On behalf of our staff and Board, we are pleased to bring you our 2018/2019 Annual Business Report. We highlight here the amazing work being done by sustainability leaders around the Bay Area to create a greener economy and a better quality of life for all.

2018 was a year of sweeping changes. Elections brought new faces to posts across the Provincial and Municipal levels of government. Our message of the mutually beneficial relationship between the economy and environment became even more important as we found common ground with new decision-makers.

We were given a sobering warning from the International Panel on Climate Change that we have only 11 years before it will become impossible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, and that Canada is experiencing warming faster than the rest of the world. This warning beckons all businesses to raise climate change impacts to the top of their decision-making criteria, and to embrace this opportunity to mitigate their footprint through innovation and investment.

Best-available systems, processes, and technologies promise not only to aid the transformation to a low-carbon economy, but to make that transition a positive benefit for early adopters instead of a cost, as the stories of our members demonstrate. We have all the tools at our fingertips that we need to address climate change, but more importantly we have the knowledge that we can no longer wait for better tools, or for different leadership. Every decision we make today influences our outlook for tomorrow, narrowing the artificial distance between the Future and Now.

We invite you to read about the progress of our Sustainable Business Initiative members who are leading the change locally towards a green economy, and proving that you can do well by doing good. Find inspiration and hope in their stories, and ponder what you can do within your own scope of influence to safeguard a better tomorrow.

May 2019