Speed Dating for Green Business Innovation Financing

March 31st, 2010, 1 Comment

By: Tom Routley
Venture capital/private equity fund investors (‘VCs’) have a relatively simple business model – identify, investigate, invest and monetize. With the recent focus on sustainable innovation, there has been a robust flow of funds into these innovative businesses, however not in Canada.
For decades now, the Canadian federal government has placed a moat around Canada [...]

Historical Energy Data and Accuracy of Analysis and Projections

March 29th, 2010, 2 Comments

By: Hugo Vargas
A frequent question constantly arises around the accuracy of energy data estimations and the quality, in terms of size and completeness, of the data set that is used to create an energy baseline. For those of you who don’t know what an energy baseline is, it is a detailed summary of your energy [...]

A New Approach to Carbon Management: Cap and Dividend

March 24th, 2010, No Comments

By: Shane Pepin
Over the past few years there has been a tumultuous relationship between science, politics, and economics when it comes to climate change. The on-again, off-again relationship is difficult to predict at best and dysfunctional at worst. For example, the recent developments concerning one proposed solution to mitigating climate change in North America, [...]

Take a Stand Against Climate Change: Earth Hour 2010

March 22nd, 2010, 2 Comments

Business Lessons from the Own the Podium Program

March 18th, 2010, 1 Comment

By: Glen Ferguson
“Focusing and goal setting are key to winning”
Jon Montgomery, Canadian Skeleton Gold Medal winner, auctioneer and media darling at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics
Being a self –acknowledged sports enthusiast, I absolutely reveled in the wonderful seventeen day Winter Olympic feast hosted by Vancouver this year. It was riveting to watch the “The Thrill [...]

The Impact of Ontario’s and British Columbia’s Harmonized Sales Tax on Energy

March 15th, 2010, No Comments

Effective July 1st, 2010 the harmonized sales tax (HST) will be applied to a majority of products and services across Ontario and British Columbia. Ontario and British Columbia will replace the existing GST and PST with a single harmonized value-add tax.
In Ontario, the HST will have a combined tax rate of 13%, comprised of 5% [...]

Canadian Federal 2010 Budget Expands Tax Break for Clean Energy Generation

March 10th, 2010, 2 Comments

By: Tom Routley
For a number of years now the federal government has provided tax incentives for the production of clean energy. These incentives are primarily in the form of accelerated tax depreciation (50% per year on a declining balance basis) and have been provided for in the form of Class 43.1 and more recently Class [...]

Financial Mechanism to Reduce Carbon Emissions

March 4th, 2010, No Comments

By: Peter Rowles
The topic of climate change has been hotly debated for the past 20 years. Until recently, scientists, politicians and business leaders, especially in North America, have not been able to agree on the existence of the problem let alone what measures should be taken to mitigate it. It is only recently that consensus [...]

The Impact of Climate Change and Supply Chain Management

March 1st, 2010, No Comments

By: Tiffany Richmond
Organizations are prompted to take a holistic view towards carbon management with the issue of greenhouse gas emission constantly topping government agendas and compelling scientific evidence indicating that climate change is real(1). Organizations are not just looking at their own operations and how to manage their own emissions but now are looking at [...]