Building Workforce Capacity and Solutions to Capitalize on Retrofit Opportunities

Canada’s green retrofit economy is primed for significant growth between now and 2050, and this growth will come with many benefits. Through green retrofits, Canada’s buildings can contribute to net-zero climate targets, make buildings more resilient to climate change and extreme weather events, and provide rewarding job opportunities while strengthening the domestic supply of low-carbon […]
Experiential and Environmental Tourism in the Great Lakes

Executive Summary: This article explores two major trending elements of nature tourism which are directly applicable to the Great Lakes and specifically Niagara Falls: Experiential & Environmental Tourism. This article will define these terms and the trends that are driving the new demographic, and then enumerate some of the unique natural assets, which should make […]
12 Key Leverage Points for Change in the New York City Waste System

In Donella Meadows ‘s article Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System, she describes sitting in a meeting about how new global trade regimes would (supposedly) make the world function better. She was getting upset at what she heard and eventually became so angry about the direction she believed the new regime would take the […]
Tackling Recycling Challenges with Sustainable Packaging Solutions

While consumers are eager to reduce their waste and recycle, recycling can be confusing. Information about exactly what can and cannot be recycled is often conflicting or unclear. As an industry, we need to be making it easy for consumers to reduce waste to landfill, not more challenging. One straightforward way to do this is […]
The Road to Net Zero: How Manufacturers Can Prepare For a Zero-Carbon Future

Consensus can often be difficult to reach. Whether around public policy or business actions, there are usually differing views, priorities and objectives that need to be aligned to reach agreement. As we look towards the future of manufacturing, there is one area where all stakeholders in the sector are united: the critical importance of decarbonizing […]
Systems Change is Harder Than it Looks: Systems Shift May be the Answer

All systems are perfectly designed to produce their results — even when their results are far from perfect. W. Edwards Deming observed that decades ago. Don’t like the results? Change the system. Potential systems change exists on a continuum, from wholesale system destruction and reconstruction to incremental system shifts. The former is often due to […]
An Untapped Resource

For over 200 years the people of Canada and the United States have peacefully shared and benefited from our wonderful communal resource, the Great Lakes. Though we have a mutual commitment to open societies based on democracy, human rights and personal economic freedom, we do have differences in political structures, taxation, regulation and appropriate levels […]
Water Circularity Put to Practice in a Water-Intensive Industry

The Great Lakes are an invaluable freshwater resource, holding eighty-four percent of North America’s fresh surface water, providing drinking water to more than 40 million people, and acting as the lifeblood that fuels much of the region’s economic activity. Green Bay Packaging (GBP), headquartered along an arm of Lake Michigan in Green Bay, Wisconsin and […]
Who Wins With Clean Energy? The Benefits Go Beyond Better Health

No smog days. That’s the simple mantra usually invoked by people praising Ontario’s historic energy shift a decade ago, when the last coal-fired electricity plants were shuttered and replaced—almost fully—by clean energy sources. You can literally see and inhale the benefits of the clean electricity grid in the clearer skies and better air to breathe. […]
How The Great Lakes Region Can Lead The EV Revolution

Authors: Suzanne Goldberg, Director of Public Policy – Canada, ChargePoint Kevin Miller, Director of Public Policy, ChargePoint Home to over 107 million people, the Great Lakes Region is bustling, with tens of millions of cars, trucks, and buses crossing state, provincial, and national borders every year. Today, gasoline and diesel power most of the region’s […]