With COVID-19 limiting in person events, PPG continued to offer informative and relevant virtual events to help connect and educate the PPG community through the Green Economy Webinar and Green Economy Networking Series.
The Green Economy Webinar series covered a range of topics, including:
- Winter Salt: Balancing Safety, Environment and Cost: This webinar explores the impacts of parking lot salt on property and the environment, and how to mitigate risk through winter maintenance best practices and sustainable procurement of winter maintenance services.
- The Purpose-Driven Employee: The research is clear: employees want to work for organizations that align with their social and environmental values. Not only does CSR and ESG alignment increase employee attraction and retention, it also increases productivity and is a key indicator of financial health (Benevity, 2020). Organizations need to find ways to connect with their people, where ever they are working, while propelling their business forward in a sustainable way.
- The Future of Plastic Waste Management: Using PPG’s newest resource, Preventing and Diverting Plastic Waste from our Watersheds: A Business Guide as a launching off point, panelists explored how their individual work contributes to collective action for managing plastic waste.
- Blue Roofs: Innovating the Future of Water Catchment and Flood Prevention: As climate change continues to increase precipitation in parts of the world, excessive storm water runoff threatens urban landscapes with an increased potential for flooding events. Blue Roofs are an inexpensive measure to address climate change derived flooding. Hosted by Green Economy London, in Partnership with the City of London and Partners in Project Green
- Water Efficiency in Ontario: Best Practices to Lower Your Operational and Capital Costs: This webinar explored municipal water efficiency programs that help Ontario businesses lower their capital and operational costs.
- Funding the Green Economy: With the climate emergency already impacting businesses, the need to transition to a green economy has never been clearer. Funding the transition is a key element, and Partners in Project Green members like TD Bank Group are leading the way.
This year, PPG also introduced the Green Economy Networking Series, an opportunity for sustainability professionals from across the Greater Toronto Area to connect virtually with like-minded individuals and bring forward new project ideas, current sustainability projects and any challenges they may be facing to share and learn from the Partners in Project Green Network.
The end of 2021 also brought an opportunity for the Partners in Project Green network to come together in person for the return of PPG’s annual Tree Planting event, which was hosted at Clareville Conservation in Brampton. Due to COVID-19 protocols, the event was limited to a small group of individuals and featured a textile collection drive in support of Diabetes Canada. Event attendees planted 500 trees.
Looking Ahead to 2022
In 2022, PPG plans to bring new and exciting events to the community. In addition to the return of the Green Economy Webinar and Green Economy Networking series, PPG will also introduce a new and exciting series highlighting upcoming trends and sustainability leaders in the areas of circular economy, water stewardship, energy performance and social impact. While we expect virtual events to continue into the New Year, PPG hopes to bring the community together in Fall 2022 for our annual PPG Forum event.
To keep up to date on PPG events, be sure to subscribe to the monthly e-newsletter.
Visit the links below to read more about PPG’s 2021 accomplishments across our performance areas: