Grassroots: Our sustainability journey begins with our people

It’s not an option anymore: employers need to lead the way toward more sustainable practices. Being a greener organization shows responsibility and compassion — but it can’t be done alone. Here’s how we’re making our teams an integral part of our sustainable journey.

CBC/Radio-Canada is no stranger to sustainability. We’ve been reporting on our Environmental Sustainability Performance for more than a decade, constantly encouraging our teams across the country to think of new ways to reduce our footprint and tell Canadians stories in the greenest way possible.

Caring and committing

We launched Greening Our Story two years ago, an ambitious sustainability plan showcasing our commitment to act on climate change. More recently, we took things to the next level by joining the Net-Zero Challenge to become carbon neutral by 2050 (or sooner) and united with 21 other Canadian leading media companies to increase environmentally sustainable change within our industry.

What do these initiatives have in common? They’re all significant ways for our teams to know what we stand for as an employer and decide how they can do their part.

Moving towards greener productions

As content creators, we looked for a tool to calculate carbon footprint in our in-house and independent productions. We were the first Canadian broadcaster to use albert, a carbon calculator, to enable our teams to see their impact, and find ways to reduce their footprint.

Events, both at CBC (Green Day, Seeds of Change) and Radio-Canada, have also been a great way to get people together, raise awareness and share best practices. We’ve also made it a priority to pair up with the best in the industry to support our teams and others to transition to greener productions such as the Green Spark Group, the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO), the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), Rolling Green by The Quebec Film and Television Council (QFTC) and the Sustainable Production Forum (SPF). 

Engaging at every level

We want everyone to feel included in making our broadcaster more sustainable, regardless of their role or where they are working from. Here are five examples of how our teams contribute and see concrete results:

1. We’ve introduced a waste management pilot in our Toronto and Montreal stations that uses artificial intelligence to help sort waste and reduce waste stream contamination.
2. We’re encouraging our teams to reconsider their travel needs and choose greener options, such as virtual meetings, cycling and using public transportation. 
3. We’ve begun including sustainability criteria in our Request For Proposal process, enabling us to move towards more sustainable goods, services and vendors.
4. Powered by the sun, we’ve introduced our first renewable energy projects at two of our transmission sites: Pointe La Nim in New Brunswick and Carp in Ontario. The Pointe La Nim project offsets 100% of its greenhouse gas emissions, making it our first transmission site to be carbon neutral.
5. Coming from a suggestion by our teams, we’ve added e-bikes to our fleet: Radio-Canada radio journalists are now putting a new spin on news gathering as part of a pilot project to use electric bikes for reporting.

We know there’s much more that can and should be done. 

That’s why we want to keep doing more, and involve as many people as we can. We hope that offering a place to work that is transparent and truly committed to being more sustainable is both exciting and powerful for those taking this journey with us.