Leading business schools in Canada and around the world are adding sustainability to their required MBA curricula. Oxford in the U.K., INSEAD in France, and York University in Canada are some of the business schools with required courses in sustainability. This can be seen as an indicator that sustainability has become a core business competency needed to effectively compete in today’s and tomorrow’s environments.
How does sustainability affect raising capital? How do investment banks see sustainability when analyzing opportunities? What’s the point of view from venture capital firms? How does sustainability affect a business’ credit rating? This article looks at the current views from Standard & Poor’s, Toronto-Dominion Bank, MissionPoint Capital and others on this matter. We also look at what a business can do to attract capital.
In any corporate sustainability project, whether it is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, paper use, or supply chain waste, choosing the right key performance indicators is a critical ingredient to success. At the conference on Environmental, Social and Governance Issues hosted by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, Cathy Cobey from Ernst & Young talked about how to choose smarter KPIs.
As 2010 draws to a close, I look back at all the blog posts in the first year of Carbon49. Judged by the highest view counts, here are the top five. They cover a range of topics including solar, sustainability as the next big trend, feed-in tariff for renewable energies, greenhouse gas professionals, and investors’ growing concern with climate change risks.
Solar and other renewable energy projects are going strong all over Ontario driven by the province’s Feed-In Tariff program. Businesses, communities, and homes are going green and earning income at the same time. As the FIT program passes its one year mark, I look at some of the experiences accrued so far.