On behalf of our staff and Board, we are pleased to bring you our 2021 Annual Impact Report (AIR). After 2 years of this lockdown, we are excited to be celebrating our 10th Annual Sustainability Leadership Awards in-person! Though we are eager to break free from the confines of pandemic restrictions, we recognise the benefit that working remotely and engaging in less business travel has had on our carbon footprint. There are silver linings everywhere.

Sustainability Leadership had a very busy and transformative year, redesigning our own form of success. We completed our brand transition from Sustainable Hamilton Burlington to Sustainability Leadership, launched our education program and aligned all our GHG emission targets with science-informed targets. We hosted the first Sustainability Innovation Hackathon to engage our future sustainability leaders and held our annual Sustainable Business Expo as a completely virtual multi-day event. Upping our profile on a larger stage, Sustainability Leadership partnered with the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce to host a national panel including former Minister of the Environment and Climate Change of Canada, Catherine McKenna.

Over the next year, we will continue to support our community and members as they strive to adapt to a lower carbon, circular economy. We are looking forward to getting back to more regular in-person events to facilitate the sharing of ideas and celebration of successes.  Though the pandemic has steered us onto a detour, the pillars of Sustainability Leadership will always include collaborative learning and recognition of efforts.

Please enjoy this report and get inspired! Most of us have harvested the low hanging fruit on the sustainability tree by now and are beyond LED lights and baseline measurements. Read on for what’s next…

May 2021