The Sustainability Leadership Program (SLP) is designed to equip organisations with the knowledge, skills and mindset necessary to lead sustainability initiatives in their operations. Through a combination of online learning, knowledge sharing events and analysis reporting, members continue to gain a deep understanding of the social, environmental and economic impacts of their operations and learn how to integrate sustainable practices into their workplace.
Over the last year, we have continued to build on the success of our program, expanding our reach and impact to help even more organisations become effective sustainability leaders. Our focus has been on creating new and innovative learning opportunities, improving our program delivery and increasing our support for members.
In 2022, we launched online lessons to provide members with accessible guidance on how to complete the objectives of Step 1, giving them the ability to engage more employees in their organisation and expand the development of their Green Teams.
We also further expanded our boundary to include Peel, Brant and Brantford regions, a crucial step towards building a more sustainable future for these communities. With a growing focus on climate change and environmental protection, it is important that organisations from these regions can come together to share knowledge, collaborate on projects and implement sustainable practices.
To learn more about the SLP please visit the Sustainability Leadership Program page.
Sustainability Leadership plays a critical role in supporting members as they navigate the complexities of capturing and reducing their emissions. Sustainability Leadership provided research and analysis to help members expand their emissions tracking to include Scope 3 emissions, which are indirect emissions that occur from external sources that support the operation such as employee commute, business travel, external production, shipping, consumption of the product and waste.
Through the Sustainability Leadership Program, we helped members to better understand their emission sources and where to focus their efforts through our individual Member Impact Reports. We provided guidance, resources and support to members in making informed decisions about low and zero emissions alternatives related to their operations. Through our research and analysis, members were able to identify the most sustainable and cost-effective transportation options for their particular needs.
Sustainability Leadership continued to create opportunities for members to learn from one another and share best practices through online cohorts and in-person events, such as the Sustainability Leadership Awards and Sustainable Business Expo. We continue to seek out opportunities for members and businesses to collaborate to ensure we are working together to create a sustainable community.
Sustainability Leadership has conducted research based on the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth report, and updated our program’s targets to support our members in maintaining global warming levels below 1.5 degrees celsius by 2050. These targets are a fixed goal for our members to work towards reducing their GHG emissions, in comparison to their set base year emissions. To accelerate businesses reaching net-zero by 2050, members of the SLP are aligning their reduction targets with our updated SLP science-informed targets to reach net-zero emissions by 2045 (previously 2050). In 2021, the program welcomed an additional member. Unfortunately, the pandemic continued to put additional pressure on members and resulted in a loss of 7 memberships, all of whom were small and medium sized organisations.
Two years after the program launch, 12 members successfully transitioned into Step 1 of the new Sustainability Leadership Program, while 2 members continued to observe. Members that have transitioned to Step 1 are actively tracking their GHG emissions and have completed Annual GHG Inventory Report. 58% of members in Step 1 have set a base year and 25% of the members who have transitioned to the new program, have aligned with Sustainability Leadership’s science-informed targets. The referred members are close to progressing to Step 2 of the program and expanding the scope of sustainability measurements by engaging with their stakeholders.
Sustainability Leadership has now contributed to reducing emissions by 256,928 tCO2e since the organisation’s launch as Sustainable Hamilton in 2011.
As of the most recent reporting year 2022, our current members reduced their emissions by 40,321 tCO2e, the equivalent of taking 12,353 passenger vehicles off the road for one year. Together our current members have committed to reducing their emissions by 30,544 tCO2e by 2030, the equivalent to taking 9,358 passenger vehicles off the road for one year.
