Tag: Green Economy

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Carbon Economy Policy Shaping Collaborations

Outlook 2020: Positioning for Prosperity – a new BC Economy

Chapter 3 of the BC Business Council’s Outlook 2020 series happened last week in the midst of all the other numerous events scheduled.  As a result, I only caught one of the sessions, missing the panel discussion on Resourcing the Future:  BC’s Natural Advantage with Peter Woodbridge (who I am very impressed with – he authored the paper on the forest industry);  Randy Jespersen, President and CEO of Tersen; and Pierre Gratton, President and CEO of the Mining Association of BC.

The panel session that I did attend was called:  Servicing the Future:  Creativity’s Competitive Advantage in Changing Times. Moderated by Ida Goodreau, CEO of Lifelabs Medical Laboratory Services the session provided lots of good information about the potential of BC’s service sector.

In summary…

Michael Goldberg – Dean Emeritus, Sauder School of Business, UBC

  • There has been a dramatic growth in world exports of commercial services in the last couple of years;  US and EU are the dominant players – Canada is behind.  Trading in services grew 36.3% while trading in goods grew 26.8%.  And employment projections are for growth in the service sector.
  • Highlighted 10 exportable services – but health and education are key where we have large public expenditures and huge financial stress.
  • Keys to exporting tradeable services:  connectivity, high quality of life, education, health, public services and labour supply.
  • Challenges:  other regions are doing it too, can be slow to develop, goods matter and services don’t, trade barriers
  • Need to fund BC Stats to provide us with good information
  • See Mike’s paper at www.bcbc.com:  Building the Economic Base:  Tradeable Services.

Pascal Spothelfer – President and CEO of the BC Technology Industry Association

  • In 1984 the tech sector in BC was 1.8% of GDP and in 2007 it was 5.9% — employs 81,000 people.
  • Strengths:  entrepreneurial foundation, breadth (life sciences, IT, new media, clean tech)
  • Weaknesses:  small companies, poor export performance
  • The tech industry needs more medium size/large companies to train and feed the management pool;  exports are essential – we need to find ways to enable smaller companies to become exporters;  we need to understand the sector and develop growth strategies.
  • The keys are supporting education and building HR capacity.
  • S & T is important to dealing with climate change, energy supply and human health.
  • See Pascal’s paper at www.bcbc.com:  BC’s Advanced Technology Sector:  Reaching for the Next Level.

Chris Thomas, QC – Consultant to Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

  • Themes:  the Internet and Information Technology – the decoupling of services vis-à-vis geographic location; and, Infrastructure.
  • Singapore is “best in class” when it comes to tradeable services – they now operate over 28 ports around the world (YVR active in this area too).  The Singapore story is that they are short of water – so they have applied S & T to (1) improve catchment technology; (2) developed techniques for treating sewage; and (3) developing low energy desalination processes.  Singapore is now the world authority on “water” and provides consulting services globally.
  • We need to study our strengths and determine what we do well – and then unlock the economic opportunities – needs imagination and careful thought.
  • We can leverage our strong education and hard work.

Ron Burnett, President of Vice-Chancellor, Emily Carr University of Art and Design

  • It’s about creativity in the digital age – the creative economy and the cultural industries provide new opportunities.
  • The business value-add of design  — anecdotal examples – and we do use designed items and a designed world everyday.  MQ note:  where are the metrics on the value-add of design?  Research needed.
  • Opportunities in Health Design Engineering
  • Creative Sector – in 2007  $84.6B, 7.4% of GDP and 1.1 million jobs.
  • Opportunities in the new green economy.
  • See Ed Mansfield’s paper on:  the Creative Sector at www.bcbc.com.

MQ Reflections:

  • Am appreciative of the BCBC series – especially the papers that provide us with the key background information and context to understand where we are now and where we are headed from a future economic point of view.  Thank you BC Business Council.
  • Because I was going back and forth between the Outlook Series and the Resilient Cities conference, it was hard to miss the disconnect.   I was surprised at how the BCBC panels didn’t discuss the zero carbon or carbon-constrained economy and its opportunities.  Pascal mentioned some of the opportunities.   But there was no real discussion on how we are going to take advantage, in a creative and innovative way, of the change that is upon us .  Whereas at the Resilient Cities conference there were some really hard-nosed sessions on the economy, where it is going, what we could be and should be doing with some specific actions (next blog).
  • Need to get these two groups together – will be interesting to see the City of Vancouver’s Economic Development Plan which is coming soon.  Might be a good topic for a BCBC session.

Driving Tech Innovation and Economic Growth

The cab driver test – you know how it goes.  You get in the cab and you ask them a burning question – like “what do you think about this whole climate change deal?”  And you get a response that is totally anecdotal but always interesting.  Terry Tamminen started this session with his own story which gave an example of both ends of the response spectrum.

The line-up for this plenary included:  Governor Ted Kulongoski from Oregon,  Governor Jim Doyle from Wisconsin, Theodor Craver, CEO of Edison International, David Cush, CEO of Virgin America, Premier Danny Williams from Nfld & Laborador, Michael Rea from the Carbon Trust in the UK, and, Pablo Mandeville, Uruguay Resident Coordinator for UN.

Noted without attribution (notice how as the conference proceeded my note-taking lagged!)

  • Oregon is pushing ahead on clean-tech jobs – 1 out of 100 workers now in clean tech jobs.
  • Wisconsin is investing in research  — especially alternative energy – they have already invested in Life Sciences and Medicine.  Now it is the energy sector’s turn.
  • Newfoundland/Labrador – energy warehouse of Canada.  Detailed ocean mapping technologies key.  Made the comment that our Canadian stimulus packages should have been about the green economy.  Hear. Hear.
  • Airlines like Virgin America are looking for efficient flight paths to minimize fuel.  Mentioned the need for a public policy context to make change in the airline industry.

And the next blog will be on Oceans.

Categories
Carbon Economy Pacific Coast Collaboration

Speaking Up and Speaking Out

If global temperatures increase “only” 2 degrees, the World Bank estimates that the cost of adaptation with be $75B -$100B per year until 2050.  Whew.  Another speaker at the Global Climate Summit 2 “Adaptation Panel” was Michele de Nevers, the Senior Manager of the Environment Department at The World Bank.  She stated that for developing countries, it is about adaptation.  Unfortunately, they are the recipients of climate change.  Financing adaptation is challenging – it is about compensation and a case of “polluter pays”.   So how much will adaptation cost?  What is the base case?  And what actions do countries need to take?  The cost estimates range  and much work is now occurring on this topic.  And obviously, “who pays” and “how much” will be on the agenda for Copenhagen.

The academic perspective was provided by Dr. Stephen Schneider, Professor at Stanford in Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies.    From his perspective, we need to change the way we debate the issues.  The problems we face are not solvable by typical business models.  How many dollars are we going to spend to solve the problems?  There are policies and measures required – especially we need to get the price of carbon right.  He discussed the ‘sequence of the do-able’:

  1. Help developing nations.
  2. Develop performance standards.
  3. Be inventive about solving the problems – use P3s, provide incentives for business and have the courage to act.
  4. Put a shadow price on carbon.

For more info on Dr. Schneider’s work:  visit http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/.

Perhaps the most powerful speaker of the Summit was Dr. Dessima Williams – the Ambassador of Grenada to the UN and the Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States.  Similarly to Jane Goodall, Dr. Williams began with a “call”.  In her case, it was the Caribbean way of expressing joy and sorrow – the same words but with very different inflection – up at the end for job and down at the end for sorrow.  So we practiced with her.  It was her entrée to talk about speaking up and speaking out.  As small island nations, there is obviously a profound need to address climate adaptation.  So her point is that they need to be far more vocal about their issues and far more active in global negotiations.  She is taking her own advice – she was on her way to the pre-meeting for Copenhagen after the summit to make the point that the target needs to be below 2 degrees – more like 1.5 degrees.   She passionately discussed small island power and the importance of education, training and developing renewable energy.

Next up, opportunities for industry in a carbon-constrained world.

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Pacific Coast Collaboration Policy Shaping Collaborations Sauder Business School

Governors’ Global Climate Summit 2: the road to Copenhagen

The experience of LA is still overwhelmingly one of cars, cars and more cars.  On a previous trip, with Jane Bird, CEO of Canada Line leading the way, we took transit to the airport – actually it didn’t quite make it to the airport – there was a transfer to a shuttle bus from the light rail line.  So we have done quite a few things right in Vancouver.

The point is that LA is an interesting location to choose (for the second year in a row) for bringing together Governors from around the world to take action on climate change.  One of the key points is the emphasis on the power of the “sub-nationals” to make change and drag along all their federal counterparts.

I attended  Summit 1 last year in my capacity as Commissioner of the Pacific Coast Collaborative Commission (www.pacificcoastcollaborative.org).  This was a one-year Commission to lead B.C.’s participation in the Pacific Coast Collaborative. The Collaborative is a forum to develop agreements amongst the Premier of British Columbia and the Governors of the States of Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington. The agreements provide a framework for cooperative action through the sharing of information on best practices with the goal of positioning the region as the heart of innovation and sustainable living in the Pacific Century.  They focus on clean energy, regional transportation, research & innovation, emergency management and a sustainable regional economy.  Hopefully the Leaders will meet this Fall to sign-off on the agreements that were constructed over the past year.

This year, I was supported by the UBC Sauder Business School to extend my regional contacts and bring back the learning/experiences into Sauder and UBC.  The Summit is organized into plenaries and breakout sessions.  Both tended to have extensive panels – ensuring that everyone gets their time in the spotlight and their opportunity to talk about the challenges and actions being taken in the various regions.

Will report using a series of blogs around various sessions.  Perhaps the most powerful opening remarks were made by Dr. Jane Goodall (I missed Harrison Ford on the first day!)  She began by giving the call of the chimpanzee which was quite beautiful.  Mainly she commented on her recent experiences and the programs of her foundation.  In particular she has visited Greenland where the melting is profoundly changing the character and culture of the landscape and its people.  She is involved in a “Take Care” youth program and a  “Roots and Shoots” program – service learning – 8000 groups in 100 countries (www.rootsandshoots.org).  She also spoke passionately about the need for ecological audits being integrated as part of standard business procedure.

My favourite quote was one she attributed to an Inuit person:  something to the effect that there is no doubt that the ice is melting – how long will it take to melt the ice in the human heart?

Categories
Policy Shaping Collaborations Post Secondary Education

MQ Summary of BCBC Summit: Part 3

Innovation and BC’s 2020 Economy.  A great topic and well-covered by the third session — a panel discussion entitled:  Tomorrow’s Technology Today:  Innovation and BC’s 2020 Economy.

The final panel of the summit was well moderated by a pro — Dr. David Turpin, President of the University of Victoria.   Dr. Turpin started off the session with a succinct summary of the report that he and some colleagues authored for the BCBC on Universities and the Knowledge Economy (http://www.bcbc.com/Documents/2020_200909_Turpin.pdf) which emphasizes the important role that graduate students can play in the research team –especially their role in knowledge transfer.

Which led into comments from the founder of MITACS (Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems) Arvind Gupta — Dr. Math (those of you who read the Vancouver Sun will remember the great series on the importance of math — and Arvind’s approach to helping parents (and students) learn to love math).  But Arvind was on the panel to talk about what it takes to build a knowledge economy — basically knowledge workers.  And what we need to do to make BC attractive to the best possible students from around the globe.

MITACS operates a kind of “dating service” between research programs/students and industry.  It matches up graduate student expertise with identified problems from industry.  Money is matched and the outcome is often a job in the end for the student.  The Provincial government put in $10million into the internship program several years ago (Accelerate BC) and the program needs another infusion soon to keep these matches going.

Dr. Michael Gallagher, President and CEO of Westport Innovations Inc., talked about the vision of Westport to promote natural gas as an alternative fuel to oil.  Westport is one of BC’s poster companies for global success in terms of rate of growth and potential in the clean-tech landscape.  Michael emphasized three themes — the importance of commercialization of  research results, the challenges that face companies as they grow such as intellectual property issues and finding skilled employees,  and the importance of partnerships with other businesses (like Terasen (natural gas) and Cummins (engines).

The last panelist was Jayson Myers, President and CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.  Jayson talked about the importance of the commercialization process — how do we generate something of economic value?  He talked about new solutions, new products, re-engineering existing businesses and differentiating our various products and services.   He also called for leadership from both business and government to tackle these challenges.

So now a plug for Chapter Three:  Positioning for Prosperity:  Commercial and Industrial Opportunities for a New BC Economy. Tuesday October 20 7:30am-12:15pm.  That is one busy week in Vancouver — Outlook 2020, the Gaining Ground conference, and various other activities!

Categories
Business Education Pacific Coast Collaboration Policy Shaping Collaborations

MQ Summary of BCBC Summit: Part 2

It’s all about people — how we educate them, value them and motivate them to learn, re-tool and learn again.  The second session at the Chapter Two Summit was entitled:  In Training for Prosperity:  Education and the Real Value of BC’s Human Capital. Tamara Vrooman, President and CEO of Vancity Credit Union was a superb moderator — smoothly linking the presentations and asking questions that drew out the essence of the issues and a focus on what can be done.  The panelists were Clyde Hertzman, Director of the Human Early Learning Program at UBC,  Judith Sayers, Strategic Advisor for the Hupacasath First Nation and Anibal Valente, Vice-President, PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc.

Clyde gave us a passionate and fluent summary of ‘15 by 15‘ — a comprehensive policy framework for Early Human Capital Investment in BC.  15 by 15 refers to the BC government Strategic Plan commitment to lowering the provincial rate of early vulnerability to 15% by 2015.  Clyde presented six recommendations from his report (http://www.bcbc.com/Documents/2020_200909_Hertzman.pdf) but perhaps most useful was when Jock Finlayson asked from the floor — what are the top 3 to-do’s to get results in improving our early childhood education and development — which is an important investment to help us tackle the demographic challenges that Baxter talked about in terms of a skilled workforce.

1.  Support the government’s plan to institute full-day kindergarten as part of the strategy to provide “seamless transition for families as the parental leave period ends in order to make quality services for children age 19 month to kindergarten affordable and available…”

2.  Expand maternity and parental leave — we need to “support parents to synchronize caring and earning” —  we need a good balance of time and resources for in-family care and resources for strengthening the community service component.

3.  Keep following the development trajectory — make sure we monitor regularly so developmental challenges are caught early when they can be corrected relatively easily.

Next, Judith clearly outlined the challenges facing First Nations people and encouraged the business community to look to First Nations as an incredible pool of talent and human capital at a time when we see the general population aging and retiring.

Dan Perrin’s paper on First Nations and Economic Prosperity in the Coming Decade (http://www.bcbc.com/Documents/2020_200909_Perrin.pdf) contains two important messages:

1.  Aboriginal education achievement has to be a high priority in terms of maintaining some of our gains from the last few years and ramping up to achieve more gains, more quickly.

2.  Economic Success for First Nations “…has highlighted the importance of improved governance, self-determination and leadership for the economic and social development of Aboriginal communities.”  Information/assistance needs to get into the hands of First Nations as they get into business — various institutions and programs can help.

I have always imagined a wonderful scenario where the grade 9 aboriginal boy is bored silly by school, wants to quit and needs to have a sense of finding his way in the world.  Miraculously we have developed a program that will allow him to leave “traditional” schooling and move into the workplace where he learns on the job, is motivated by seeing what he can produce and at the end of the day gets credit for this work/learning in a diploma form and becomes a hugely productive and happy member of our workforce.  There has got to be a way to do this.  We are losing too much human capital because our system isn’t flexible enough to allow different kinds of learning.

And finally, Anibal from PCL outlined some of the programs that PCL has in place to respond to work force and skills training.  For example, this company has been proactive by creating the “PCL College of Construction”.  They have field personnel advisors who promote construction careers in high schools.  And they have made good use of the Provincial Nominee Program which assisted in bringing 86 skilled worked from other countries into our  BC workforce.

When asked about what the Business Council way forward might be, there was the following advice:

1.  Don’t wait for government or the competition to do it for you!

2.  Develop a Strategic Human Capital Plan — that coordinates levels of government and industry and educational institutions.

3.  Think about human development across the life course — from our first learnings as baby to our life long learning through to our senior years.

Whew — this post is too long.  Will make the one on Innovation shorter!

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