Project highlights sustainability moves by small businesses

Anie Rouleau grew up during a time when soaps and perfumes came wrapped in chunks of plastic. So when the Quebec business owner started her own home and body care business in 2016, she looked for ways to reduce her company’s plastic footprint.

She chose refillable containers to market Unscented Company products, a decision that allowed her to cut back on single-use plastics. Although large corporations should be doing more to reduce emissions and pollutants, Rouleau says small- and medium-sized businesses like hers have the potential to make a difference.

They take up almost 90 per cent of the total private labour force in the country, the equivalent of 10.8 million people.

“I think we have to do it. (We can’t) wait until the big companies and the government make changes,” she said.

“I think sustainability is more than marketing ... I do believe it's definitely a movement.”

Rouleau is part of a new project out of McGill University and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) called PIVOT, which aims to raise awareness about what small- and medium-sized operations across the country are doing to be sustainable.

Rather than conducting a study, the research project wants to encourage people to think differently about the role of business in climate change. McGill worked with the NFB to produce videos about sustainability efforts across the country, which are then highlighted on the project website. Through social media and the online platform, they hope other businesses will check out the project and be inspired to create initiatives of their own.

“These stories are not told as frequently as we might like; if we kind of manage to get into people's heads, especially the heads of other people who are running small and medium enterprises, (then) they will also be inspired to take action,” said Dror Etzion, associate professor of sustainability and business at McGill and leader of the project.

“So it's the idea that we can encourage and motivate other entrepreneurs to take on this issue by sharing stories about it and building a community.”

How Etzion sees it is that there’s a lot of conversation around government policy, large corporations, as well as individual efforts that should be taken to combat climate change. He says there’s a missing chunk of opportunity in the middle, where these businesses sit.

It’s not just ditching plastic — the project highlights restaurants using food waste in creative ways and warehouse owners using sensors to reduce heat loss. Etzion says there’s no record of how many businesses have sustainability efforts like those. PIVOT aims to find out.

Etzion said businesses need support to make these shifts. There have been some in recent years — in 2019, the federal government announced up to $10 million to support projects for small- and medium-sized businesses that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Sometimes all it takes is advice on how to make impactful decisions and changes.

Many businesses turn to old chestnuts like improving their recycling program as a first step. But it doesn’t always make as large a difference as they had hoped for, he added. Each year, there is 3.3 million tonnes of plastic thrown out in Canada, with only nine per cent ending up recycled.

“It's very hard for them to kind of allocate time to think about their climate change strategy, as opposed to a larger business where there would be a team or at least one person trying to get their initiatives out there,” he said.

For Rouleau, she hopes for more government messaging and promotion of small and medium sustainable businesses, as well as policy change. She says things like the plastic bag ban and "Buy Local" campaigns have been where she has seen fathomable shifts.

“We are the actors of change. So we are two feet on the ground,” she said.

“We know what our customers want, we know how to change their habits of consumption.”

Cloe Logan / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer