Innovation, Capital and Carbon Workshop review

The summer has come and gone but I wanted to take this opportunity to call your attention to the findings from the Innovation, Capital & Carbon workshop that was held by ISIS this June with a select group of BC business leaders. Both the summary report and a brief executive summary of the day’s findings are now available on the ISIS website.

Highlights of the session include the following ideas that resonated with the participants:

• The group displayed a strong consensus that BC should innovate and lead even in the absence of a globally binding agreement.
• The real need for BC to build a positive and compelling vision of a future low carbon economy.
• The desire for the creation of a consortium of business leaders supporting a low carbon transition
• A ‘Living Lab’ approach for BC that includes communities, companies and local governments; is scaled across the province; creates awareness; and showcases innovation.

In addition to the summary reports, the background white paper that was circulated prior to the workshop and which covered the BC business landscape as it pertains to innovation, capital and carbon is also available. All three reports and a brief overview of the Carbon Governance Project program can be found at: http://isis.sauder.ubc.ca/research/carbon-governance-project-workshop-series/

I encourage you or your organization to share these reports with parties you feel might be interested.

In addition, I will be reaching out this fall to ask BC business leaders to participate in exploring the formation of a BC low carbon consortium that came out of this session. I look forward to hearing your further thoughts on this initiative soon.

Dr James Tansey
Founder and CEO, Offsetters
Associate Professor, Sauder School of Business, UBC