One Sky attends Workshop on Environmental Sustainability and Competitiveness

December 10, 2008 - Last week, One Sky participated in the annual meetings of the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, held in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The purpose of this session was to explore the relationship between environmental sustainability and competitiveness from a North American perspective, and identify opportunities for regional cooperation (within Canada, the United States and/or Mexico).

The one-and-one-half day event featured the participation of some of North America’s top experts in the environment, free trade, industry, transportation, business performance, health and competition, and those issues’ effects on the region. Leading innovators such as InterFace Inc., ZENN Motor Company and General Electric-Ecoimagination, also participated at the meeting. It consisted of three panel discussions, followed by a more focussed conversation about the transportation sector.

Panel I: Drivers and barriers to improvements in environmental performance
What motivates industry-wide improvements in environmental performance? How are those forces likely to change in the future? How are different firms in the industry responding to those forces?

Panel II: Drivers and barriers to environmental performance innovation
What motivates industry-wide improvements in environmental performance? How are those forces likely to change in the future? How are different firms in the industry responding to those forces?

Panel III: How are corporate improvements in environmental performance influencing business competitiveness?
Are improvements in environmental performance or its drivers affecting competitiveness? How? What are the most important factors in this relationship?
Are there specific considerations for this within North America?

The discussions and debates came from various, and sometimes conflicting, perspectives. This made for animated conversations exploring, among other things:
- eco-labels for products (similar to the nutritional information found on current food products)
- the value of government regulations and its impact - positive or negative - on internal business operations
- drivers of environmental actions from industry (i.e. toxic chemicals companies)
- the role that certification schemes can play on improving internal processes and incorporating them in an Environmental Management System (EMS)
- using innovation as a tool to remodel the way a company like Interface Inc., manufactures carpets while striving to become carbon neutral
- “environmentalizing politics” rather than “politicizing the environment”
- new metrics coming out that place a tangible value on formerly intangibles

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America is an international organization created under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), signed by Canada, the United States and Mexico in 1994. The CEC operates through three bodies: a Council of the highest environmental authority of each member country, the Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) and a Secretariat headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

The Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) is composed of fifteen members, five from each of the three countries. The members, as independent, individual citizens committed to preserving and improving the common environment, offer recommendations to the Council on issues related to the NAAEC.