200 Million Tonnes of Opportunity

Canada’s smaller businesses have direct control over the same amount of carbon pollution produced each year by every car, truck, train, plane, and ship in the country. That’s our nation’s 200 million tonne opportunity, and it’s hidden in plain sight.

Scroll or swipe to learn more.

200 Million Tonnes of Opportunity

Canada’s smaller businesses have direct control over the same amount of carbon pollution produced each year by every car, truck, train, plane, and ship in the country. That’s our nation’s 200 million tonne opportunity, and it’s hidden in plain sight.

Scroll or swipe to learn more.

What Does 200 Million Tonnes Look Like?

With the right coaching and support, Canada’s small and medium sized businesses could make a serious dent in Canada’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. This amount of carbon pollution is equivalent to:

Transportation
Transportation

More than Canada’s combined total annual transportation emissions—including all of the nation’s cars, trucks, trains, and domestic aircraft and ships.

Cars
Cars

More than five times the annual greenhouse gas emissions of all the cars on the roads in Canada today.

Provinces
Provinces

The combined annual emissions of Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Atlantic Provinces.

Cities
Cities

Almost twice the combined greenhouse gas emissions of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, plus Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, and Metro Vancouver.

Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas

6% percent more annual greenhouse gas emissions than Canada’s oil and gas sector.

Paris Agreement
Paris Agreement

The quantity of greenhouse-gas reductions that Canada will need to secure, between today and 2030, in order to meet its Paris Agreement commitment.

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An Economic Powerhouse, Hidden in Plain Sight

Small and medium sized businesses—those with fewer than 500 employees—often fly under the radar of economists and policy makers. Yet they make a significant contribution to Canada’s economy.

Taken together, these companies:

  • Comprise 99.7% of all Canadian businesses.
  • Contribute more than half of Canada’s private-sector GDP.
  • Invest close to half (45%) of all Canadian private-sector research and development spending.
PROPORTION OF ALL CANADIAN BUSINESSES
%
CONTRIBUTION TO CANADA’S OVERALL PRIVATE-SECTOR GDP
%
PROPORTION OF ALL PRIVATE-SECTOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
%

SMEs employ
of 10

private-sector workers

SMEs created
million

jobs between 2005 and 2015...

...amounting to
%

of all new positions

Meet Canada’s Clean Growth Leaders

Hundreds of printers, restaurateurs, roofers, retailers, and other business owners and managers across the nation are unleashing a flood of changes, innovations, and adjustments. Here, we spotlight a handful of these clean-growth leaders.

Tap or click photos to learn more.

Michelle Reid

Sustainability Czar
Mills Office Productivity

Sector: Office Supplies

Employees: 105

Lead strategies: Electric delivery truck, electric cargo tricycle delivery

Impact: 32% greenhouse gas emissions reduction per $1M revenue

Shaun Mayhew

Sales Manager
Penfolds Roofing

Sector: Construction

Employees: 95

Lead strategies: Fuel switching

Impact: 30 tonnes greenhouse gas emissions reduced annually, saving $20,000

Richard Kouwenhoven

President and COO
Hemlock Printers

Sector: Printing

Employees: 175

Lead strategies: ZERO Program, carbon neutral paper

Impact: 1,890 tonnes greenhouse gas emissions avoided annually

Jeff Shewfelt

CEO
G&F Financial Credit Union

Sector: Finance

Employees: 200

Lead strategies: Videoconferencing, digital document management

Impact: 34% greenhouse gas emissions reduction yielding annual savings of $9,000 per year on paper alone

Melissa Hoegler

Owner
BC Plant Health Care

Sector: Arboriculture

Employees: 58

Lead strategies: Hybrid and electric vehicles.

Impact: 9% greenhouse gas emissions reduction per $1,000 revenue, 132% growth in revenue

Rob Noel

President
BC Comfort Air Conditioning

Sector: Construction

Employees: 63

Lead strategies: Vehicle right-sizing, lighting retrofits, digital document management

Impact: Fuel consumption reduced 25%, paper consumption reduced 41%, saving $57,000 annually

Scott Mason

Owner
Landsea Tours

Sector: Tourism

Employees: 40

Lead strategies: Fuel switching

Impact: 85% greenhouse gas emissions reduction yielding annual savings of $7,000 per electric bus

Samson Mui

President and Co-founder
Eco Service Canada

Sector: Fleet management services

Employees: 22

Lead strategies: Hybrid company vehicles, route planning, employee engagement

Impact: 16% greenhouse gas emissions reduced per vehicle serviced, 8% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per full-time equivalent employee

Suzanne Siemens

Co-founder and CEO
Lunapads International

Sector: Manufacturing

Employees: 10

Lead strategies: Order consolidation, shifting to less carbon-intensive shipping mode

Impact: 60% reduction in shipping emissions, 49% reduction in total emissions per revenue

200 Million Tonnes of Opportunity Report

Dive Into the Data

200 Million Tonnes of Opportunity highlights the work of leaders in 12 sectors across Canada. It crunches a decade’s worth of data to reveal crucial business intelligence and valuable insights for Canadian SME leaders that would like to profitably reduce their emissions, and for governments that would like them to succeed. The report provides:

  • A detailed picture of how, why, and where Canada’s small and mid-sized businesses are reducing greenhouse gas emissions and driving clean growth.
  • Trends and lessons gleaned from businesses that are successfully driving down emissions within the 12 industry sectors that have the highest SME participation.
  • Insights on how early adopter climate leaders are making headway, and what others can learn from them.

To obtain your own copy of 200 Million Tonnes of Opportunity, please click the button below and sign up. We’ll respond by emailing you:

  • The link to download your copy of the report.
  • A link to our Tableau Dashboard that allows you to explore Canada’s SME landscape.
  • Information about our upcoming special webinar presentation of our findings.
Sign Up & Download the Report

Climate Smart Businesses, a certified B Corp, enables companies to profitably reduce greenhouse gas emissions through data-driven training, certification, and web-based visualization tools such as Business Energy and Emissions Profiles (BEEPs). We have partnered with more than 40 cities and organizations to help their small and medium-sized businesses prepare for, and participate in, the low-carbon economy.

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