Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Canada’s manufacturers generate more than 10% of total GDP, export more than $354 billion in goods each year and employ 1.7 million Canadians. Along with these benefits, manufacturing has a sizable footprint. “Heavy industry” consumes 80% of the sector’s energy and emits more than 85% of total manufacturing GHG emissions. To shrink these emissions on an ambitious schedule, the transition to a sustainable production system will be led by a shift from commodities to services, and includes dematerialization and lightweighting, reuse and recycling, the substitution of fossil fuels with renewable energy, the elimination of toxic by-products and pollutants, and a redoubling of efficiency. This session explores the smart, dynamic policies that can help us reduce manufacturing GHG emissions by 8 Mt per year by 2030, support 23,000 good new jobs and simultaneously make Canadian companies leaders in exportable low-carbon technology, as per the Corporate Knights Build Back Better model.
Moderator:
Toby Heaps
CEO, Corporate Knights
Opening Remarks:
The Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson
Minister of Natural Resources
Contributors:
Chris Bataille
Senior Researcher, IDDRI
Weixing Chen
Chief Technology Officer, Adven Industries
Jean Paul Gladu
Founder and Principal, Mokwateh
Laura Kilcrease
CEO, Alberta Innovates
Murray Simpson
Global Director of Sustainability, IBM
Ralph Torrie
Director of Research, Corporate Knights
Canada’s manufacturers generate more than 10% of total GDP, export more than $354 billion in goods each year and employ 1.7 million Canadians. Along with these benefits, manufacturing has a sizable footprint. “Heavy industry” consumes 80% of the sector’s energy and emits more than 85% of total manufacturing GHG emissions. To shrink these emissions on an ambitious schedule, the transition to a sustainable production system will be led by a shift from commodities to services, and includes dematerialization and lightweighting, reuse and recycling, the substitution of fossil fuels with renewable energy, the elimination of toxic by-products and pollutants, and a redoubling of efficiency. This session explores the smart, dynamic policies that can help us reduce manufacturing GHG emissions by 8 Mt per year by 2030, support 23,000 good new jobs and simultaneously make Canadian companies leaders in exportable low-carbon technology, as per the Corporate Knights Build Back Better model.
Moderator:
Toby Heaps
CEO, Corporate Knights
Opening Remarks:
The Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson
Minister of Natural Resources
Contributors:
Chris Bataille
Senior Researcher, IDDRI
Weixing Chen
Chief Technology Officer, Adven Industries
Jean Paul Gladu
Founder and Principal, Mokwateh
Laura Kilcrease
CEO, Alberta Innovates
Murray Simpson
Global Director of Sustainability, IBM
Ralph Torrie
Director of Research, Corporate Knights
