Sustainable Business Support Office

About Us

What is Climate Change?

Climate change is the gradual global increase in temperature that impacts various elements of the climate differently depending on where you live. This change is caused by the increase in various gases, referred to as greenhouse gases (GHGs), being released into the atmosphere, primarily carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gasoline, natural gas, coal, etc.

Our Initiative

The Chamber of Commerce Brantford-Brant has partnered with the City of Brantford to create a Sustainable Business Support Office to create a network of businesses seeking to improve the sustainability of their business, share resources, and offer training.

Human capital, human rights, climate change – these considerations are essential to business success and there is a growing need to view these issues differently.

Our SME Institute’s partner, Goodman Sustainability, offers a range of services to enable SME success in developing their Sustainability Roadmap. Click here for more information

Taking it Seriously

Climate change is a complex issue but two things are certain: its environmental impact will directly affect business, society, and ecosystems; and governments will seek to mitigate its effects with regulations. Businesses that do not adapt will be at risk, while those that embrace change will see greater opportunities. Climate change is the greatest economic transformation in our lifetime, because it impacts every single industry sector.

Actions Businesses Can Adopt to Fight Climate Change:

Businesses can play a large role in fighting climate change and the Sustainable Support Business Office can help begin that journey.

Optimize Employees’ Transportation

  • Transportation is one of the largest sectors of greenhouse gas emissions. By encouraging employees to take public transit, to carpool with other colleagues, providing discounts for public transit, companies can greatly reduce their indirect carbon emissions
  • Consider offering telecommuting options and a hybrid working format. Allowing employees to work from home and then renting a smaller space will greatly reduce your carbon footprint.

Reduce Energy Consumption

  • Turning off the lights in the office in the evening, slightly lowering/raising the heating or cooling, or taking devices off the plugs when it’s not needed are some good actions companies can implement. By paying more attention to other daily routine actions, businesses can reduce some of their energy consumption and thus their impact on the climate.
  • Consider upgrading lighting to LED and HVAC equipment to electric, energy efficient options to greatly reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Give Renewable Energy A Go

  • More and more individuals are choosing renewable energy and it is becoming a more affordable option. It reduces your reliance on the grid and avoiding fossil fuels significantly reduces your business’s carbon footprint.

Raise Awareness Among Employees, Clients, and Other Stakeholders

  • As an economic agent, companies also play a role in raising awareness on their employees, consumers, media, and other stakeholders. Organizing in-house contests, hackathons, or campaigns to raise and improve awareness on sustainability issues is a great idea. Partner with outside organizations, do something original, unique, powerful, and that stays top of mind.
  • These small gestures gradually create the ground for best practices that individuals then reproduce at home and transmit to their friends… the snowball effect.

Choose Sustainable Suppliers

  • Choosing a supplier is also an environmentally-friendly choice. Companies should make the effort to choose suppliers who demonstrate they have good environmental practices.
  • Companies wanting to get sustainability and CSR certifications such as GRI or B Corp often see their operations reviewed. And in the process, suppliers’ operations might also be accounted to a company’s own ecological footprint.




Sustainability is about far more than getting to net-zero. Our partners at Aviva Canada understand this and are continuously working towards meaningful change in our communities. Aviva’s CEO Jason Storah outlines all of this in this week’s featured blog post. Click here to read more.

A Step Further

    • Measure and Analyze Greenhouse Gas Emissions
      • The first step is to measure greenhouse gas emissions which can then be analyzed to see which of the company’s activities emit the most. Companies can then begin to consider solutions to reduce emissions.
    • Choose Greener Infrastructure and Equipment
      • It’s possible to choose more environmentally-friendly infrastructures and equipment. Companies can set up a fleet of hybrid or even electric vehicles to renovate their employees’ cars according to the latest environmental standards. Or when the time comes to replace equipment, if the equipment can’t be repaired then look to purchase the most energy efficient (e.g. ENERGY STAR) and sustainable (regarding the origin or manpower ethnic standards) ones
    • Reduce Waste and Fight Obsolescence
      • Reducing the amount of waste generated also reduces your carbon footprint. When waste it sent to the landfill it then produces methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide
      • Avoiding disposable cups and capsules for the coffee machine, reducing the number of prints, reusing papers as drafts, creating a zero waste workplace, participating in the City’s green bin program, sorting waste for recycling correctly, take back programs. There are many ways depending on the facility to reduce waste.
      • It is important to also use equipment and devices properly and maintaining them to avoid them getting deteriorated faster and to repair gadgets when they break down instead of replacing them.
      • Consider having different recycling programs: paper/plastic, e-waste, batteries, light bulbs, ink cartridges, organics.


To help workplaces prepare for potential challenges and impacts climate change can have on their workers and the work they do, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) has published a free Climate Change: Workplace Impacts handbook. The handbook may be helpful to anyone involved in the development and implementation of workplace policies and programs, including employers, managers and supervisors, human resources professionals, and health and safety committee members and representatives. Click here to learn more.

Best solutions

Resources

Resources

For more information for how the City of Brantford and the County of Brant are taking action on climate change please visit their websites: