. “Canada needs to eliminate 730 MT of carbon pollution from our annual output – Over the past year, Canada’s 2023 Clean50 have made a significant start on that target – with much more to come”. “If we have any hope of hitting our committed targets, it is people like these Canadians will need to thank”.
