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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone and welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:08] SPEAKER_01: I'm Phil Bliss Founder and host of Canada's podcast.
[00:11] SPEAKER_01: And today we've got a really new initiative called the Pivot Project.
[00:16] SPEAKER_01: We're going to meet drawers Etcian, associate professor at McGill University's
[00:21] SPEAKER_01: Disseltell School of Management, and the main driver of the Pivot Project initiative.
[00:27] SPEAKER_01: A social, digital project that brings entrepreneurs from across the country
[00:33] SPEAKER_01: to drive new initiatives on their own and with others to create a better,
[00:38] SPEAKER_01: more sustainable workplace.
[00:42] SPEAKER_01: Meeting business leaders and policy makers have traditionally led the case to Pivot
[00:47] SPEAKER_01: and integrate sustainability across business practices.
[00:52] SPEAKER_01: These conversations have usually targeted large corporations and neglects small
[00:57] SPEAKER_01: and mid-sized enterprises in many countries, including Canada.
[01:02] SPEAKER_01: At least that's according to the organizers of the Montreal-based Pivot Project.
[01:07] SPEAKER_01: In conjunction with McGill University and the National Film Board of Canada,
[01:12] SPEAKER_01: Pivot shares stories of Canadian entrepreneurs across the country
[01:16] SPEAKER_01: that are embracing sustainable practices and Canada's podcast is joining them.
[01:22] SPEAKER_01: Small to medium businesses as well know account for closely 90% of Canada's
[01:28] SPEAKER_01: total private labour force and employ almost 11 million people.
[01:34] SPEAKER_01: Global sustainability action plans will need to include all businesses
[01:40] SPEAKER_01: in industries regardless of size. Pivot is helping those companies find success
[01:47] SPEAKER_01: while sharing their stories. Entrepreneurs can now pivot and help reduce
[01:54] SPEAKER_00: the country's environmental footprint.
[01:58] SPEAKER_00: Drawer Etzien is the leader of this initiative.
[02:02] SPEAKER_01: The goals of the Pivot Project include helping the public understand the need
[02:07] SPEAKER_01: for entrepreneurs engagement in climate action to gain insights on the potential
[02:13] SPEAKER_01: of small to medium companies' collective business impact and empower other small
[02:18] SPEAKER_01: and large businesses to adopt more sustainable business practices.
[02:23] SPEAKER_01: Over the following months, the Pivot Project will feature Canada's podcast
[02:29] SPEAKER_01: and will focus on telling the stories of the entrepreneurs in all major sectors,
[02:34] SPEAKER_01: food, agri, manufacturing, etc. and the impact that is being generated
[02:40] SPEAKER_01: by some of these companies and entrepreneurs across those industries.
[02:46] SPEAKER_01: So stay tuned as we bring you the Pivot Project entrepreneurs that are pivoting
[02:53] SPEAKER_01: to sustainability. So draw welcome to Canada's podcast
[03:00] SPEAKER_01: and I really interested in the pivot project.
[03:05] SPEAKER_01: But before we get into it, why don't you or Mike's more knowledge will have
[03:09] SPEAKER_01: read some stuff on it but let everyone know what is the pivot project.
[03:15] SPEAKER_01: How did it arrive? What's its objectives? Let's kind of cover that first.
[03:21] SPEAKER_02: So first of all, thanks for having me. The Pivot Project is a project
[03:25] SPEAKER_02: with a few partners, the main partners are McGill University where I work
[03:28] SPEAKER_02: and the National Film Board of Canada. And our goal with the project is to really create
[03:34] SPEAKER_02: a community and connection with a group of constituents that have it I think been as active
[03:39] SPEAKER_02: in the climate discourse, the climate debate, climate issues as we would like
[03:43] SPEAKER_02: and that's small and medium businesses. And I'm sure all your listeners know that
[03:47] SPEAKER_02: there's more than a million small and medium enterprises in Canada.
[03:51] SPEAKER_02: Employee, millions of people all across the country, in urban centers and rural areas
[03:55] SPEAKER_02: and so on and so forth. But for some reason, well, there are quite a few reasons,
[03:59] SPEAKER_02: but it's hard for the government or for the public to engage and for SMEs
[04:03] SPEAKER_02: to really take an active role in climate issues and to take climate action.
[04:08] SPEAKER_02: And that's kind of the main objective that we have here is to try to bring in this population
[04:12] SPEAKER_02: which of course there are many people who are doing quite tremendous things
[04:15] SPEAKER_02: as you can see on the Pivot platform but still out of these million companies,
[04:19] SPEAKER_02: not everybody is as engaged as they might be. And our idea is to just make people
[04:25] SPEAKER_02: more aware, communicate a bit more clearly about the opportunities, about the motivations
[04:30] SPEAKER_02: that different SMEs have and to really build a community where people help each other
[04:34] SPEAKER_02: to take climate action.
[04:37] SPEAKER_01: And you know, I know the project is funded by Mbiel, the Sustainability Systems Initiative.
[04:45] SPEAKER_01: But I mean, it's a national project, they also know that.
[04:49] SPEAKER_01: So maybe you can give us a kind of kind of landscape of it in terms of some of the businesses across the country,
[04:59] SPEAKER_01: you know, coast to coast, which is what our view of this is basically.
[05:04] SPEAKER_02: Yes, that's absolutely true. I mean, Mbiel likes to think of itself as kind of a nationally important university,
[05:10] SPEAKER_02: the National Film Board of course, is a quasi-governmental agency. So it's mandate is across all of Canada from C to C to C.
[05:17] SPEAKER_02: So when we originated the project, it was clear to us that we would want to have people from all kinds of communities,
[05:24] SPEAKER_02: from all the provinces and territories in both languages at least and hopefully in the future some first nations,
[05:31] SPEAKER_02: contributors as well. So we really think because climate change is of course a global issue,
[05:36] SPEAKER_02: but definitely a national issue, it was important for us to identify and to highlight small and medium businesses that are taking action across the country in different languages in different communities.
[05:47] SPEAKER_02: But also in different sectors, there's quite a diverse array of companies that are already taking action.
[05:53] SPEAKER_02: We think there's a place for everybody no matter which industry you're from,
[05:57] SPEAKER_02: which community you live in to do something meaningful.
[06:00] SPEAKER_01: And how are you getting, I mean obviously you wanted to come on Canada's podcast to kind of get the news out a little bit,
[06:10] SPEAKER_01: but how are you managing to recruit the entrepreneur across the country from all sectors to dive in and help you on the project?
[06:24] SPEAKER_02: Well, we've been fortunate through our individual networks, the various researchers involved in this project and all kinds of friends and colleagues who work,
[06:33] SPEAKER_02: they've been able to identify for us people who are good candidates. And then we've had quite a few interviews.
[06:39] SPEAKER_02: We tried to identify people who are really doing interesting and meaningful things.
[06:44] SPEAKER_02: So we have friends and colleagues in different universities in the different provinces and typically people who are active in climate action,
[06:54] SPEAKER_02: do engage with academics or are involved in public speaking to highlight some of the activities that they do.
[07:01] SPEAKER_02: And that was kind of the kernel for us to begin.
[07:04] SPEAKER_02: But it's interesting and I think that's part of the idea of actually the pivot project is that this community expands and builds and one contact leads to another.
[07:15] SPEAKER_02: And what we're trying to do with the pivot project is to really create connections between people.
[07:21] SPEAKER_02: One of the one of the interesting things about research on small and medium enterprises is that entrepreneurs are basically to be honest,
[07:31] SPEAKER_02: they don't listen to many people, they don't listen to academics, they don't have time to follow, you know, the nuances of government policy.
[07:38] SPEAKER_02: And the research is very clear that if entrepreneurs listen to anybody, they listen to other entrepreneurs.
[07:42] SPEAKER_02: And I think that's the point of this podcast that you guys do is that really to hear entrepreneurial voices is very inspiring, very motivated and it's very appealing because it's people that entrepreneurs can believe in that they have some kind of trust in what they say and to learn from and to emulate.
[07:59] SPEAKER_02: And so that's really the kind of the motivation for our project is to start with these people that we've identified throughout Canada.
[08:05] SPEAKER_02: And for them to be actually the voice and the leadership and the inspiration and the motivation for other entrepreneurs to engage in climate action as well.
[08:13] SPEAKER_01: So how do you get them engaged, how do you get them to talk to each other, I mean, you know, in the project.
[08:20] SPEAKER_02: In this project, I'm sure you can imagine to get awareness in today's social media landscape is quite difficult. There's a lot of competition, not a lot of time. People are always being pulled in all kinds of different directions.
[08:36] SPEAKER_02: So the first iteration of the platform was really just to start getting stories out to make you know a few people aware of what's going on, but it was clear that we wouldn't really be able to.
[08:47] SPEAKER_02: This isn't the finish line for us, the current platform is basically a storytelling platform, but it's kind of one way we see people telling stories. There's an opportunity to comment.
[08:58] SPEAKER_02: But the next version of the platform, which we're rolling out later this year, will have much more of a community building interface. So you'll be able to connect to post a share to do all kinds of things that will really be able to build communities that are kind of more two ways that people can consult with each other can be can share experiences can share questions because there's a lot of questions that people have.
[09:23] SPEAKER_02: So all of that is coming in future iteration later in this year.
[09:27] SPEAKER_01: Just so people can come under our entrepreneurial audience can understand it and obviously pivot means certain thing in business language.
[09:40] SPEAKER_01: Maybe you can give us an example of one of the organizations that's doing this that you know in terms of what it's meant it terms of pivoting from here to sustainability.
[09:56] SPEAKER_01: Can we get kind of a hard example, if you like.
[10:01] SPEAKER_02: Actually, if you don't mind, I'd like to give a few examples because I think one of the most important thing to recognize is that actually each and every business is unique, each and every business is catering to specific type of consumer is in a specific region is from a specific industry has a different strategy in general.
[10:19] SPEAKER_02: So one of the things that we're trying to highlight in that is that good climate action is not necessarily a cookie cutter idea.
[10:26] SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we see all kinds of posts and recommendations, you know, three easy things you can do to save the environment and I honestly don't think that that's necessarily the best approach.
[10:37] SPEAKER_02: So the examples that we have in pivot are actually people thinking about this sometimes out of the box trying to really adapt and shape their climate action to their actual strategy.
[10:46] SPEAKER_02: So maybe a few examples here in Montreal, we have an actually a lot.
[10:51] SPEAKER_02: She's a real estate developer and she is very much into reusing all kinds of materials, whether it's asphalt, whether it's all kinds of construction materials that are normally discarded.
[11:05] SPEAKER_02: She thinks there's beauty in there she thinks there's much lower cost that can be obtained and she's very passionate about really rethink all of the materials that go into her projects.
[11:14] SPEAKER_02: And of course, the less virgin material that you use the higher the climate impact that you have.
[11:20] SPEAKER_02: There's a plastics manufacturer in Ontario, who's part of pivot and he discovered something really interesting that he loads big trucks and they have these docking stations.
[11:30] SPEAKER_02: And the doors would would stay open after the truck departed because people were busy running from one thing to another, you know, these big docking doors that can fill an 18 wheeler.
[11:39] SPEAKER_02: And as we know in winter, you're getting a lot of cool there coming into the to the plant when that happens.
[11:45] SPEAKER_02: So he did something pretty straightforward. It was kind of a calculation that he did that to reduce his heating costs.
[11:52] SPEAKER_02: If you were just in saw sensors that automatically shut the door as soon as the truck backs away, that would have an amazing return on investment.
[11:59] SPEAKER_02: And I think he recoup the cost in four months. It's like some incredible number just to it was remarkable to the savings, the energy savings that regard.
[12:08] SPEAKER_02: So we have a we have a manufacturer in British Columbia who discovered that people were coming into work into the office driving long distances just to get their days posting and assignments and equipment in order to go to the whatever site that they had to do their building work at.
[12:26] SPEAKER_02: And they decided to design or develop or I can't remember if they developed their own or got a simple app to help schedule people's work much more efficiently.
[12:36] SPEAKER_02: So most days now people don't go into the office at all. They they figure out how to get where they need to go and they put the need straight to the job site.
[12:44] SPEAKER_02: And so that saves people time and saves people gasoline. It saves you know unnecessary missions.
[12:50] SPEAKER_02: And so just to give those are three examples that come to my mind right away.
[12:54] SPEAKER_02: But you notice that they're all different. They're all related to kind of the unique ideas that each of the entrepreneurs have.
[13:01] SPEAKER_02: And none of them are actually super you know rocket science. They're not that difficult.
[13:06] SPEAKER_02: But there was some thing that motivated these people these these these entrepreneurs to pursue and to implement these types of solutions.
[13:16] SPEAKER_01: Now I mean obviously you know McGill's there.
[13:19] SPEAKER_01: National film board is there.
[13:22] SPEAKER_01: I mean and you've been talking to other universities. But I mean is there any thoughts of you know taking the project.
[13:32] SPEAKER_01: More efficiently in partnerships with not just higher education, but I mean you know I'm taking a policy makers both at the the federal and the provincial level.
[13:45] SPEAKER_01: In terms of some of these results and and policies that might encourage encourage these things on a broader scale.
[13:55] SPEAKER_01: I'm just I mean that's that's to me the obvious sort of progression from the evidence that you're collecting I would imagine.
[14:05] SPEAKER_02: Well I think I definitely think policy can always be improved and to be and so on so far.
[14:10] SPEAKER_02: I think that's you know I mentioned earlier in the conversation that.
[14:15] SPEAKER_02: SMEs are a challenge to bring into the climate action front.
[14:20] SPEAKER_02: And I think one of the reasons is that government regulation is tricky.
[14:25] SPEAKER_02: If you're like a big public corporation, there's all kinds of levers and all kinds of incentives and carrots and sticks that the government could apply in terms of recording and accounting and regulations and bureaucracies.
[14:36] SPEAKER_02: Those become much more difficult if you're talking about two and three and 10 and 20 person outfits from very diverse parts of the country in different industries.
[14:45] SPEAKER_02: So I think government regulations often a little bit blunt and not necessarily appreciated also a lot of entrepreneurs don't like the shackles of government regulation don't like red tape and justifiably so.
[14:57] SPEAKER_02: So actually our approach is is different what we think is is really a motivator for human behavior is not necessarily the government not necessarily many people appreciate government telling them what to do or how to do it.
[15:11] SPEAKER_02: What we think is the opposite is that actually you know with I think Canadians and probably people all around the world want to do the right thing they want to be on the right side of history.
[15:20] SPEAKER_02: And and our approach is more about just showing that this is possible showing that other entrepreneurs are doing this in a positive way and we think that that's actually how change happens if you think a lot of things that have evolved in the world and as we kind of get more enlightened and more knowledgeable about how to have a good and just society.
[15:39] SPEAKER_02: So I think that's really anything from you know relationships and and marriage rights and and recycling and all of these things actually didn't really happen as a result of government regulation but norms expectations sense of what is right these things evolve over time and people see oh my friend is taking out the recycling my friend is composting my friend.
[16:02] SPEAKER_02: I mean on my my neighbor has done this or that and you some say oh I can do that and and if they're doing it then maybe it actually makes sense and so that's really the idea behind the pivot project is to kind of shadow light onto this type of activity and show that it's it's possible it's doable it's motivating it's inspiring but it doesn't really require that much government intervention.
[16:26] SPEAKER_01: Okay so you know how are you getting people involved I mean it is with I know you said you were kind of using universities and colleges and stuff like that but you do any more direct recruiting of people across the country.
[16:45] SPEAKER_02: Yes so we were so as I said our main partner which with whom we launched the projects is the National Film Board but we're also engaged with two of the I think leading small and small and medium business climate conscious NGOs in Canada one of them is called the reneconomy Canada they have their main offices and Ontario but they have branches elsewhere in Canada and here in Quebec we have an organization called Quebec Net Positions.
[17:16] SPEAKER_02: They're of course mainly working in the French language in this province but I think they also have some activities outside of Quebec and these are actually entities that do already have connections and activities and educational efforts and they're involved with regulators and so they're doing all kinds of things around small and medium enterprises in throughout Canada and there are they are our partners in this project as well we support them they support us.
[17:45] SPEAKER_02: They of course have quite both established networks that are increasingly aware of.
[17:50] SPEAKER_01: So I mean is there a long term objective in terms of reduction this activity will you know is there a number or is that just too hard I mean we don't have to have a number but I tend to be like that.
[18:10] SPEAKER_02: You're absolutely right our North Star are kind of stretch goal is to have up to one million unique visitors are worth this platform within the next five years.
[18:21] SPEAKER_02: What we think we are learning a lot I'm a researcher at heart so I'm learning a lot about how these ideas are tricking through what inspires people there's all kinds of research that's happening in the background not necessarily front and center but we're tracking and learning how the stories move through the social.
[18:38] SPEAKER_02: Local media landscape we're learning what inspires people which stories resonate more what type of language is useful so these are things that we're studying behind the scenes as people navigate through the website and we want to learn more more but eventually what we think is that this community hopefully our goal is that this will be a standalone community that will just because of people's interest and SME engagement with the topic and coming to the website and sharing stories and experiences will actually become a standalone.
[19:08] SPEAKER_02: Project that won't necessarily be run directly out of the gill anymore so our long term goal is to actually spin this off if I can use some kind of corporate speak to spin this off into an independent entity that will run it for a nonprofit purpose as a climate action hub for all candidates.
[19:25] SPEAKER_01: That's great so obviously this is going to be kind of up on our channels basically and you're going to have a lot of entrepreneurs looking and listening how can if they want to get involved how can they do that how can they get a hold of view or whoever.
[19:53] SPEAKER_01: So I have a disorder say hey you know this is cool how do I how do I participate.
[20:00] SPEAKER_02: Yes well of course so I mean the easiest as you mentioned the website is very accessible it's www.goPivot.org and then of course there's a contact you there we have a beautiful thing about this project I have to kind of give a shout out to all the wonderful students here at McGill and it's a very popular project a lot of students want to be engaged in it a lot of students want to establish connections with them.
[20:26] SPEAKER_02: So we have a quite a few motivated phenomenal students running the kind of the the contacts and the communications with the SMEs so if you go to the website and you're inspired there's a contact us sheet there and typically we'll get back to you within 24 to 48 hours right easily and we'd love to hear a story and see whether we could bring you on to the platform as well.
[20:50] SPEAKER_01: Okay well look it's been terrific having you on and I love the project and I'm glad the students are there because they may be the generation that are affected by you know by the problems we have now into in terms of sustainability and environment.
[21:08] SPEAKER_02: Yeah this is not this is not my quote but I've heard that I've heard it said that students are the ultimate renewable resource and I think that's absolutely too they keep coming into McGill and they come with all this energy and positivity and they do amazing things so so students are definitely the future and we're very proud of them.
[21:23] SPEAKER_01: So they're all thank you for you know giving us some insights to the pivot project you know as we said we'll be featuring other entrepreneurs that are engaged in it and that's going to be fairly exciting as well.
[21:36] SPEAKER_01: So thanks for coming on and appreciate that.
[21:39] SPEAKER_02: Thanks very much for having me.
