Toronto Sustainability Speaker Series: Loblaws, WWF and Janes Family Foods

Last week I had an interesting conversation with a Sustainability Director at a large organization. Despite a public organizational commitment to sustainability, and her personal passion and drive, she was having a really hard time moving sustainability forward.
She is pushing a boulder uphill; her one-person team just does not have enough resources to address both the immediate grassroots and long term change management opportunities and issues. She would love to do more but can’t think of how that would happen given her lack of resources and inability to access support.
What makes this conversation interesting is how ordinary it is; she is not alone. Most organizations start here. We hear similar thoughts when talking to sustainability champions in our Living Planet @ Work program. And, we also hear similar comments from individuals in other countries. I have a colleague in the U.S. who has described himself as a “counselor and supporter” of hurdle jumping sustainability managers.
Despite these challenges – we know there is hope! There are individuals and organizations who have broken through the same barriers and are successfully driving change. Loblaw is one such organization.
When Loblaw made its commitment to source 100 percent sustainable seafood by 2013, it kicked off a journey of change and transformation that we hope will be replicated in hundreds of thousands of businesses.
On Tuesday November 1 in Toronto, our very own Hadley Archer, VP Strategic Partnerships, Paul Uys, VP Sustainable Seafood at Loblaw and Tom Janes, Director Sustainability at Janes Family Foods will be exploring the opportunities and challenges of working with new stakeholders to create a more sustainable economy. Join us to learn more about the process of how they are bringing about change. For more information and to register, please visit https://ecoopportunity.net.