The list of corporations in Calgary putting their money where their ethics lie is growing. From the local coffee shop to the city’s traditionally reticent boardrooms, there is a distinct eco-conscious buzz.

COFFEE IN COMMUNITY

Good Earth Coffee Company

Started 17 years ago by husband-and-wife team Michael Going and Nan Eskenazi, the Good Earth Coffee Company is a homegrown business where giving back to the community and being environmentally responsible has been a part of the mandate from day one. The company has developed a mandate to convert all existing cafés to wind power supplied by Ontario-based Bullfrog by Earth Day 2008. All new cafes that open after Earth Day will be wind powered from the start.

While lightening their environmental footprint, the company has also thoroughly assessed its product offering. Unlike some coffee companies that are gradually bringing in fair-trade, organic, shade-grown varieties, 100 per cent of Good Earth’s coffee fits these qualifications. As the franchise expands, the head office works on the policy of instilling responsibility into the cafés “to join the communities that they’re situated in, and integrate themselves into the uniqueness of each community that they’re in,” says Connie Chan, Good Earth director of marketing.

Starbucks Coffee Company

Long maligned as a symbol of the problems posed by globalization, the now ubiquitous Starbucks has worked to show that it’s indeed committed to the community, environment and producers. The chain is starting to be better known for selling some fair-trade organic coffee in its cafés and composting the coffee grounds that would otherwise be thrown out. Working with individuals who have developmental disabilities is not a formal CSR priority at this global purveyor of designer lattés, and yet, this type of community engagement can crop up at a local level.

In Calgary, for example, Starbucks is a partner with Prospect, a local non-profit that provides several employment support programs. One Prospect project, Studio C, an integrated art studio and gallery based at Art Central, is a venue for artists with and without disabilities to work together on visual arts projects. Starbucks became a supporter for adults with developmental disabilities by employing them in a number of Calgary cafés, and many of those employees are artists with Studio C.

“It’s very validating in terms of self-esteem. It helps to connect the staff members to the individuals who are being supported in working there and it creates a further level of integration, which is the ultimate focus of the program,” says Prospect’s Alexi Davis.

MONEY MATTERS

Royal Bank of Canada

“It’s hard to say a commitment is token or a gimmick if it’s millions of dollars,” says Ronald Strand, an instructor in the Centre for Communication Studies at Mount Royal College. He points out that Royal Bank gave its first donation as a corporation in 1891 and has continued to be a leader in corporate citizenship ever since, with progressive environmental, diversity and giving policies. RBC has since become renowned as a corporation with an extensive giving program, and was ranked No. 1 in Corporate Knights’ 2007 Best 50 Corporate Citizens list.

First Calgary Savings Union

While First Calgary Savings does not have the financial might of a national financial institution, the company strategically leverages its investment with local arts, community and non-profit organizations.

“We do work very differently than some of the other organizations,” says Dani DeBoise, manager of First Calgary’s corporate citizenship programs. “It becomes more about the relationship we can build with our community partners. We bring a business voice while sitting down and being a part of the community tables to work on the community issues and programs that work on actual change.”

As a local savings union, the company’s roots are based in the community, and volunteerism is a key tenet in the organization’s work culture. One innovative example is a new program called Stepping Stones. In partnership with The Calgary Foundation, this grassroots grants program gives out small grants to ordinary Calgarians, not just non-profits, to work on making the city a better place to live.

OF ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

ENMAX Corporation

About half of the electricity generated in Alberta is from coal-fired plants, with an increasing amount being filled in by natural gas, while renewable energy sources such as hydro, biomass and wind generate the remainder the province’s supply, but at very low percentage.

“Most people still aren’t willing to accept a price penalty or a performance penalty because it’s environmentally better,” said Peter Hunt, vice-president of public affairs at Enmax Corporation. While Enmax offers Greenmax, an alternative energy program that supports wind power, and is continuing to expand other “clean energy” programs, the company recognizes that the uptake is still fairly low, with only about five per cent of customers choosing to pay extra for the Greenmax program. With the advent of new technology and deregulated markets, however, clean energy technologies are expected to really take off within the next few years.

Hunt says that green products don’t sell themselves, and the most popular are the ones that do not have a long payback period. He strongly believes that it is within Enmax’s responsibility to help customers to do their part for the environment.

“The role that companies have to play is to help their customers reduce their own environmental impact by developing new products and services that are better,” he says. “Helping your customers do what they’d like to do is a key corporate environmental responsibility.”

In coming years, Enmax plans to help consumers reduce energy consumption and use alternative sources by offering domestic sized wind turbines, leasing some of the more expensive alternative technology such as solar shingles and introducing co-generation (the thermodynamically efficient use of fuel).

Calgary’s Oil and Gas producers

We can’t forget about the companies that fuel this city’s economy when talking about CSR programs. Of Corporate Knights’ Top 50 Best Corporate Citizens for 2007, five Calgary-based companies made the list: Petro-Canada (10), Enbridge (15), Nexen (21), Suncor Energy Inc. (30), and Shell Canada (50). The LBG Canada group includes ConocoPhillips, EPCOR, Petro-Canada, Enbridge and TransCanada. The diversity of programs that work on protecting the environment, giving to the arts and community development and a boon of other do-good initiatives these companies collectively invest in is well into the billions of dollars. Every single company has an extensive social and environmental responsibility policy, as well as dedicated departments focusing specifically on public affairs, sustainable development and community investing.

However, hypocrisies abound, not only in the energy sector, but across the board. How can companies whose very business depends on satisfying the world’s seemingly insatiable desire for cheap oil really call themselves responsible when they’re investing in the largest-scale industrial development in the world (in the case of Alberta’s oilsands, for example) while causing permanent damage to the surrounding ecosystems and the atmosphere?

“At the end of the day, a petroleum-producing company makes money because people buy their product. How far are they willing to go?” asks Corporate Knights publisher Karen Kun. “Every company based out of Calgary or Fort McMurray is trying... working on reducing emissions, water [use], carbon capture and storage, cap and trade, but is it visionary enough?

“I truly believe that companies want to develop sustainable enterprises, but many struggle with how to do that. Is it possible to have a sustainable oilsands company? I don’t know. The whole type of business is a polluter. Can they bring those levels down enough? Can they work together? A lot of them try to.”