CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Canada’s Executives Face an Opportunity in Sustainability C
BY SHAWN COOPER
anadians have seen their communities change drastically in the last few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened worry about climate change and social justice, motivating them to make sustainable changes in their everyday lives. Employees, customers, and investors are starting to expect more from the companies they buy from and work for. They are increasingly seeing businesses as an important contributor to the greater community and economic ecosystem of Canada. Our Divides and Dividends research set out to find out how much progress Canadian corporate leaders are making towards sustainable business. We surveyed three groups of people — C-suite executives, next-generation leaders, and employees — to understand what a crossExistence of Sustainability Strategies Percent indicating the re is a sustainability strategy in place that has been acted upon and clearly communicated
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TOTAL FINANCE
section of Canada’s workforce thinks about their organization’s sustainability efforts and the readiness of leaders to advance the agenda. We found bright spots of progress, as well as opportunities for Canadian business leaders to do more to accelerate their sustainability actions. First, the good news: Overall, 41 percent of C-suite leaders say their organization has a sustainability strategy that has been acted upon and clearly communicated. This is broadly in line with the global average (43 percent). Notably, however, this optimism is not shared by others across the organization: just 24 percent of employees and 33 percent of next-generation leaders agree that their organization has a clearly communicated sustainability strategy. The fact that senior leaders are more optimistic than nextgeneration leaders and employees is a concern. A compelling vision and expert communication will be critical to mobilizing employees and fostering an authentic enterprise-wide culture of sustainability. Our research also indicated that Canada is at the early stages of its sustainability journey. When we asked C-suite leaders why their organization was taking sustainability action, 42 percent cited brand management concerns — they wanted to be seen as socially responsible or reputable. By comparison, just 14 percent said value creation motivated their sustainability activities.
SPRING 2022
