About
Canada’s Clean50 annually offers recognition to Canada’s leaders in sustainability for their contributions over the prior two years.. Nominations are collected year round until Canada Day each year, carefully reviewed, and then honourees for four different types of awards are announced each fall. Individual, Emerging Leader, and Lifetime Achievement awards name specific individuals. Project awards go to the organization(s) who were the project’s proponents.
The Clean50 individual awards – or just “the Clean50” are 50 individuals or small teams selected from 16 diverse categories that transcend numerous industries, academia, different levels of government, thought leaders and advocates, and are based on accomplishments delivered over the prior two years. The leader in each of the 16 categories is also declared to be part of the “Clean16″, depicting those 16 individual Honourees as the top contributor in each of their respective categories.
At least two nominees are selected from each one of the 16 categories, to ensure the Honourees collectively represent leadership from a wide spectrum of activities, and the remaining 18 honourees are the best of all the remaining nominees, from any category.
The Clean50 Top Projects annually recognize those projects completed in the prior two years based on their innovation, their ability to inform, and inspire other Canadians. The Top Project of the year is then selected each year at the Clean50 Summit, from votes cast by both incoming and Alumni members of the Clean50.
The Clean50 Emerging Leaders are selected from amongst those 35 or under, whose contribution is outsized compared to their age, and otherwise based on essentially the same criteria as the Individual Clean50 awards. Once all nominees have been considered and finalized for Clean50 individual awards, remaining eligible nominees are considered for an Emerging Leader award.
The Clean50 Lifetime Achievement Awards: up to 5 individuals, typically approaching, or at / past the point of retirement, are named annually, for climate impacts delivered over their entire career.
Special Awards are supported by some of our corporate champions to recognize special achievements in addition to their Clean50 individual or Emerging Leader Award. Winners are selected from amongst those who have won one of the awards listed above, including:
The Co-operators Award for Community Resilience recognizes the Clean50 Honouree whose community efforts have best addressed the impacts of climate change by taking civic action at a municipal level to anticipate and protect the community from the changing and extreme weather patterns brought upon by humans’ excess emissions of greenhouse gasses.
The Delta Management Group Award for Leadership in Sustainable Procurement recognizes the Clean50 Honouree who has done the most to advance the practice of sustainable procurement by helping move their company’s adoption of SP, consulting to organizations implementing SP practices, or driving adoption through thought leadership and advocacy.
The TELUS Award for Leadership in Community Engagement recognizes the individual honouree who has made the greatest contribution to their “community” outside of their “day job”. TELUS wants to acknowledge how critical “community” – however defined – is to our country’s fabric, and the important role played by volunteers across Canada in keeping our connection to each other strong and resilient.
The QUADREAL Clean50 Award for Net Zero Action recognizes the individual honouree who, with their organization, has made the greatest progress in the creation of a meaningful plan to get to net zero
The RESOLUTE FOREST PRODUCTS Clean50 Award for GHG Reduction recognizes the Clean50 Honouree whose organization has done the most to reduce GHGs over the past 3 years.
Why was the award created?
When we at Delta started the Clean50 it was because we felt that the challenges facing Canada could not be resolved by anything less than a collaborative, all out assault on every element of the problem. We had noticed that organizations and industries tended to operate in their own individual silos, and often failed to connect to others from different silos where there might be transferable solutions, skills and knowledge. The Clean50 was created not only to recognize remarkable and inspiring leaders, but also to attempt to connect those leaders in order to bridge those gaps, and build connections that might not otherwise occur. As masters at making connections, Delta created a Summit format designed to enable participants to spend a day building connections to leaders from across the country, and from silos outside their own, whom they would not otherwise meet.
What does becoming a Clean50 Honouree entail?
The Clean50 Summit offers Honourees a unique opportunity to engage with other sustainability leaders from all sectors of Canadian life each fall in a unique setting in Toronto where they participate in work groups designed to foster cross sectoral learning, collaboration, and engagement. Attendance is mandatory. The 2024 Summit to recognize and connect the 2025 Clean50 will take place in downtown Toronto on October 10th, 2024.
Clean50 Honourees often collaborate post Summit to solve each other’s problems, and also, from time to time, band together to make collective statements, for example, encouraging Canadians and our leaders to take action on Climate Change and pricing carbon. Such statements are often representative of a significant portion of the entire group’s thinking, but should only be attributed to those Honourees whose names are specifically associated with each such statement.
History
The Clean50 Awards were founded by Delta Management Group in June 2011 and have been awarded in September each year since. Selection is made primarily by Delta Management, but with significant assistance from a team of exceptional third party advisors, and is based on detailed submissions by nominees who wish to be considered, based on their impacts as measurable in Canada.
Canada’s Clean50 prime mover and steward, Delta Management Group, founded in 1992, is a boutique and purpose driven search firm with the leading practice in “green” professionals search in Canada, including experts in corporate governance, ESG, clean tech, corporate responsibility, renewable energy and sustainability professionals.
Delta has a long track record of building exceptional teams, and working closely with management and stakeholders on a long-term basis as a trusted advisor and true business partner.
The company’s unique value proposition is in its ability to dramatically reduce the number of interviews required to find and land the best available candidate, and to virtually eliminate hiring failures.
Delta’s results are pretty spectacular. On average, 50% of the candidates Delta puts forward for a role get hired. Of those hired, over 99% remain in place for over a year, and then the average candidate’s stay with their new employer exceeds 7.5 years.
Based in Toronto, Delta’s team fills executive, executive-director and a variety of individual contributor roles across Canada for a wide variety of major corporations, charities, NGOs and NFPs, and welcome enquiries from potential clients or candidates. Our NFP / NGO practice offers highly affordable rates to “green” / positive social purpose clients.
Delta’s commitment to sustainability is three tiered: Carbon neutral, helping clients build outstanding teams that can move the needle, including greatly reduced fees for ENGOs, and our ongoing support and stewardship of the Clean50 Awards.
First, our own commitment to sustainability is demonstrated in our (non) use of materials. We are essentially carbon neutral, purchasing offsets to make up for the fuel we use visiting clients and on air transportation not offset by the trees on our real property.
Second is our commitment to helping our clients improve their sustainability, through identifying absolutely exceptional candidates to help them move more rapidly and effectively towards a more sustainable and lower carbon future. We don’t feel our collective future – or our client’s future – should rely upon candidates culled from the social media herd, but rather from headhunting those who are truly outstanding and can accelerate progress.
Believing that advocates are a critical part of enhancing our quality of life in Canada, we put our powers to work for good as well, through special and highly affordable rates for “green” / positive social purpose NGOs, NFPs and charities. We encourage such organizations to discuss their needs with us and discover the ways in which executive search can be both affordable and a more effective means of hiring talent – often at a net savings.
And thirdly, Delta created, and now steward the Canada Clean50 Awards program, to bring together senior executives, solutions oriented leaders and sustainability practitioners from across a broad spectrum of interests and abilities and expertise, to build trust between them and foster enhanced collaboration – and share the inspiration these special people can offer all of us.
Thanks for your interest in Canada’s Clean50 Awards program. We welcome comments – and especially nominations!
Gavin Pitchford
Chief Talent Officer
Delta Management Group
416.925.2005 ext.2300
gpitchford@deltamanagement.com
Sponsors
Delta Management
Delta Management Group is the leading sustainability, ESG and clean tech focused search firm in Canada. Delta is proud to have founded the Canada’s Clean50 Award program in 2011, and has been the primary sponsor for the past 13 years.
HP Canada
HP Canada is proud to champion both the attendance of the Clean50 “Alumni” at this year’s summit, and the HP Clean50 Sustainable Procurement Award because collaboration and partnerships are key to addressing the many pressing sustainability issues we face today.
The Clean50 Summit provides attendees the opportunity to meet with other business and sustainability-focused leaders as well as the opportunity to expand our community of like-minded individuals to accelerate meaningful and much needed action.
Sustainable Procurement is critical – it will move the needle. What is demanded of suppliers will get delivered by suppliers. If purchasers and customers of all sizes don’t ask for more sustainable products, suppliers will not independently change their practices. Building sustainable procurement metrics into processes – considering the total cost of ownership including energy use and disposal costs – will rapidly drive innovation, encourage lower environmental footprints, and rapidly change what and how suppliers create and deliver products.
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, recognizes that many of its readers across Canada are interested in sustainability issues, the impact of climate change on their lives, and the ways in which Canadians and their organizations are taking action to mitigate the impacts.
The Globe joins Delta Management Group and other sustainability champions in recognizing Canada’s Clean50 Individual leaders, 10 Emerging Leaders, and the Top 20 (innovative, informative and inspirational sustainability) Projects selected from those completed in the past two years.
All of last year’s Clean50 Honourees and their accomplishments were featured on the pages of the “Report on Business” on Earth Day, and a series of special Clean50 stories appeared in the ROB all Earth week.
MACKENZIE Investments
MACKENZIE Investments is pleased to support the Canada’s Clean50 Awards’ recognition of Canada’s entrepreneur-inventors by sponsoring the R&D Category
Co-operators
Co-operators is a leading Canadian financial services co-operative, offering multi-line insurance and investment products, services, and personalized advice that drive toward our purpose – Financial security for Canadians and our communities. We bring our vision to be a catalyst for a resilient and sustainable society to life through our products and services, community partnerships, and investments. In 2023, we had invested 48.4% of our total portfolio – $5.9 billion – into climate transition and impact investments that measurably address the world’s pressing environmental and social issues. By 2030, 60% of our invested assets will be directed to impact, climate transition and resilience investments, helping to move Canada towards its net zero targets and build climate resilient communities from coast to coast to coast. As a carbon neutral organization, Co-operators is also committed to achieving net zero emissions in its operations and investments by 2040, and 2050, respectively.
The Co-operators Award for Community Resilience recognizes the Clean50 Honouree whose efforts are helping to reduce the impacts of climate change by taking action to help Canadian communities build resilience in the face of the rising risks posed by a rapidly changing climate.
For more on how Co-operators is catalyzing a resilient, sustainable society, please visit: cooperators.ca/sustainability
Enwave
As an organization that provides innovative and sustainable energy solutions that enable our partners to achieve their goals, we recognize that reducing the carbon footprint of energy is an important value driver for both landlords and tenants, as well as the greater global community. Enwave is pleased to support Canada’s Clean50 organization as they recognize leaders in sustainability in the Building category, for all the hard work they have done to take meaningful strides in combatting emissions in their operations. We salute all nominees and their organizations for their commitment to tackling climate change.
Resolute Forest Products
In 2011, Resolute made an ambitious commitment: to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (scope 1 and 2) by 65% by 2015, compared to 2000 levels. Thanks to significant efforts deployed across their operations, they reached that goal ahead of schedule – but didn’t stop there. At the end of 2018, Resolute had achieved an 81% reduction in scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions – the equivalent of taking 1.93 million cars off the road – a number that has since grown to 87% by the end of 2022.
Small gestures make a difference too. In 2018, the company launched an initiative to phase out the purchase and distribution of single-use plastic bottles of water and rehydration drinks across all operations, which will eliminate approximately 1.5 million plastic bottles annually that might otherwise end up in landfills.
Resolute Forest Products is a global leader in the forest products industry with a diverse range of products, including market pulp, tissue, wood products, newsprint and specialty papers, which are marketed in close to 70 countries. The company owns or operates some 40 facilities, as well as power generation assets, in the United States and Canada.
The Clean50 is pleased to count Resolute FP as a supporter now, but long before the company became a sponsor, senior members of their team were first honourees. The Clean50 has recognized both the past CEO and the sustainability team at the company, as well as a highly innovative project the uses waste CO2 from a plant to fuel a greenhouse next door as a “Top Project”.
TELUS
At TELUS, our commitment to being the #MostGivingCompany is at the heart of our sustainability strategy and our team’s culture of caring. We are committed to driving positive social outcomes, through acts of giving big and small, in the areas of health, education and the environment by harnessing the power of technology. With $1.2 billion donated with our hearts and hands since 2000, and 1 million hours given every year, we’re just getting started. We are inspired to give where we live because of Canadians, like the many Clean50 honourees, who give hundreds of thousands of hours of their time every year. It is our pleasure to Sponsor the TELUS Community Engagement Champion’s Award.
For anyone wanting to get involved, the TELUS Friendly Future Foundation impacts 2 million young people every year as a registered charity dedicated to funding local, grassroots programs in communities across Canada. We support charitable organizations with critical projects that make sure no one, especially Canadian youth, gets left behind.
GLOBE Series
Events, information, and networking for business and policy leaders pursuing a cleaner, more prosperous world, the GLOBE Forum conference and trade show held biannually in even years in Vancouver is the world’s leading conference connecting business and the environment. The GLOBE Capital conference is held in odd years in Toronto. Well over two thirds of past Canada’s Clean50 honourees have attended a GLOBE Series conference, many more than once, including over 70% of last year’s Clean50 individual honourees. The next GLOBE in-person + hybrid event is in Vancouver on Feb. 15-17, 2022.
Vancity Community Investment Bank
Vancity Community Investment Bank is a values-driven bank on a mission to finance a greater tomorrow. We are the only Canadian bank committed to working exclusively with organizations focused on driving positive change. Born from the community-first finance model sharpened over seventy years by Vancity and, as a certified B-Corporation, we meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance to balance profit and purpose. We believe that better banking can build strong sustainable communities that will produce new generations dedicated to positive change.
At VCIB we are banking on companies and organizations that embrace positive social, economic and environmental change as essential to their business models and we’re proud to support Canada’s Clean50 awards in recognizing Canada’s leaders in renewable energy.
