Connecting the journey between GLOBE’s signature events, this Roadmap recaps the key actions needed to make progress on the road to a regenerative future

 

At GLOBE Forum 2024: The Future is Regenerative, delegates identified key challenges to their sustainability and climate strategies, as well as potential actions and solutions to accelerate our journey towards a resilient, regenerative, net-zero future.

These key actions are captured in this Roadmap, which will inform the program at GLOBExCHANGE 2025 across our four tracks:


Click on the hyperlinks above for more information on the key action areas, including who should be involved and where to begin.

What is a regenerative future?

We like to define it as moving beyond simply doing “less bad” to creating net-positive outcomes by doing “more good”. It means leaving the world in a better state than we found it and reaching a point where people and nature can coexist sustainably. It means operating in ways that do not deplete our communities or resources but enable them to thrive.

Indigenous peoples have lived in ways that support a regenerative future since time immemorial, and we have an important opportunity to learn from their Traditional Knowledge and Ways of Knowing as we build a more regenerative future.

Key Cross-Cutting Themes

Throughout GLOBE Forum 2024, we heard several common themes that apply to all organizations, sectors, and tracks. These lessons represent a shift in the mindsets and systems that will be essential in realizing a regenerative future.

Climate Change & Biodiversity Loss are Crises: Act Like It!

Climate Change & Biodiversity Loss are Crises: Act Like It!

First and foremost, we heard the need for an emergency-level response to climate change and biodiversity loss. This crisis must be treated as any other emergency – with sufficient funding, adequate resource allocation and urgent action. There is no time to sit idly by; we must work quickly to close the gap between policy and action.

Progress Over Perfection

Progress Over Perfection

To move fast, we must embrace the attitude of progress over perfection. Now more than ever we cannot let the fear of failure, or the pursuit of perfection, prevent us from acting quickly. Instead, we need to create the space for mistakes, while continuously striving for improvement. It’s time we shift the narrative and embrace a collective commitment to start acting today, even if we don’t have all the answers.

Collaboration is Key

Collaboration is Key

Building relationships and collaborating across society is crucial to achieving our sustainability targets – we cannot do this work alone. We must break out of silos, learn from each other’s success and failures, and create synergies. These are the greatest challenges of our generation, and they can only be solved by working together.

We Can (and Must) Bridge Divides

We Can (and Must) Bridge Divides

To achieve the level of collaboration required to enact significant change, we must work to bridge the divides in our increasingly polarized world. We must come together to make sustainability a bipartisan issue, take politics out of our planet, and agree on concrete actions, creating legal and binding environmental and social commitments that will be able to withstand political turbulence. Doing so will require putting aside our personal biases, seeking to listen to and understand one another’s perspectives, and having the humility to learn from each other.

Key Actions and Outcomes

Building on conversations from GLOBE Forum 2022 and GLOBExCHANGE 2023, we heard from government, business, Indigenous groups, and civil society alike that the race is on to reach destination net zero. As the impacts of climate change become more pronounced in Canada and globally, the urgency to meet this target is growing rapidly. Collective action, innovation, and investment across Canada’s sectors are imperative for reducing our emissions and meeting the targets outlined in the Paris Agreement.

Key Actions for Reaching Destination Net Zero:

1. Facilitate Climate-Smart Investments

Reduce barriers to public funding and de-risk new investments to enable and encourage organizations to invest in initiatives that reduce emissions.

According to the Government of Canada, up to $115 billion CAD is needed annually to fund the climate solutions required to build a Canadian netzero economy by 2050. Currently, high levels of policy uncertainty can discourage organizations from investing in long-term emissions reduction projects. Simultaneously, there is an information gap around available public funding sources and a lack of harmonization in grant requirements that make funding accessibility very challenging for small- and medium-sized enterprises. Both challenges must be addressed to spur the needed levels of investment in climate solutions across the country.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, Financial Institutions

Where to Begin:

  • Develop and implement stable financial policies, including a clear taxonomy, to guide investment in sustainable and climate-positive initiatives.
  • Utilize public funds to support private investments in climate-smart solutions through mechanisms like risk sharing.
  • Engage in partnerships between the private sector and public finance institutions to leverage resources and expertise.
  • Create a central hub for public funding sources to streamline the research and application process for firms with limited resources and capacity.

2. Tackle Scope 3 Emissions as a Team

Collaborate along value chains to accurately measure and work to reduce Scope 3 emissions. 

CDP reports that, on average, Scope 3 emissions account for more than 75% of organizations’ total emissions. While notoriously difficult to measure and address, tackling Scope 3 emissions is critical for all companies aiming to reduce their GHG footprint and create meaningful environmental impact. However, everyone’s Scope 3 emissions are another’s Scope 1. Through effective collaboration, value chains can work to increase the accessibility of Scope 3 data and shrink greenhouse gas footprints, creating exponential and mutually beneficial emissions reductions for all organizations involved.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Business, Value Chain Partners

Where to Begin:

  • Create a centralized platform for sharing emissions data, transition strategies, and best practices to foster collaboration and transparency.
  • Provide focused GHG accounting training, easy to use software platform, and compassionate coaches for businesses, especially SMEs, in the early stages of calculating their Scope 3 emissions.
  • Initiate conversations with sustainability professionals throughout your value chain to find common ground and areas for collaboration. Keep in mind that value chain partners reducing their Scope 1 emissions reduces your Scope 3.

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:  

  • CN’s Carbon Calculator as a best practice for increasing access to Scope 3 data.
  • BMO’s Climate Smart program as a best practice for helping businesses measure, reduce and report their emissions.

3. Accelerate Cleantech Innovation

Facilitate the development and deployment of climate innovation through targeted support for cleantech firms.  

The need for accelerated innovation is recognized as essential for keeping pace with global efforts to combat climate change. Implementing measures to accelerate and scale novel cleantech across Canada will be necessary to meeting our international commitments.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, Innovation Hubs, Research Organizations, Financial Institutions

Where to Begin:

  • Increase accessibility and visibility of accelerators across Canada.
  • Develop physical or virtual spaces for green tech companies to test their innovations on real world situations with large clients.
  • Provide targeted policy and financial support to cleantech firms.

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:  

4. Centre Indigenous Voices in the Energy Transition

Place Indigenous voices at the heart of the energy transition, incorporating their Traditional Ways of Knowing and perspectives during the consultation, implementation, and evaluation phases of clean energy projects.

Indigenous communities are integral for the clean power transition. Not only do they possess a wealth of knowledge on the lands on which clean energy projects are taking place, they are also at the forefront of innovative clean energy projects. Building meaningful relationships with Indigenous communities will help to foster reconciliation, improve innovation, and create truly sustainable change for the Canadian energy sector.

Who Needs to Act? 

  • Government, Business, Clean Energy Project Developers, Educational Institutions 

Where to Begin:

  • Reach out to your local Indigenous communities to build long-lasting, respectful, and mutually beneficial relationships. Trust takes time to build so reach out early and with the intent to form a meaningful relationship, rather than seek help on a specific project.
  • Provide training and education to Indigenous communities to empower them to play an integral role in the projects occurring in their communities.
  • Give authority and autonomy back to Indigenous communities through consent-based decision-making agreements.

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:

5. Seek Continuous Improvements in ESG Reporting

Begin your sustainability disclosures journey with the resources and information you have available, while aiming for incremental improvements year over year.

In recent years, stakeholders have become increasingly vocal about their demand for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) information. As we look ahead, it’s evident that sustainability disclosures are gaining prominence globally. Notably, in 2023, the European Union made sustainability reporting mandatory, and it’s likely that Canada will soon follow suit. Although data complexities exist and the reporting process is still evolving, this shouldn’t deter companies from starting their sustainability disclosure journey. Organizations should work to begin reporting on ESG factors as soon as possible, while striving for progress year over year as internal processes improve and external guidance emerges.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, Business, Financial Institutions, NGOs, Research Organizations 

Where to Begin:

  • Look to resources and guidance provided through the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and Canadian Sustainability Standards Board (CSSB).
  • Start reporting with the data you currently have available while continuing to invest in incremental improvements in data collection every year.
  • Invest in data automation systems and reskilling employees to improve internal processes.
  • Focus on developing the process to complete reporting rather than on the report itself. A key factor includes setting roles and responsibilities early on for the reporting process.
  • Engage employees in the process of collecting accurate emissions data.

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:

  • CPA Canada’s ISSB Resources and Guidance 
  • Look to European organizations who completed the reporting process in 2023 as examples

6. Develop Comprehensive & Coordinated Action Plans

Set ambitious, science-backed targets for reaching destination net zero, reinforced by clear action plans and interim targets.

Discussions at GLOBE Forum 2024 underscored the importance of coordinated efforts across society to reach Canada’s net zero commitments. Organizations have a critical role to play in this effort and must work to set net zero targets in line with the Canada’s Emissions Reduction Plan. However, setting targets alone is not enough. Clear strategies, complete with interim targets and focused on emissions reductions, are crucial to ensuring our net zero ambitions are realized.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, Business, NGOs

Where to Begin:

  • Develop a mix of short-term and long-term targets to ensure your organization is consistently progressing.
  • Focus investments on long-term actions rather than short-term offsets.
  • Integrate Indigenous Traditional Knowledge into your plans. The consultation of female and Two-Spirit Indigenous leaders is of the utmost importance to ensure a matriarchal approach is taken to this transition, incorporating the four core values of gratitude, kinship, reciprocity, and respect.

7. Revamp Electrical Infrastructure

Expand and update Canada’s electrical grid infrastructure to accommodate expected increases in demand. 

Many of the solutions designed to reduce emissions, including electric vehicles, heat pumps, and various renewable energy sources, require electricity. As uptake of these solutions increases, the Canadian Climate Institute projects grid demand to double by 2050. To accommodate this increased demand, ensure energy reliability, and achieve our overall climate targets, updating Canada’s electrical grid infrastructure will be critical.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, Utilities Sector, Financial Institutions, Business 

Where to Begin:

  • Replace aging infrastructure and expand generation capacity across Canada. In these replacements, there is an opportunity to install infrastructure that allows for bilateral flow, helping to accelerate the deployment of Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology.
  • Develop adaptive, flexible regulatory and policy frameworks to allow for more innovation in smart grid technology deployment and management.
  • Invest in advanced battery storage technology to effectively manage peaks in demand.

Resiliency was front and center at GLOBE Forum 2024 as we heard from many, including the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities of Canada, about the need to climate proof Canadian homes, infrastructure, health systems, and communities. The key message was the need to switch from a reactive to proactive approach; acting now to construct infrastructure that can withstand the challenges posed by climate change, ensuring communities are prepared and resilient.

Key Actions for Building Resilient Communities:

1. Implement the National Adaptation Strategy (NAS) 

Align resiliency efforts with the priorities and targets outlined in the National Adaptation Strategy (NAS).

In 2023, the NAS was introduced to guide Canadian governments, communities, and companies towards enhancing the country’s resilience against climate change impacts. The strategy lays out priorities and measurable targets, providing important guidance on our path to resiliency. Implementing this strategy will require collective effort from stakeholders across the nation. It is imperative that governments, communities, and companies alike begin to consider the role their work plays in the NAS, and the steps they can take to help Canada achieve its resiliency targets.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, Business, NGOs, Community Organizers

Where to Begin:

  • Identify action areas relevant to you and your organization in the NAS (linked below).
  • Implement new and adjust current resiliency initiatives to align with the priorities and targets outlined in the NAS.
  • Develop relationships with relevant partners to speed up progress and maximize the impact of resiliency initiatives.

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:

2. Enhance Infrastructure Resiliency

Construct new and retrofit existing infrastructure that can withstand the challenges posed by climate change, while reducing carbon emissions.

Historically, communities, infrastructure, and building codes have been developed with a stable climate in mind. However, climate induced natural disasters are on the rise and to protect the resilience of our communities nationwide, we must ensure that our critical infrastructure is equipped to withstand these impacts. This will be done through a combination of new builds and retrofits. In building and retrofitting resilient infrastructure, the opportunity arises to also implement changes that will lower the carbon footprint of our infrastructure, further benefiting local communities and the planet at large.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Construction Industry, Financial Institutions, Property Owners, Government

Where to Begin:

  • Implement sensible planning and update building codes to ensure homes and infrastructure are resilient against growing climate impacts, such as storm surges and wildfires.
  • Create a comprehensive plan for whole house retrofits to ensure the property operates in as energy-efficient a manner as possible, with all aspects of the building complementing each other.
  • Take resiliency into account from the onset for all construction projects.
  • Expand and promote programs like the Greener Homes Grant and regulatory measures to reduce oil requirements for heating, encouraging the adoption of clean and affordable energy solutions.

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:

3. Redesign Communities

Build inclusive communities that improve the health of inhabitants, provide economic opportunities, reduce social inequities, and enhance the overall quality of life.

Through thoughtful, informed, and inclusive planning, we can drastically improve the livelihoods of our future communities. The goal should be a future where communities are not simply surviving but thriving, with equitable access to infrastructure and natural resources, like green spaces and bodies of water, that support a healthy, prosperous society. To accomplish this, the emphasis must go beyond rapid development, to focus on smart, resilient, and sustainable construction that shows a deep understanding of the long-term challenges posed by climate change. It underscores the necessity of balancing speed with quality, affordability with sustainability, and economic growth with environmental protection.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, City Planners, Financial Institutions, Community Organizers

Where to Begin:

  • Invest in public and active transport, shifting away from single occupant transport.
  • Develop and support community and green spaces.
  • Implement regional approaches to health care and climate action.
  • Empower communities to actively engage in resilience-building initiatives to foster effective, sustainable, and locally relevant solutions.
  • Develop policies to tackle the challenge of making climate-resilient building affordable and accessible, ensuring that vulnerable populations are not disproportionately impacted by the costs of adaptation and resilience measures.

4. Prepare the Workforce

Develop foundational transferable skills for workers who can contribute to an ever-changing green economy landscape.

We cannot address the climate crisis and build resiliency if the workforce is not prepared to take on this challenge. According to research conducted by LinkedIn, only 1 in 8 workers has a necessary green skill. Most workers today do not have the time or money required to pursue traditional education methods. Novel, innovative education models can be leveraged to train and upskill incoming and existing workers, equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to build a resilient, green economy.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Employers, Employees, Educational Institutions, Government

Where to Begin:

  • Leverage innovative education models such as micro-credential courses and on-the-job training opportunities.
  • Conduct skills-based hiring, rather than focusing on degrees.
  • Bring sustainability departments into the hiring process to ensure green skills are clearly reflected in job postings and recruitment activities.
  • Develop competency profiles for green transition jobs.
  • Build jobs as a key component into all government climate plans and funding programs.

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:  

5. Educate on Sustainability & Climate Science

Integrate sustainability and climate science into educational curricula and public discourse to create a well-informed and engaged society.

Currently, there is a lack of sustainability education within school systems and public discourse. This deficiency contributes to polarization and hinders the development of a well-informed society that actively supports equitable and just climate solutions. This informed civic engagement, particularly from diverse and marginalized groups, is crucial for ensuring that sustainability efforts address broader societal needs and actively work to increase the resiliency of our communities.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Educational institutions, NGOs, Government, Community Groups

Where to Begin:

  • Develop national and regional education programs and school curricula focused on sustainability and climate science.
  • Implement initiatives aimed at reducing polarization through informed dialogue.

In recent years we have seen an increased societal commitment to tackling biodiversity loss, and the conversations at GLOBE Forum 2024 reflected this trend. Society’s approach to restoring and protecting nature must mimic the interconnectedness of nature itself. With guidance and frameworks for meaningful, science-backed action in place, government, business, and civil society must now take these recommendations and collaboratively act.

Key Actions for Restoring & Protecting Nature:

1. Create Long-Lasting Local & Indigenous Partnerships

Build meaningful relationships and partnerships with Indigenous communities and local citizens, both of whom can play valuable roles in restoring and protecting local ecosystems.

Communities often feel a close connection with their local ecosystems and Indigenous communities in particular have a deep connection to the land and its biodiversity. Their Traditional Knowledge are critical in the path towards a nature-positive future. As a society, we must recognize and seek to collaborate with these groups, who have the motivation, ability, and knowledge required to help regenerate Canada’s nature.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, Business, NGOs, Financial Institutions, Civil Society

Where to Begin:

  • Build genuine relationships with your local Indigenous communities.
  • Consult Traditional Indigenous Knowledges in your nature-related decision making.
  • Draw funding to community initiatives that help restore nature and make land resilient.
  • Utilize citizen scientists to help collect data and build valuable datasets.

2. Start Your Nature Strategy Journey

Develop and implement targets and strategies to halt and reverse the negative impacts your organization has on nature and biodiversity.

All organizations impact and are impacted by nature. The World Economic Forum reports that over half the world’s total GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its service. However, the ecosystems that we rely on are being overused and exploited, resulting in an average decline of 69% in species populations since 1970 according to WWF. To reverse these dangerous trends and begin to regenerate our natural environments, businesses must step up and take accountability for the impacts they have on nature. The first step in this process is for your organization to create a dedicated nature and biodiversity strategy to inform and direct meaningful action. While it can feel overwhelming, the first step is the hardest, and the good news is there is already a lot of guidance available to direct you on your journey.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Business

Where to Begin:

  • Collect relevant nature-related operational data.
  • Conduct a materiality assessment to identify key nature-related issues for your organization.
  • Assess your organization’s nature-related impacts, for example by using the Task Force on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework.

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:

3. Build Corporate Capacity to Protect Nature

Increase the ability of corporate sustainability professionals to effectively address nature and biodiversity loss.

Stakeholder interest in biodiversity action is rising and mandatory nature-related financial disclosures are likely on the horizon. It has never been more crucial for organizations to be equipped to tackle nature and biodiversity loss. To ensure the corporate sector is capable of embarking on its nature regeneration journey, we must train and upskill existing professionals, as well as prepare incoming professionals for this important task.

Who Needs to Act:  

  • Business, Educational Institutions, NGOs, Scientific Community 

Where to Begin: 

  • Leverage external expertise and collaborate with experts from various fields.
  • Incorporate corporate nature strategies into business and sustainability program curricula, and work to engage students on the topic.
  • Communicate biodiversity technicalities, terms, and data in a way that is accessible to business leaders and the public to increase their understanding of their impacts on nature.

4. Spur Investment in Nature Conservation & Restoration

Implement financial and policy mechanisms that will encourage investment into nature conservation and restoration.

The UN calculates a total investment in nature of USD 8.1 trillion is required between 2021 and 2050 to successfully tackle the biodiversity, land degradation, and climate crises. To reach this ambitious target, we need a strong uptake in both public and private investments into nature conservation and restoration. However, investments in nature can be perceived as risky due to the complex and unpredictable elements of ecological systems, and the complexities of calculating the true value of our natural resources and a healthy environment. As such, governments and financial institutions must work to implement financial and policy mechanisms that will incentivize conservation and restoration investments.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, Financial Institutions, Philanthropy

Where to Begin:

  • Increase early-stage investment in large public-private funds and trusts for conservation.
  • Create mechanisms to incentivize nature-positive actions, for example through biodiversity credits.

5. Combat Wildfires & Restore our Forests

Collaborate across society to prevent and manage wildfires and regenerate the forests that have been lost to climate-induced disasters.

According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, 7131 fires burned a total of 17,203,625 hectares of land across Canada in 2023, representing the worst wildfire season ever recorded in this country. This topic was widely discussed at GLOBE Forum 2024 and the consensus is that we need collaboration across the board to prevent future wildfires as well as regenerate the forests that have already been lost.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, NGOs, Business

Where to Begin:

  • Apply Indigenous perspectives and practices, such as cultural burnings, to fire management.
  • Give Indigenous communities the sovereignty and the funding to implement their own fire management techniques.
  • b. d. Utilize the forest sector itself to aid in the protection of forests through climate smart forestry, decarbonizing operations, and substituting more harmful materials with wood products.
  • Plant more trees responsibly in urban areas, for example through Miyawaki mini forests – 100sqft plots of concentrated, Indigenous planting. This will help not only in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss but will also create the social benefits of stress alleviation and community connectivity.
  • Establish partnerships between corporations and NGOs or startups working on addressing the wildfire crisis.

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:  

GLOBE Forum 2024 was the first time an entire program track was dedicated to water security – and it certainly made a splash! Delegates were invigorated to see it put at the forefront of sustainability conversations and eager to share the amazing work currently underway to help protect our water systems. With many incredible technologies, initiatives, and solutions already developed, we must involve all of society to drive widespread implementation.

Key Actions for Ensuring Water Security:

1. Integrate Traditional Knowledge & Modern Science

Build relationships between Indigenous communities and scientific communities to help bridge these two important opportunities for stewardship.

Traditional Knowledge and modern science must work hand in hand when stewarding our land and waters along the journey to ensuring water security. There is currently a gap between water policy founded in western science and Canada’s history of colonialization. We must work to ensure water security is grounded in reconciliation and the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples. Patient, trust-driven relationship building with Indigenous communities will drive healthy, sustainable watershed management.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, Scientific Community

Where to Begin:

  • Reach out to your local Indigenous communities to build long-lasting, respectful, and mutually beneficial relationships.
  • Replace reactionary consultation processes with the meaningful inclusion of Indigenous rights and voices from the onset of all projects.
  • Empower and strengthen Indigenous decision making and management processes.
  • Advance capacity building through ongoing training and education in Indigenous communities.

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:  

  • The Indigenous Watersheds Initiative: the Province of BC in partnership with Watersheds BC and MakeWay are stewarding $15 million of funding to support Indigenous-led initiatives advancing watershed health, giving Indigenous communities the information, autonomy and ability to address their concerns and how their water resources are impacted and protected.

2. Develop Your Corporate Water Strategy

Assess your organization’s relationship with water and develop a strategy to address risk and become water positive.

From employees, to physical assets, to inputs, every business impacts and is impacted by water. Droughts can damage infrastructure and increase costs of energy, and floods can displace your employees and render facilities unusable. With climate-induced water disasters on the rise, this critical resource is becoming a growing risk to businesses across the country. To further manage this threat, corporations must work to conserve and protect local water systems. Companies need to take water into account for all corporate decision-making, and go beyond minimizing impact to creating concrete, actionable strategies to become water positive.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Business

Where to Begin:

  • Measure and report your organization’s water usage and conduct a water risk assessment to identify the ways in which your organization impacts, and is impacted by, water.
  • Take steps to understand where your water comes from. Collaborate with other water users within your watershed to understand your collective impact and risks, and how you can work to protect these sources, keeping in mind that water health is highly linked to the health of its surrounding ecosystem.
  • Develop a set of water-related KPIs to track impact and progress over time.

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:  

  • At GLOBE Forum, we heard from companies such Microsoft who have already begun their journey to becoming water positive.

3. Roll Out Existing Water Tech & Data Solutions

Identify water technology and data projects that have been successfully implemented and begin scaling the solutions across Canada.

Throughout GLOBE Forum 2024, we heard people speak about up-and-coming water innovations. Much of the technology and data solutions that we need to protect our aquatic ecosystems already exist; now it’s just a matter of supporting the organizations doing the work and scaling their solutions country-wide where applicable.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Business, Government, NGOs, Financial Institutions, Scientific Community

Where to Begin:

  • Research water action projects across Canada and determine where their insights and technologies can be scaled to your organization or local region. 

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:  

  • Support for Cleantech Water Companies: AquaAction supports entrepreneurs launching cleantech water companies while helping to build a skilled watershed workforce and raising awareness of the sector potential among students and young people. 
  • Data Sharing: DataStream provides a software platform for more than 250 organizations to share water data. The platform is launching the Pacific DataStream this spring, which will enable data sharing among organizations working on water issues in the Pacific region. 
  • Water Monitoring and Assessment Efforts: The Ottawa Riverkeeper provides a range of services and convenes at its new space on the Ottawa River. These services include conducting research to understand species at risk at the watershed level and sharing this knowledge with First Nation communities. The organization is preparing to release its first watershed health report card, which will analyze data on flow and mercury levels for the first time at the watershed level.

4. Provide Long-Term, Flexible Funding

Supply multi-year, sustainable, and flexible funding to organizations working towards water conservation.

Water conservation initiatives span multiple years. Organizations dedicated to addressing these challenges require consistent baseline capital that allows for maintaining staff, moving past planning phases, and confidently investing in long-term water action. Ensuring community autonomy over watershed management is also essential. As such, community-based funding models should be flexible, empowering communities to identify their priorities and determine the optimal approaches to achieve them.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, Business, Financial Institutions

Where to Begin:

  • Adjust existing government funding programs to increase duration and flexibility.
  • Leverage the use of public-private partnerships to secure long-term funding for water conservation projects.
  • Shift conversations around watersheds from solely a provider of ecological benefits, to one of ecological and economic benefits, helping to make the case for financial investments into these critical resources.

5. Help Develop Your Local Watershed Sector

Determine the role your organization can play in creating and maintaining healthy and resilient watersheds in your region.

Climate impacts are combining with decades of watershed degradation to reduce the security of communities and ecosystems. There is both a critical need and a vital opportunity to grow and develop Canada’s watershed sectors to meet the challenges facing our watersheds. Along with other partners, there is a vast opportunity for the private sector to act as leaders in addressing these needs and translating opportunities into action, while at the same time managing business risk associated with water and other climate impacts.

Who Needs to Act?

  • Government, Business, NGOs, Financial Institutions, Scientific Community

Where to Begin:

Check out the Working for Watersheds Roadmap linked below and consider where your work fits into the five streams of action. Developed by the Working for Watersheds Initiative, the Watershed Sector Roadmap is a blueprint for sector development. The work began in BC but is applicable to efforts across Canada and beyond.

  • Building sector profile & awareness
  • Watershed workforce development
  • Growing watershed innovation capacity
  • Sustainable funding
  • Watershed policy & governance

Key Resources and Best Practices Identified at GLOBE Forum 2024:  

From GLOBE Forum 2024 to GLOBExCHANGE 2025

GLOBExCHANGE is focused on making progress on the goals that are not only critical to the success of your organizations, but to the wellbeing of our economy and our planet. We value the suggestions from our community of climate leaders, so if there are challenges or actions that you would like to see incorporated into the GLOBExCHANGE program, let your voice be heard by suggesting a session idea or speaker.

We look forward to seeing you at GLOBExCHANGE 2025 in Toronto on February 11 – 13!