Canfor highlighted its renewable energy usage, seedling planting and certifications in its 2021 ESG report. (Courtesy Canfor)

Canfor, Hines and Trans Mountain have updated the progress made toward their environment, social and governance (ESG) goals in 2021, with an emphasis on their efforts to reach net-zero and make more diverse hires.

Canfor

Canfor Corporation is a Vancouver, B.C.-headquartered wood, pulp and paper company with operations in Canada and the United States. It says its lumber operations have annual production capacity of approximately 5.6 billion board feet of lumber.

Report highlights: Eighty per cent of Canfor’s energy consumption is from renewable sources, the company claims. It diverted 5.9 million tonnes of residuals from landfills for use as hog fuel – an unrefined combination of unprocessed coarse chips of bark and wood fibre – or to be processed into value-add products. Approximately 54 million seedlings planted in 2021.

Emissions goal: Aims for net-zero by 2050 through advancing climate-positive forest management, producing sustainable forest products and developing impactful partnerships.

Scope 1 and 2: In 2021, Canfor says its operations emitted 790,461 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) in Scope 1 emissions and 498,389 tonnes of CO2e in market-based Scope 2 emissions. Biogenic emissions derived from combustion of wood waste for process heat, and from certain chemical reactions in the pulping process, accounted for 5,517,034 tonnes of CO2e.

Canfor’s goal is to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse emissions by 42 per cent by 2030 from a 2020 baseline. In 2020, it emitted 1,005,258 tonnes of CO2e in market-based, non-biogenic Scope 1 and 2 emissions. In Spring 2022, Canfor set science-based targets and a road map to decarbonization. It also committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and to undergo validation within two years.

Scope 3: Measuring its Scope 3 emissions and establishing a science-based reduction target by 2024. Currently performed an initial estimate with further refinement undergoing.

Certifications: Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), FSC Forest Management Standard, SFI Fibre Sourcing Standard, American Tree Farm System

Third-party verifiers: SFI for operations in British Columbia and Alberta and Forest Stewardship Council

DEI plans: Hiring certain percentages of under-represented groups (women, non-binary people, Indigenous Peoples, visible minorities, people living with disabilities, LGBTQ2S+ individuals and Veterans) by 2023, 2025 and 2030 across executive leadership, senior leadership and new hires. By 2030, Canfor aims to have 30 per cent of its executive leadership and 50 per cent of its annual new hires as under-represented groups.

Expect to achieve 100 per cent completion of inclusion and diversity awareness training for all salaried employees across North America and participation of Indigenous cultural awareness and understanding training for all Canadian salaried employees by 2021, fulfilling its goal.

ESG strategy: Invest at least $250 million in carbon reduction projects across its business by 2030. Continuing its reforestation and forest management plans. Adhering to its Scope 1 and 2 decarbonization plan through energy and process efficiency, fuel switching, electrification, investing in renewables and supporting technologies like hydrogen fuel and direct air capture.

Read the full report here.

Hines

Hines Interests Limited Partnership is a real estate developer based in Houston, Texas. It operates in 28 countries including Canada, across hundreds of cities worldwide with US$90.3 billion in assets.

Report highlights: Releasing an embodied carbon guide and implementing it for several buildings. Created and hired for community outreach and engagement manager role. Commencing use of the Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor (CRREM).

Emissions goal: A net-zero target that will be publicly announced later in 2022. Currently modelling its global portfolio’s carbon footprint and pathways to net-zero.

Scope 1 and 2: N/A

Scope 3: N/A

Certifications: GRESB Sector Leadership, LEED, Energy Star.

Third-party verifiers: Unnamed third-party auditors of building certifications.

DEI plans: Hired a VP of strategic sourcing to lead the work of creating clear policies. Establishing goals and targets to develop a proactive approach to managing and measuring its performance. Rolled out a software solution to track and manage. Made a 10 per cent increase from 2020 in female and/or racially diverse hires. Enhanced talent management to address career trajectory.

ESG strategy: Outlined a strategy to reduce operational carbon via design and engineering; efficiency upgrades; and data collection, measurement and reporting. Hines began to utilize the CRREM in 2021 to measure environmental performance in owned and managed assets, plans to develop a pathway toward net-zero for each property through efficiency, green power and electrification improvements, and “hyper-systems efficiency”. Also developing The Embodied Carbon Reduction Guide to understand embodied carbon across its portfolio and conceive of strategies to diminish embodied carbon.

Read the full report here.

Trans Mountain

Trans Mountain Corporation is a federal Crown corporation operating oil pipelines across Alberta, British Columbia and Washington state. Headquartered in Calgary it claims to deliver approximately 300,000 barrels of crude oil and refined products every day.

Report highlights: Ensuring it hired almost 11 per cent Indigenous contractors and 15 per cent Indigenous businesses. Expanded disclosures in response to the recommendations from the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. A portion of its short-term compensation is linked to goals addressing key ESG topics, including greenhouse gas emissions management. Trans Mountain also formally incorporated responsibility over ESG matters (including climate-related risks) into its board committee mandates and included climate-related risks in its Enterprise Risk Management program.

Emissions goal: Supports the Canadian government’s net-zero by 2050 goal and says it will, “set our own targets to reduce and/or offset our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions to support this ambitious goal.”

Scope 1 and 2: The corporation reports it emitted 105,045 tonnes of CO2e, with 95 per cent from Scope 2. Plans to develop and publish a Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions reduction plan by the end of 2022.

Scope 3: N/A

Certifications: Green Marine for its Westridge Marine Terminal.

Third-party verifiers: Unnamed third-party verifiers for marine activities.

DEI plans: Hosting “Diversity Days”, supporting Indigenous reconciliation and dialogue efforts, contracting Indigenous workers and businesses.

ESG strategy: Purchasing carbon offsets for expansion plans.

Read the full report here.