¶ Published Friday, May 29th In Environment, Legal Issues - No Comments »
On May 27, 2009, Ontario’s first Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Bill 185 was introduced. If passed, this Bill will allow Ontario to develop a cap-and-trade system, and integrate it with the other systems being developed in other Canadian jurisdictions and the United States, as Ontario is member of the Western Climate Initiative. This Bill will amend the Environmental Protection Act to allow Ontario to distribute GHG allowances. Specific regulations will also be adopted consequently. A discussion paper is now available. Comments may be submitted until July 26, 2009. The cap-and-trade system is expected to be implemented by 2012. For moreRead the Rest…
¶ Published Thursday, May 28th In Announcements, Environment, Miscellaneous - No Comments »
Climatologists and financial modellers share more than we might think, or like. Fundamentally, both climate and financial models propose bold predictions based on highly sophisticated mathematical systems. One has already collapsed and the other will too. Both the planet’s climate and the financial system are very, very complex beasts. Yet, people in both camps claim an ability to roughly model and predict their behaviour. Nicholas Taleb, a very popular figure these days and author of The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness, has long prophesized that the mathematical models used in the financial world were useless because of large unpredictableRead the Rest…
¶ Published Thursday, May 28th In Environment - No Comments »
Written by Isaac Rudik at Compliance Solutions Canada Inc. Chlorine is possibly the most commonly used toxin in business. Its use is so widespread that few people even notice “death head” label warnings anymore yet chlorine can cause worker illness, injury and death. You can’t avoid noticing chlorine in the air: It’s pungent, biting, eye-tearing, odour is unmistakable – and potentially very dangerous. That’s why, when a train carrying chlorine tankers derails or a tanker truck overturns, an entire town or neighbourhood is quickly evacuated by authorities while hospitals go on standby and reporters rush to the scene. For example,Read the Rest…
¶ Published Wednesday, May 27th In Environment, Legal Issues - No Comments »
Chevron, your friendly oil giant, is being pursued by farmers in Equator for dumping millions of tons of waste into their beautiful waters – causing cancer, pollution and misery. As you might expect, Chevron denies the charges and is mounting a PR campaign. Article here (francais) Large shareholders must get involved on issues of this magnitude. In fact, the California Pension Fund, a very large Chevron shareholder, is pushing increased transparency about their activities. We have started to see pension and sovereign wealth funds applying sustainability and environmental criteria to their investment decisions; demands will only increase. Ultimately, bad environmentalRead the Rest…
¶ Published Tuesday, May 26th In Legal Issues - No Comments »
A really interesting article in the New York Times outlines how the side of a legal battle that receives more questions during a case tends to lose. Despite the lack of scientific studies, this is idea quite interesting. As you might recall from your university days, correlation is not causality. Logically, the weaker side of an argument should receive more questions and usually one would expect the weaker argument to lose. So, does receiving more questions simply prove you are the weaker side? In which case, the quantity of questions is a good prediction of who will lose, but notRead the Rest…
¶ Published Monday, May 25th In Environment, Miscellaneous - No Comments »
With the economy in the doldrums, many people in the environmental field are scrambling to find work. Though I do not have any concrete figures, it is no suprise that consulting contracts, particularly sustainability related, have dried up dramatically. Companies have put new and expansion projects on hold, and this has in turn removed demand for soil contamination, phase I & IIs and other assessment work. As such, I thought I would put together a quick list of the canadian job boards targeting environmental specialists. We are not particular to any single one, but some clearly have more volume thanRead the Rest…
¶ Published Friday, May 22nd In Environment - No Comments »
Not legally binding, but here‘s an interesting motion from Queen’s Park picked up by Dianne Saxe. It seems the Ontario Securities Commission is likely to beef up reporting requirements for social and environmental information. According to a recent OSC Staff Notice, disclosure of environmental liabilities by reporting securities issuers fails to fully satisfy applicable disclosure requirements. The two main concerns: issuers rely heavily on boilerplate disclosure, deemed insufficient, and disclosure often lacks detailed discussion and quantification of environmental liabilities.
¶ Published Thursday, May 21st In Design & Features, Miscellaneous - No Comments »
We work in environmental law, but we are also web experts. Designing for the internet and it’s wide variety of users is very challenging, no one does it perfectly. That being said, it is becoming indispensable to design websites well. Users have many places to go for information, if you do not design well, they will just click on out of there. The Globe and Mail, Canada’s premier newspaper just redesigned their website and my verdict is: Disaster. The previous version was not amazing, but this is truly a mess. Below is a screenshot and here are a few notes.Read the Rest…
¶ Published Wednesday, May 20th In Environment, Legal Issues - 1 Comment »
Written by Isaac Rudik at Compliance Solutions Canada – A top quality provider of complaince solutions Many industries use potential soil contaminants in a wide range of manufacturing processes. Yet prevention is relatively easy, doesn’t require major investment and can be averted with properly trained personnel using the right equipment. Admittedly, it is an extreme example but last July’s discovery of a small amount of loose yellow uranium in the soil under Cameco’s uranium hexafluoride conversion plant near Toronto added another chapter to an ongoing story. Cameco admitted at a public hearing in April that a leak from its plantRead the Rest…
¶ Published Tuesday, May 19th In Environment - No Comments »
I just thought I would post two fantastic talks on sustainability and its potential to transform your business. The first talk is by Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Carpeting and poster-boy for the sustainability mouvement in business. He is transforming his company from a heavy polluter to a zero-waste profit making machine. Take a look. Below this one is a talk on bio-mimicry. This talk outlines the awesome inginuity of nature and evolution. Proteins that clean pipes, substances that form ceramics, carbon storage plants and natural water filtration. There are many ideas to draw inspiration from and use to changeRead the Rest…
¶ Published Saturday, May 16th In Design & Features - No Comments »
Just put together a presentation on the way we deal with legal registers, please give us your questions so we can improve it.
¶ Published Friday, May 15th In Environment, Miscellaneous - No Comments »
The book, written by Paul Maclean and John Phyper – two consultants, is an exhaustive review of environmental management practices and helpful examples of companies leading the charge towards a more sustainable future. The title, taken from Jim Collins über-business book “Good to Great”, tries to mimick its style – and deviates. “Good to Great” sets a number of highly selective criteria for a what makes a company “Great” (growth over time, growth compared to the industry, profitability…), then proceeds to find common traits amongst those companies. “Good to Green” does the opposite, it outlines the best management practices forRead the Rest…
¶ Published Tuesday, May 12th In Environment, Legal Issues - 1 Comment »
The Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et des Parcs du Québec presented today Bill 42 (in French only) on climate change, which would amend the Environment Quality Act. Once adopted, the Government of Quebec will have the powers necessary for its participation in the cap and trade of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) system, in partnership with the Canadian provinces and the Member States of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). Specifically, the Government will: * establish reduction targets and emission caps, * require reports of all GHG emissions covered by the joint program of the WCI, * set upRead the Rest…
¶ Published Thursday, May 7th In Miscellaneous - No Comments »
Click here, you will thank us later.
¶ Published Wednesday, May 6th In Environment - 1 Comment »
… is coming to town next week in the bike theft capital of North America. Inspired by Paris’ Vélib’, Montreal’s new public bike-rental service is already getting some worldwide attention. The award-winning Bixi bike has a light-weight aluminum frame and will be parked in sleek solar-powered docks, designed by Michel Dallaire. The system is run by a local parking company, Stationnement de Montréal, which owns the patent and is trying to offer it to other major North American cities — including New York, L.A. and Toronto.
