MINNEAPOLIS – As energy prices continue to soar and the issue of global warming starts to influence the workplace, health and safety professionals need to take a lead role in what one economic expert describes as the “sunset of the energy regime.”

Eighty-two per cent of Canadian executives believe that a response to climate change is imperative today and plan immediate increases on spending for climate change initiatives, according to the new report Action amid uncertainty: the business response to climate change, based on a survey from Ernst & Young.

"The willingness of corporations to invest in climate change initiatives despite the uncertain regulatory environment is extremely encouraging," says Melanie Steiner, Americas Market Leader for Ernst & Young's Climate Change and Sustainability Services practice. "Corporate leaders understand that there are a range of market drivers, such as evolving customer demands and equity analysts' growing interest in climate change performance, that are motivating action."

Steiner notes that more than 90 per cent of executives surveyed globally indicate that climate change governance rests with C-suite executives or board members. This reflects the growing strategic importance of climate change for many organizations who understand that climate change is not just a risk area but also an opportunity to reduce costs, increase revenue and gain competitive advantage.

Canadian participants in the survey agree, with 71 per cent of Canadian respondents indicating that their company already has an enterprise-wide climate change program targeting key business drivers, and another 11 per cent planning for implementation in the next 12 months.

Canadian respondents also compare impressively with their global counterparts; while globally, 70 per cent of those surveyed expect their companies' spending on climate change initiatives to increase over the next two years, Canadians ranked 12 per cent higher in this regard. And the investment will be significant, with nearly half of Canadian respondents planning to spend between 0.5 per cent to more than 5 per cent of their revenue on climate change initiatives. For a US$1 billion company, this represents an anticipated spend of US$5 million to US$50 million annually.

Canadian companies are taking a comprehensive approach, expanding their climate change efforts beyond the enterprise, through their entire supply chain. Forty-three per cent of respondents say they are working directly with their suppliers to help them reduce their carbon footprint, while another 29 per cent say they have begun such discussions.

Globally, the survey findings are predominantly consistent in all participating countries, with some additional trends emerging across all countries surveyed:

• Energy efficiency is a top global priority, with 82 per cent of respondents planning to invest in energy efficiency initiatives over the next 12 months.
• Customer demand is driving investment. Changing customer demands are driving corporate climate change activities according to 89 per cent of respondents. As a result, 65 per cent per cent of executives intend to focus their climate change investments on new products and services to respond to changing customer demands.
• Equity analysts are incorporating climate change initiatives into company valuations. Forty-three per cent of the senior executives surveyed believe that equity analysts currently include climate change-related factors in company valuations.
• Climate change is generating new revenue opportunities, such as developing more efficient products, building a portfolio of carbon assets, investing in clean development mechanism projects, clean technologies and innovative IT solutions.
• Government policies strongly influence climate change strategies. Ninety-four per cent of global respondents see national policies as important or very important in shaping their climate change strategies, with 81 per cent recognizing the importance of global or international policies.

The report is based on a survey of 300 global corporate executives across 16 countries. Ernst & Young commissioned the survey to provide a status update on corporate responses to climate change issues in 2010, the half-way point in the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.

Ernst & Young is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. For more information, please visit ey.com/ca.

[Source: CNW]

Carla Lipsig-Mummé, professor of work and labour studies in York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies and research fellow in York’s Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability has received $1 million over six years fund an international project to study the challenge climate change presents to Canadian employment and workplaces. The funding is from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Lipsig-Mummé will examine seven Canadian employment sectors to seek policy, training, employment and workplace solutions to effectively assist Canada’s transition to a low-emission economy. By combining research, workplace education, policy recommendations and pilot projects in transnational work adaptation, her project will allow Canada to re-enter the international debate about how best to engage the work world in the struggle to slow global warming.

“We need to know more about the chain of processes that comprise work, employment and training in key Canadian industries and professions − and how their decision-makers understand and respond to the challenge that global warming poses to these processes,” says Lipsig-Mummé. “Our second goal is to engage community partners active in the work world and the environmental community in research that identifies critical spaces for adaptation, drawing on their hands-on experience and linking it to the expertise of the academics.”

CURA awards, among the largest awarded by SSHRC, bring postsecondary institutions and community organizations together as equal research partners to jointly develop new knowledge and capabilities, provide research training opportunities, and enhance the ability of social sciences and humanities research to build knowledge in areas that affect Canadians and their changing communities.

Lipsig-Mummé’s research team includes nationally and internationally-based climate scientists, senior labour market actors and academics from a wide range of disciplines. A total of 23 researchers, 20 partners, and 10 universities in three countries will participate, including York professors David Doorey, Dawn Bazely, Irene Henriques, Jan Kainer, John-Justin McMurtry, Stepan Wood and Steven Tufts.

SSHRC is an independent federal government agency that funds university-based research and graduate training through national peer-review competitions. SSHRC also partners with public- and private-sector organizations to focus research and aid the development of better policies and practices in key areas of Canada’s social, cultural and economic life.

York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.