top of page

News & Insights

Never miss a beat.

Filter items with label

Search by term

This post is part 1 of 3 exploring sustainable finance, bringing together the perspectives of three of our Core Working Group members: Patrycja Drainville (Associate Director, Sustainable Finance, Scotiabank), Chad Park (Vice President, Sustainability & Citizenship, The Cooperators), and Jamie Bonham (Director of Corporate Engagement, NEI Investments) If there was ever any doubt that net-zero finance was the way of the future, former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney cleared it up in a March 29th tweet. “Huge announcement today that the core of the global asset management industry, managing over $32 trillion in assets, is committing to addressing climate change [and] delivering the goals of the Paris Agreement.” When you start talking about that many trillions of dollars, even the most ardent skeptic is forced to sit up and start listening. Carney’s certainly not the first person to say this out loud, mind you. But his comments are just part of a growing conversation that has captivated the global financial community, as well as industries like Canada’s energy sector that depend on it to help fund their operations. “The thing I wish more people really grasped is how significant and massive the drive towards climate-concerned investing is,” says Chad Park, the vice president of sustainability and citizenship with The Cooperators. “There could be opportunity in that for Alberta, if we play our cards right.” And make no mistake: Alberta has a good hand, especially when it comes to so-called “future-fit hydrocarbons”. Its bitumen can be put to work in any number of new applications, from carbon fibre to asphalt and graphene, and these could be multi-billion dollar markets in the very near future. Its natural gas, meanwhile, can be used to create some of the most economically competitive blue hydrogen — that is, hydrogen produced using natural gas and carbon capture and sequestration technology — in the world. But, Park says, that will require everyone to put more of their chips into the middle first. “We need to signal our alignment with the net-zero emissions goal, because that’s a first principle. All of these investors are trying to align their portfolios with a 1.5 degree future, and they’re not just doing it to showcase their virtue, although there’s some of that. They’re also doing it because of the impact finance can have on achieving the goal and because they think there’s money to be made in the transition.” Before she took a new job at Scotiabank, Patrycja Drainville spent the last decade working in the energy sector on the increasingly busy intersection between sustainability and finance. And while she says the conversation about ESG (environment, sustainability, and governance) concerns used to be confined to select parts of her organization, it has now reached centre stage. “What I think has changed now is that everyone — every company, every government — has this very clear mandate to be part of climate action.” In the energy sector, that mandate clearly includes reducing emissions, and most of the large companies operating in it have made some sort of commitment to reaching net-zero emissions in the future. Those commitments are coming from the top, too. “Carbon risk has never really been accounted for at the board level until maybe two or three years ago,” Drainville says. “It’s only now at the right level of the organization, to start really making meaningful change.” But while she’s optimistic about the energy sector’s ability to rise to this challenge, she’s also clear that this transformation won’t happen overnight. “These companies can’t flip their business models on their head overnight,” Drainville says. “There’s some patient capital that’s required to get us through this change.” That’s where people like Jamie Bonham, the director of corporate engagement with NEI Investments, come in. The recent surge in oil prices of their COVID-driven lows has sparked a renewed sense of optimism in the energy sector, but Bonham says that this boom won’t be like any of the other ones that came before it. In the past, the choice faced by companies was simple: pay out their surging cash flows to investors, or invest them back into the ground in order to grow. Now, with growth circumscribed by both looming concerns about peaking demand and the increasingly heavy hand of capital markets, they face a much different one. “It’s a real inflection point here, because knowing investors, they’re going to be pushing for those dividends and getting that money back in their pockets. That’s fine, but it’s not the model that’s going to get you to long-term success. So it’s tough for companies right now to make the case to put that money into something else — which is what they need to do.” In order for them to do it, Bonham says, they need to know that the policies in place today won’t get undermined tomorrow. “If we could agree on the basic tenets of it, and say these fundamental tenets like the price on carbon are not going to change, nor is the ambition and targets that we set, then that would be a platform they could build these projects on, knowing it makes sense.” They’re also still risking a journey into the so-called valley of death, where good ideas can often get tripped up before they mature into profitable businesses. “To get from here to there takes a bit of a leap of faith. I think there’s a number of investors out there who are ready for this opportunity. We just have to create it.” This post is part 1 of 3 exploring sustainable finance, bringing together the perspectives of three of our Core Working Group members: Patrycja Drainville (Associate Director, Sustainable Finance, Scotiabank),Chad Park (Vice President, Sustainability & Citizenship, The Cooperators), and Jamie Bonham(Director of Corporate Engagement, NEI Investments). #Future_Economy #Culture_Shift #Clean_Technologies #Regional_Pathways #Sustainable_Finance #Energy_Futures_Policy_Collaborative #2021

Capital Concerns: Why big business is driving the shift towards lower-carbon capitalism (and why Alberta can be a part of it)

This post is part 1 of 3 exploring sustainable finance, bringing together the perspectives of three of our Core Working Group members: Patrycja Drainville (Associate Director, Sustainable Finance, Scotiabank), Chad Park (Vice President, Sustainability & Citizenship, The Cooperators), and Jamie Bonham (Director of Corporate Engagement, NEI Investments) If there was ever any doubt that net-zero finance was the way of the future, former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney...

Read More
We’re often told that we need to do a better job of telling our stories. There are plenty of narrative opportunities to be explored within the energy sector and yet, despite an emerging consensus around the importance of storytelling, it’s often difficult to identify and breathe life into the stories that shape our companies, technologies or relationships with energy. So in this post, I’ll explore a few practical approaches to storytelling that we can draw on to spark curiosity, empathy and action within Canada’s energy sector. For starters, developing a compelling story is no easy task. In fact, a writer must navigate difficult terrain in a way that sometimes parallels how energy companies approach resource development. On its own, the idea for a story is no more valuable than sunlight, heat from the earth’s core or a formation containing natural gas. Rather, the idea contains potential; there’s an inherent value, a spark that can be harnessed and transformed into something powerful. It is the storyteller’s job to recognize this potential and find ways to make use of it. As part of this process, we need to investigate the landscape, assess potential returns on investment and develop blueprints. In other words, we need to scope the idea, determine its value and storyboard our work before any shovels hit the ground. This work can begin with an initial assessment. Assess how “story worthy” an idea is by asking a few pointed questions: How might I transform this information in a way that’s useful? How will the energy I input into the work compare with the output? What are the consequences of telling or not telling this story? Who will benefit and/or suffer from the telling of this story? Where does this story fit into the broader landscape? Everywhere we turn, there are trace elements pointing to the existence of characters, dialogues and settings. So while anything can be turned into a story, the value of this initial assessment lies in its ability to help us determine whether an idea can be turned into a really good and impactful story. Once we’ve deemed an idea “story worthy,” we can move forward into a development phase. In the rest of this post, you’ll find some practical approaches to storytelling that you can draw on as you develop your idea. To help explain these approaches, I’ve journeyed down a somewhat nostalgic path to draw on wisdom captured in the fable of The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. Position your work contextually It’s common for people to do everything in their power to “prove” the side of a story that best aligns with their intentions. For example, it might be tempting to offer hope by way of omitting a reference to potential challenges. Or perhaps there’s a desire to discredit a particular technology, only to avoid discussing viable alternatives. This can result in cherry-picking at its finest. If your story truly has legs, then positioning it within a broader (and honest) context should only add value. Moral of the story: If the big, bad wolf can blow your story over in just one breath, you’d best lay a more solid foundation. People care about other people At the end of the day, while new technologies are fascinating and worthy of description, a story is a place to foster connection and one of the most effective ways to do this is by focusing on the people around whom the story revolves. For example, it’s much easier to understand and relate to a technology if you first understand who created it, why they created it and how it’s had a transformative effect on that person or their community. You can step into their shoes and view this technology from their perspective, from the perspective of another being with whom you share commonality. Moral of the story: While the building materials selected by the three little pigs certainly played a central role in shaping this infamous kid’s story, we’re more interested in the pigs themselves and the ways in which their lives are impacted by their construction choices. Focusing solely on the quality of building materials or the structural integrity of each home rather than the pigs themselves would never have had the same impact. Anchor visions for the future within recognizable timelines There’s a reason most futuristic stories focus on things like flying cars and space travel. While we have a certain degree of influence over the future, most of the time, the future seems a faraway place yet to be defined. But there is an interesting tension to explore between our vision for the future and our current reality. We can’t simply place all of our hopes, dreams and aspirations solely in the context of the future, and yet to incite change, we also require a sense of direction. This is why anchoring a vision within today’s context is so helpful: it helps bridge the gap between today’s world and tomorrow’s. For example, a futuristic hydrogen economy might strike some as belonging to an ideal future, but if it remains difficult for people to see how we’ll get there, the idea can remain dreamlike, utopian or even hopeless. If we can show how today’s resources, investments and workforce have the potential to unlock these opportunities, the story begins to depict a future worth striving for. Moral of the story: Because we bore witness to the pigs’ construction efforts, we can better understand how and why the eldest pig was able to live “happily ever after.” The pig’s future appears secure because of the decisions it made in the present. As such, we are inclined to believe in the pig’s happy future, understanding that this future was only made possible by his current efforts. Involve the community As professionals working within the energy system, our networks will play an important role in facilitating the global energy transition. Nevertheless, we can’t undertake this endeavor alone. Rather, we can engage people from other professions to assist us in creating our energy future. We can seek out artists, writers, actors, videographers and other skilled creatives to support our efforts. Sometimes we’ve got the idea for a good story, but there’s someone else better suited for its execution. Moral of the story: The first two pigs knew they wanted to build comfortable homes but lacked the required expertise to account for the homes’ structural integrity. If we want to have a lasting impact, sometimes the best thing we can do is to seek support from those who are better equipped than we are. Slow down and give yourself permission to write with care It’s easy to get caught up in content creation. We’re expected to produce and share stories with the media and our networks, encouraging many of us to rush creative processes. As a result, we often see “quick hit” pieces that only present one side of a complex, multi-dimensional story. If we’re truly committed to good storytelling, then we need to slow down and take the time to write stories that do justice to the information we’re sharing. Moral of the story: While transporting loads of brick might be more tiresome for a little pig, the resulting house will be much stronger than one made of straw. If we want great outcomes, sometimes we need to take a harder, more time-consuming route. Strike a balance between hope and realism Hopeful narratives are highly desirable, both for the writer and reader. But while it’s important to offer hope and inspiration, serving up overly optimistic accounts can also result in stories that lose people’s attention. They can seem less credible and driven by bias. This means that it’s our job to offer hope within realistic parameters. Moral of the story: The story of the three little pigs would have been very different if we’d focused solely on the wolf’s failed attempts to blow down the eldest pig’s brick house. Exposure to all three of the wolf’s attempts gives us the information we need to make sense of his true potential. #Culture_Shift #Alberta_Energy_Narrative_Hearts_and_Minds #2021

Practical Approaches to Storytelling: A Guide for Energy Professionals

We’re often told that we need to do a better job of telling our stories. There are plenty of narrative opportunities to be explored within the energy sector and yet, despite an emerging consensus around the importance of storytelling, it’s often difficult to identify and breathe life into the stories that shape our companies, technologies or relationships with energy. So in this post, I’ll explore a few practical approaches to storytelling that we can draw on to spark curiosity, empathy...

Read More
Alberta’s hydrocarbon sector faced an uncertain future in a world moving towards lower-carbon energy before the pandemic, with existing trends accelerating since March 2020. This uncertainty towards the future of the sector offers both risks and opportunities. The province’s rich natural resource wealth and highly skilled workforce have potential to capture a growing share of the clean technology market, and play a pivotal role in reaching climate targets. In order for Alberta’s oil and gas sector to play a significant role in advancing either objective, it must first address its challenge in attracting private capital. In order to do that, the province will need to advance projects that are attractive to investors. Recently, a range of standards have emerged that are used by investors to evaluate attractiveness, with criteria going beyond traditional financial returns. Investors increasingly care about progress towards climate targets, preventing environmental degradation, and taking a more fulsome view of the costs or investment required to realize an investment opportunity. A new policy brief by the Smart Prosperity Institute, as part of the Energy Futures Policy Collaborative hosted by the Energy Futures Lab, conducted an evaluation of some of these criteria and standards. This evaluation seeks to answer a specific question: What makes an investment in future-fit hydrocarbons attractive to decision-makers? This work will help provincial stakeholders identify what criteria are used to assess their performance and attractiveness to decision-makers, ensuring they can advance projects that meet those criteria. Being graded on a curve The future is an uncertain place. Investors, policymakers, and academics are increasingly trying to make it less so. This group of stakeholders, collectively referred to as decision-makers, are all thinking about which investments align with the future they (or the Boards and citizens to whom they are beholden) want to live in. These definitions of future fitness have progressed into the evaluation and assessment stage. Decision-makers globally are increasingly using established criteria to evaluate the future-fitness of investment opportunities, including investment frameworks, transition taxonomies, and transition pathways. Importantly, these criteria are based on different sets of concerns than investors have had in previous decades. As efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts grow in ambition to match the scale of the challenge, investors are growing increasingly concerned about the risks of stranded assets and maintaining social license to operate. This concern has shifted into action, with quantifiable assessment criteria and performance metrics being developed to minimize risk and measure performance in translating historic principles into current and future practices. Any region or government wanting to attract private capital is aware of these changes. However, while a new investment framework or taxonomy pops up on a seemingly monthly basis, it is not always clear which criteria are emerging as areas of consensus across disciplines and frameworks. Yet these areas of emergent consensus matter a great deal: If Alberta wants to attract capital and support from a broad array of decision-makers, it will need to ensure the projects it advances are attractive based on the criteria they are using. Better identifying these areas of emergent consensus, in turn, can inform how the province wants to define future-fitness in its own right. A definition that aligns with that of decision-makers whose capital is desired could prove catalytic in driving greater investment into provincial opportunities, and could be substantiated by adding Made-in-Alberta criteria that advanced the province’s own goals as well. To support this discussion, Smart Prosperity is conducting analysis to identify what criteria have emerged as implicit areas of consensus between different types of decision-makers internationally, and has identified three questions that virtually all stakeholders ask when evaluating future-fitness: 1. Does a project reduce absolute emissions in line with achieving science-based targets? The primary metric being used to assess environmental performance is not whether emissions are reduced, but whether absolute emissions decline at a rate aligned with global achievement of science-based targets set by international bodies. Unless improvements in carbon intensity or efficiency improvements can demonstrate alignment with science-based international targets, they are not likely to meet this standard. 2. How robust is a project against potential futures? Robustness across potential futures is the primary lens through which investors assess risk, and policymakers and academic assess attractiveness in a low-carbon future. The primary variable investors use to stress-test projects is how much risk of asset stranding accompanies an investment across futures with different rates of decarbonization. The more aligned an investment is with a zero emissions future, the more robustness (and less risk) it offers to a portfolio. 3. What level of specialized infrastructure is required to realize this investment opportunity? Frameworks and taxonomies stress that evaluating the amount of specialized infrastructure required to commercialize a given investment is critical to accurately assessing risk. The less new specialized infrastructure that is required to realize an opportunity, the more likely that commercialization can occur rapidly. If new specialized infrastructure is required at scale, indications of high levels of government support can also serve to reduce risk. Each of these three questions emerges almost uniformly across decision-maker frameworks, taxonomies and pathways discussions. This highlights the need for a given project that credibly respond to all three question if it wants to be considered attractive by a wide range of stakeholders making or influencing investment decisions. Alberta needs to be net-zero aligned if it wants to attract capital Investors want evidence that projects are aligned with a zero, or net-zero, emissions future within the upcoming decades, that a given project is robust across a range of decarbonization scenarios, and that the costs of new infrastructure are being appropriately considered. If those three criteria are not met, then capital will go towards opportunities that can credibly answer these questions. It’s that simple: If a project wants to attract private capital, it needs to score well on the criteria being used by decision-makers. If not, the task is made more difficult. Any Made-In-Alberta definition of future-fitness will need to keep these criteria in mind, since attracting capital is ultimately required to drive the prosperity stakeholders seek to achieve. For a deeper dive into this topic, read the policy brief Evaluating future fitness: What matters to decision-makers when considering whether a hydrocarbon investment is future fit?. #Future_Economy #Culture_Shift #Clean_Technologies #Regional_Pathways #Energy_Futures_Policy_Collaborative #FutureFit_Hydrocarbons #Hydrogen #Rooftop_Solar #Commercial_Solar #Commercial_Wind #Batteries #CCUS #Advanced_Materials #Bitumen_Beyond_Combustion #2021 #Sustainable_Finance

What do decision-makers care about when investing in future-fit hydrocarbons?

Alberta’s hydrocarbon sector faced an uncertain future in a world moving towards lower-carbon energy before the pandemic, with existing trends accelerating since March 2020. This uncertainty towards the future of the sector offers both risks and opportunities. The province’s rich natural resource wealth and highly skilled workforce have potential to capture a growing share of the clean technology market, and play a pivotal role in reaching climate targets. In order for Alberta’s oil and gas...

Read More
Planning for the future is complicated. We don’t know for sure what the future will look like. That means — and forgive me for being a little nerdy here — defining “future fitness” is a probabilistic question: we have to assess “fitness” across a range of possible futures. At the same time, the future also isn’t entirely out of our control. Policy choices we make now can influence which futures are more (or less) likely to come to pass. Sound complicated? A new report from the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices on net zero pathways for Canada can help us navigate this complexity by providing a little foresight on what 2050 might look like — and how hydrocarbons might fit into that future. A net zero Canada Let’s start with Canada’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” by 2050 (i.e., Canada removes as many emissions from the atmosphere as it contributes). Canada isn’t alone in this commitment: multiple countries, provinces, cities, and firms are signing on to net zero as part of serious efforts to radically curb emissions within the next few decades. In general, a global shift to net zero is consistent with what climate science tells us we need to avoid the worst impacts of a changing climate. So, what does a net zero Canada look like? The report explores more than 60 scenarios, each of which achieves net zero emissions by 2050. Multiple possible net zero energy systems emerge from that analysis. Yet each system faces some big hurdles to taking hold and becoming reality. Some factors Alberta can affect via policy choices. Others depend on international markets and are outside its control. Below, I’m going to explore two very different energy systems that emerge from our analysis to illustrate the wide range of possible outcomes for the economy, and for hydrocarbons in particular. An electricity + hydrogen net zero future One possible net zero future for Canada strongly relies on emissions-free electricity and hydrogen. Massive scale-up of various sources of clean electricity can drive electrification of transportation (electric vehicles) and buildings (heat pumps). Meanwhile hydrogen can be used in heavy industry and other applications that are tricky to electrify. This future isn’t a guarantee. It would require big buildouts of electricity transmission infrastructure. Unless electricity storage become significantly cheaper, it might require grid interties linking intermittent renewables in Alberta and Saskatchewan with on-demand hydroelectricity in Manitoba or BC. Enhanced hydrogen infrastructure — from pipelines to production facilities — would likewise be required. Costs of making blue or green hydrogen must decline significantly. So how do hydrocarbons fit into this future? Critically, oil and gas have largely been replaced with zero carbon fuels. That’s true in Canada, but also likely internationally as well; global scale-up of electricity and hydrogen technologies is probably the key to driving costs down through “learning by doing.” That means that global demand for fossil fuels could decline dramatically, and with it, domestic production and the economic engine of growth it has historically provided. Yet “future-fit hydrocarbons” could go beyond traditional notions of fossil fuels. Zero-emissions hydrogen can be made from natural gas using carbon capture and storage, as well as other, emerging approaches. A range of non-combustion products could be made from Alberta’s hydrocarbon resources. Geothermal electricity might not be a hydrocarbon product, but it could directly leverage hydrocarbon industry expertise and capacity to contribute much-needed clean electricity supply. A fossil fuel + carbon removal net zero future A very different net zero future, on the other hand, sees ongoing global consumption of fossil fuels. That future only exists under very specific circumstances. Significant progress on upstream methane emissions and widespread use of advanced carbon capture and negative emissions technologies dramatically reduces emissions from producing oil and gas. And huge scale-up of carbon removal offsets emissions that come from consuming those fuels. Canadian hydrocarbon industries can play an interesting role in such a future. The oil and gas sector continues to drive economic activity. Moreover, Alberta’s geology gives it unique opportunities to permanently store GHG emissions. Depending on the national and international policy frameworks that emerge to support carbon removal, Alberta might even have the potential to drive deep net negative emissions, by removing and storing carbon in return for valuable emissions trading credits. Yet this pathway is also far from certain. It likely only comes to pass if carbon removal technologies dramatically decrease in costs, and both removal and carbon capture and storage dramatically scale up, everywhere. That’s the only way that long-term demand (and international market prices) for oil and gas stay high, supporting sustained production in Canada (while also achieving net zero). Yet other countries, including the United States, increasingly appear to be pushing toward electrification. Managing uncertainty Planning — and policy-making — in the face of uncertainty is tricky business. Which outcomes are more likely? Which are more desirable? What levers does Alberta have to affect outcomes? A fossil fuel and carbon removal world might seem appealing to oil and gas incumbents. Yet that future is only one of many possible outcomes and, in fact, faces multiple hurdles. Planning only for that future is putting all of Alberta’s eggs in one basket. Instead, solutions should be robust across the range of potential futures. Breakthroughs in cost-effective carbon removal and storage techniques, for example, will be valuable no matter which path Alberta, Canada, and the world ultimately walk. That doesn’t mean they’re all that Alberta needs. Other net zero opportunities can similarly build on existing capacity, infrastructure, and expertise. We don’t know what a net zero world looks like. But that doesn’t mean we can’t start planning for it. #Future_Economy #Clean_Technologies #Regional_Pathways #Energy_Futures_Policy_Collaborative #FutureFit_Hydrocarbons #Electricity #Hydrogen #Rooftop_Solar #Commercial_Solar #Commercial_Wind #Batteries #CCUS #Advanced_Materials #Bitumen_Beyond_Combustion #2021

A closer look at “future-fit”

Planning for the future is complicated. We don’t know for sure what the future will look like. That means — and forgive me for being a little nerdy here — defining “future fitness” is a probabilistic question: we have to assess “fitness” across a range of possible futures. At the same time, the future also isn’t entirely out of our control. Policy choices we make now can influence which futures are more (or less) likely to come to pass. Sound complicated? A new report from the Canadian...

Read More
Around the world, countries, corporations, and people are picking up the call for a net-zero future. This global rallying cry is highlighting that we need to do more to reach a lower emissions future and we need to do it at an exponential pace. We cannot close the gap between our reality today, and our aspirations for what is possible, without developing and deploying technologies that both manage our greenhouse gas emissions and add value to our economy. The transition to a lower emissions world can’t happen with the flick of a switch. It will require significant work and investment across our economy and across timeframes. The speed of reaching decarbonization goals will depend on the availability of mature technology and the ability to scale supply chains. So, how might we accelerate the pace of innovation and deployment of new technologies across all sectors to take advantage of the tremendous momentum that exists in a world that has been turned upside down? We need smart investment. To remain competitive in today’s economy, we need to invest in our existing energy systems to ensure they are as efficient and environmentally responsible as possible. And, looking forward, if Alberta is going to build off its historic strengths as an energy producer, we need to invest in the energy systems of tomorrow that have a place in an increasingly carbon-constrained world. It’s not an either-or scenario — we need to do both. We need a strong understanding of the possible pathways ahead of us, so that industry can develop sound business plans that lay out a future that is attractive to the flow of capital, and so that collaboration and alignment across the innovation ecosystem can flourish. We need governments to send appropriate and consistent policy and regulatory signals to set the foundation for net-zero and shape the incentives for the transition. Increasing alignment and coordination across levels of government will only help to create an environment where taking risks and innovating are easier to do. None of these elements on their own are enough. We will need all components in place for us to succeed. You’ve likely heard the phrase, “there is no silver bullet.” It’s true. We probably need a Gatling gun. The good news is that many, if not most, of the key technology pathways we will need to achieve a low carbon future are already identified and known. One of the inputs that Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) is bringing to the Energy Futures Policy Collaborative is our Technology Roadmap, a vision to help Alberta and Canada achieve this net-zero future and a key strategic document we use to guide our investments and project portfolio mix. It outlines key technology areas that will enable Alberta to build off its strengths and have a competitive economy that is contributing to a prosperous, lower emissions world. Some of the substantial decarbonization opportunities outlined in the Roadmap exist in the oil and gas industry. As it happens, there are already big investments bringing that to life. By exploring areas like partial upgrading, advanced recovery techniques, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), Alberta’s energy industry is working to get the carbon out of the barrel just as it got the sand out of the oil a generation before. Since the oil sands industry is the largest and fastest growing source of greenhouse gases in Alberta, this has the potential to make a significant impact. Now, we need to achieve an even more ambitious target — not just per-barrel intensity reductions, but overall emissions reductions. CCUS not only plays a role in reducing emissions from existing industries, it also lays a foundation for exciting opportunities on the horizon that will create new economic activity, new jobs, and new industries and markets. It is integral to developing clean hydrogen which offers a solution to lower emissions in many hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as chemical manufacturing and heavy-duty transport. The creation and storage of low-emitting electricity is another opportunity to tap into some of Alberta’s existing hydrocarbon infrastructure, innovation, and expertise. From extracting lithium from its oil reservoirs to power the world’s growing fleet of electric vehicles, to taking advantage of Alberta’s existing expertise in drilling wells and applying it to the province’s best geothermal sites and producing energy from those old well sites. These are just chapters in the larger story for Alberta’s energy and emissions future. Innovation can be found everywhere. Changes to land use practices and urban planning can help sequester or minimize carbon emissions. Support for the province’s bioenergy sector can also deliver some quick and important wins for both the economy and the environment. Likewise, helping large emitters and heavy industry implement energy efficient upgrades and improve their operational processes is low-hanging fruit, ripe for the picking. ERA’s role is to help Alberta achieve its environmental and economic goals, and our participation in the EFPC will help us shape and learn more about the road ahead. We have shared our vision of what a successful future looks like, and our Technology Roadmap is how we can get there. Crucially for the collaborative, ERA can play an essential role in the de-risking and development of technologies that help both decarbonize Alberta’s existing economy and create technologies and pathways that are critical to the economic opportunities of the future. We need to cast a wide net. We must imagine, innovate, invent, and invest, across the board. Advances and successes in one sector can benefit and create space for progress in another. Transitioning to a clean energy future is complex and will take time. It requires the right policy signals and appropriate investments to support scaling-up promising technologies and adopting new ones that will help us take us another step toward creating the low carbon future the world is demanding. #Federal_Policy #Provincial_Policy #Sustainable_Finance #ERA_Technology_Roadmap #Culture_Shift #Regional_Pathways #CCUS #Batteries #Rooftop_Solar #Commercial_Solar #Commercial_Wind #Geothermal_Energy #Geothermal_From_Oil_Wells #Bio_Fuel #2021

Tech for Tomorrow’s Alberta: ERA’s Technology Roadmap & Future-Fit Hydrocarbons

Around the world, countries, corporations, and people are picking up the call for a net-zero future. This global rallying cry is highlighting that we need to do more to reach a lower emissions future and we need to do it at an exponential pace. We cannot close the gap between our reality today, and our aspirations for what is possible, without developing and deploying technologies that both manage our greenhouse gas emissions and add value to our economy. The transition to a lower emissions...

Read More
A shift towards a world with drastically lower carbon emissions appears to be in the cards. The UNFCC noted that global commitments to reach net-zero emissions from regions, cities, corporations, and countries has doubled since September 2019, and that was before China, Japan, and South Korea all pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 or 2060. This transition towards low carbon emission energy sources in global markets will utterly transform resource economies long-term. Canadian governments at all levels will not only need to think about diversification, but to act and invest ambitiously if they want to maintain current levels of economic prosperity in a changing world. However, they must undertake the difficult task of deciding which ideas are worth supporting in a world with a very uncertain future. For governments facing these decisions, a useful frame for thinking about change is through a “transition pathways lens”. As one of several lenses that the Energy Futures Policy Collaborative will be adopting, this blog provides a high-level of overview of what transition pathways are, how they can be considered, and how policymakers can think about selecting the “right” pathways to support the achievement of their outcomes. Pathways 101 Transition pathways are a concept used in academic and policy work to think about change through a systems lens. Pathways are, at their core, a framework for thinking about how change happens in economies. Transition pathways outline one or more “paths” that an economy, industry, or region can take to get from ‘Point A’ (the current states of things) to ‘Point B’ (a desired future state). The evolution of personal transportation from horse and cart to the internal combustion engine automobile is a historic example of a successful transition pathway. Battery-electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles have both emerged as potential pathways in the 21st century, although they have not yet displaced incumbents (and may not ultimately end up doing so). Pathways help outline the timing, scope, and scale of change necessary throughout the whole landscape for a region, industry, or economy to get from Point A to Point B. Importantly, this is not the same as a strategy: strategies are plans that outline how to get from A to B. Pathways help outline what needs to be considered, and what will matter, when assessing whether a given idea or concept is capable of getting us from A to B. Each pathway is made up of a combination of ideas and processes that shape the world we operate in. In the real world, change is influenced by a broad array of factors: technological process, social beliefs, economic ideology, mainstream cultural views, investment patterns, infrastructure networks, and more. Transition pathways are a useful framework for decision-makers because they can help outline how each of these ideas might influence the way change happens at a system-level, identifying what barriers or factors need to be considered or addressed when opting to pursue a particular goal. Change management Pathways are used to understand how interactions between different ideas create the landscape we operate in. This is important because the trajectory or direction of a given pathway will ultimately be shaped not by one idea, but by how that idea interacts with all other processes and beliefs held throughout the world. The difference between a good idea and a useful one is whether it works in practice; pathways help outline what is actually needed to help a particular idea achieve a desired outcome. Three concepts matter in discussions of pathways: the incumbent, the niche, and the landscape. “Incumbents” describe the ideas, groups, and processes that make up the status quo. They form the foundation of the world we live in today. To continue personal transportation as an example, incumbents would include oil companies who refine gasoline, networks of retail gas stations, and popular opinions about high-performance sports cars. They are the mainstream ideas, processes and beliefs that shape how we interact with technologies and each other. “Niches” describe innovative concepts and ideas whose success depends on upending or disrupting the status quo. In the case of personal transport, examples include electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla and Rivian, global pledges for net-zero emissions, and proponents of electrified transportation. These technologies and ideas are currently considered interesting and high-potential but can hardly claim to be the dominant technology in practice today. Yet they have the potential to eventually become incumbent ideas, depending on what kind of change the world experiences in the coming years. The “landscape” is a frame for thinking about how every set of actors, processes, groups and ideas ultimately makes the world the way it is. The landscape, or the world we live in, is shaped by interactions between incumbents and niches, since each aims to influence change in their favour. The trajectory of a pathway is defined by how these interactions take place, and that contest of ideas is what shapes the landscape we operate in globally. What is a “good” pathway? Identifying which pathways policymakers want to support depends on understanding what kind of future people want to live in. A “good” pathway is one that is capable of bringing about that future and can do so even if the world shifts around it. However, there are still some foundational characteristics that any pathway must possess to be seen as legitimate. At a minimum, good pathways must be: Credible: Pathways must be based on the realities we live in. Effective pathways have to largely rely on ideas that are technically possible and used in practice, even if only at small-scale. Compelling: Pathways must be attractive to investors and stakeholders. This means that designing pathways must keep in mind what investors are seeking in projects, and what the public will support, and incorporate those views into their approaches. Capable: Pathways must possess the technical potential to actually achieve their objectives. This is most obvious in discussions of emissions mitigation. Any pathway compatible with a net-zero future must be technically capable of reaching a net-zero climate target, or it will not be able to achieve set objectives in practice. Flexible: Pathways need to be able to change as circumstance does. The world moves quickly, and any pathway developed needs to be robust and flexible enough that it can swiftly adjust to new information without incurring huge losses or needing to be abandoned. Pathways are a useful frame for thinking about how change happens. As new and established ideas compete for market share and public attention in the decades to come, Canadian policymakers will need to ensure they are supporting the ideas that drive growth and regional prosperity. For the Energy Futures Policy Collaborative, thinking about how change happens is a useful way to ensure grounded, realistic decisions are made about what is required to build the future we want to live in. #Regional_Pathways #Culture_Shift #Provincial_Policy #Federal_Policy #2021

What is a Pathway? A conceptual overview of transition pathways

A shift towards a world with drastically lower carbon emissions appears to be in the cards. The UNFCC noted that global commitments to reach net-zero emissions from regions, cities, corporations, and countries has doubled since September 2019, and that was before China, Japan, and South Korea all pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 or 2060. This transition towards low carbon emission energy sources in global markets will utterly transform resource economies long-term. Canadian...

Read More
As a second COVID wave hits the province with full force and the impacts of prolonged economic repercussions become clearer, Alberta faces challenges that will ask us to reimagine what it means to bring our ingenuity, expertise, and innovative spirit to bear. In a province already reimagining the future of its energy sector, COVID-19 has shocked demand and disrupted expectations we might have had about what the future could look like. This turbulence has been accompanied by an accelerated commitment among financial institutions to scrutinize their investment portfolios and other activity through a climate science lens. The UN Principles for Responsible Investment initiative, a leading body pushing towards low-carbon pathways, has reported that signatories have more than $100 trillion in assets under management, and the Bank of Canada has made recent public statements about how we will need to decarbonize many facets of our lives in order to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. Global investors are demanding a more stringent reckoning with an emerging consensus that prioritizes climate risk. With all of this as backdrop, several leading oil and gas companies have reduced the reported value of their assets by more than $80 billion in the first three quarters of 2020. The climate-concerned investment trends are frequently presented as a problem for Alberta, but they could be an opportunity instead. The flip side of having high per-capita and per-barrel emissions is that Alberta has major emissions reduction potential. It means we should be a big market for the developers of clean technology solutions. Combine that with a strong history of innovation in carbon management and the potential for new ‘future-fit’ hydrocarbon feedstocks, and Alberta should have considerable opportunities to access the capital looking to finance the transition to a low-carbon emissions economy. What’s been holding us back? First, a view that the past must be entirely left in the past, abandoning existing skills, infrastructure, and resources in pursuit of a net-new future vision. Perfect can be the enemy of good, and the prospect of stranded assets creates real uncertainty at every level of society. Second, however, is uncertainty about where the terrain of global energy systems and markets may shift to and at what pace, combined with an inability to collectively acknowledge the reality that the “good old days” may not return. Taken together, overcoming these challenges require us to look to the future while also building on the rich legacy of Alberta’s communities and the enterprises they have built. It is in this middle space of transition there is an important role for policymakers to play. Even as there is some crystallization around what should be left in the unsustainable past and what we might aim for in a low-carbon emissions future, in between there is a deep need for transition solutions, especially for resource-rich jurisdictions. Policymakers will be crucial in holding the space for better visions to evolve and attract supporters, in fostering sectoral responses, in creating the conditions for social and technological innovation to thrive, and in sending policy signals that are durable, credible, and on the scale of the challenges we face. The Energy Futures Policy Collaborative (EFPC), an initiative of the Max Bell Foundation and the Energy Futures Lab, also involving the Canada West Foundation, Smart Prosperity Institute, Business Council of Alberta, and Emissions Reduction Alberta, aims to identify and support these possible responses. It will explore the question: How we might use public policy to help attract greater investment and talent into the innovation and infrastructure for ‘future-fit’ hydrocarbons, in light of global investors’ increasing concern with climate change and growing appetite for low-emissions and transition-oriented opportunities. The EFPC will unfold over the course of two years, casting a wide net and engaging more than just the usual suspects. This broad lens may seem perplexing to stakeholders on all sides of the convening question, who may have a laundry list of specific challenges and a portfolio of preferred solutions. It is essential, however, that we don’t zoom in too quickly. By keeping our frame broad, we aim to: Push ourselves to investigate the problem space from different perspectives, surfacing assumptions and asking better questions that open up new possibilities for solutions, Map the landscape of existing initiatives, projects, and thinking, enabling us to anchor in potent policy windows and to be additive and complementary to work quickly coming online Take a systems approach, recognizing the fact that no single actor or solution can move the needle alone and building towards a portfolio of possible solutions designed to amplify opportunities and anticipate unintended consequences. Though our process will be systematic and structured, the journey we’ll be undertaking to explore this question will not be a linear one. A developmental approach will provide the team with real time feedback on what’s working and what’s not working, in addition to raising the question of whether our work is making a difference. This policy collaborative is also taking a new approach by building time into the process to conduct small scale testing. Lastly, while the process primarily targets policy recommendations as its key deliverables, it has been designed in such a way that it offers the possibility that potential solutions and initiatives could also emerge that are not policy-focused or targeted at governments (e.g. new partnerships, projects, public engagement activities, products/services). The Energy Futures Lab is well set up as a platform to connect such additional initiatives to further testing and development through its extensive network and existing partnerships. The importance of this project being a collaborative that aims to harness the power of diverse perspectives cannot be understated. A multidimensional challenge such as this requires a multidimensional approach, one that taps into a broader and deeper variety of expertise, people, and lived experiences. Crucially, this is an opportunity to demonstrate to climate-concerned investors that there is a broader network of Alberta innovators and professionals working to bridge the gap between where Alberta’s energy sector currently sits in relation to climate change responses, and where it needs to sit for investors to feel confident investing in Alberta hydrocarbon resources, technologies, and skills. As we set off on this initiative, there’s a palpable sense, in all corners, that the status quo can’t continue, with as many root causes and possible solutions as there are stakeholders. Our aspiration is to help policy leaders respond to and map pathways in this dynamic environment, and ultimately to play a role in helping attract climate-concerned investment capital into the innovations and infrastructure that will position Alberta for success in the 21st century. #Clean_Technologies #Regional_Pathways #Sustainable_Finance #Scenarios_for_Albertas_Energy_Future #Prosperous_Transition_Blueprint_and_Campaign #Energy_Futures_Policy_Collaborative #FutureFit_Hydrocarbons #FutureFit_Hydrocarbons #Sustainable_Finance_Transition_Index #2020

Building a Policy Bridge to Future-Fit Hydrocarbons

As a second COVID wave hits the province with full force and the impacts of prolonged economic repercussions become clearer, Alberta faces challenges that will ask us to reimagine what it means to bring our ingenuity, expertise, and innovative spirit to bear. In a province already reimagining the future of its energy sector, COVID-19 has shocked demand and disrupted expectations we might have had about what the future could look like. This turbulence has been accompanied by an accelerated...

Read More
Sitting in his kitchen with a ballpoint pen and a small coiled notebook, Walter considers his expenses. With December looming around the corner, he laments the fact that his furnace, after all these years, has chosen to retire on the heels of winter. With his natural gas furnace no longer working, Walter has purchased two electric heaters to warm his home. These new additions leave him feeling unsure of how best to tackle his energy bills and this nervousness inspires him to investigate his home’s various electrical needs. In his son’s room, shelves decked with plastic dinosaurs and superhero posters adorn the walls. A small boy by the name of Brooks sits in the corner with a laptop propped over his knees. Walter approaches and unplugs the computer cord, telling the boy to finish his homework by hand. The boy’s teacher, he assures, won’t mind. Little does Walter know that the cost of powering his son’s laptop is of little significance, especially when compared to the oversized electric heaters he’s had running since the furnace died. Still, these days he hopes to divert whatever savings he can. Walter is one of the 2.8 million Canadians living in energy poverty, paying a disproportionate amount of his earnings on his energy bills. The average Albertan family will spend $2,699/yr while an energy poor family will spend upwards of $3,333. What’s even more troubling is the fact that energy poor families tend to earn 53% less than the Provincial average, earning approximately $36,914 a year versus $77,926. This combination of higher than average bills and lower than average income has resulted in a state of affairs that requires additional support. Unfortunately, Alberta has yet to remedy the situation, to create a solution that takes into account the uniqueness of each household, homeowner and sequence of events leading a person into this kind of experience. In this energy-intensive province, where average winters are both long and cold, there are grace periods during which utilities must wave the threat of disconnection. For example, electricity cannot be disconnected from October 15 to April 15 while natural gas cannot be disconnected from November 1 to April 15. But for payment-troubled customers, this is nothing more than a temporary delay, a band-aid if you will. Eventually, bills must be paid and for people like Walter, energy bills are mentally, physically and financially taxing. While spring, in many occasions, is considered noteworthy for its heavy rains and burgeoning tulips, the season also brings with it a rise in anxiety related to housing stability, as families experiencing energy poverty are forced to pay accumulated bills, thereby diverting money for rent or mortgages. Now consider Alberta’s population as it approaches 4.5 million residents. With 237,000 of these residents living in energy poverty, one might even be willing to consider this challenge a crisis and with it, the countless health and emotional side effects that accompany energy poor individuals. These side effects are wide ranging, and include everything from increased cardiovascular and pulmonary disease to lower birth weights among infants or kids who, on average, miss 15% more days of school. For Walter, living in energy poverty came as a shock. In fact, he doesn’t even consider himself “poor,” he just knows that paying his bills involves a struggle. For all his life, he’s worked hard. Been diligent. Independent. But things are much different now, far bleaker than the day he’d signed off on this house, with its sprawling front deck and bright yellow exterior. Back then he’d felt relieved, thinking he could, at last, claim independence. That all would be well. For the most part, it had been, at least until the day he fractured his spine and totaled his truck a few Octobers past. In the weeks to follow he’d spent the last of his savings on a used vehicle. Living in a rather remote location, he hadn’t much choice in the matter seeing as neither the grocery store nor his son’s school are within walking distance from his house. Shortly after this difficult purchase, he learned the meaning of “paycheck to paycheck,” though in Walter’s case, these checks came from the government and never did they allow him to save for even the smallest of home repairs. He received a lot of skepticism, too, about the money that is. From nosey neighbours and from others who viewed his existence as nothing more than “a burden on society.” Why couldn’t he afford to pay his bills? After all, people said the government was giving him a “handout.” At a time, he might have thought the same thing but now he’s running three electric heaters to make up for the broken furnace and paying his mortgage and purchasing groceries and toilet paper and all the while he’s got a child whose school is demanding fees for an upcoming field trip and whose backpack has a broken zipper and for whom Walter is still hoping to buy a birthday present in two weeks time. Meanwhile he hasn’t a spare $5000 to spend on upgrades like a high efficiency furnace that might reduce his energy bills, even if he were to get back $1500 of that as part of a rebate program. Nor can he assume any more debt, despite the province’s financing options for homeowners seeking to improve the efficiency of their houses. With poor credit and no upfront cash, neither of these options are of any benefit to someone like Walter. Alberta is one of the last provinces in Canada to support the one in five people struggling to pay their energy bills. Energy poor individuals are in dire need of support, but in saying this, it’s also important to note that not each home or homeowner needs the exact same kind of support. Looking, for example, at a home’s single pane windows or its crumbling insulation, the broken ducts or furnace or even the size of a home, you’ll find many secrets and stories. These revelations speak to an order of priority as to how one might spend money to increase the efficiency of a home and decrease the cost of bills. New showerheads and lightbulbs won’t help Walter. In fact, looking for solutions to energy poverty is very much akin to the way a doctor assesses their patients’ health. Imagine if patients were to sit down on a bed of crinkled paper and the doctor, upon entering the room and without looking at the patient, immediately claimed to have found a solution. In no world would this make good sense. Now apply this same thinking to a home. How can a program tend to any home or homeowner’s ills without first assessing the home or even taking the time to hear the homeowner’s unique story? Prescribing LED light bulbs to a home might therefore be compared to a doctor who blindly prescribes antidepressant medication to a patient suffering from a bladder infection. While taking the time with homeowners and their houses can help build a climate of trust between energy poor individuals and those offering solutions, it also provides insight into how one might best allocate a given number of dollars to reduce energy bills. If a home such as Walter’s is suffering from a broken furnace, installing new LED light bulbs or insulation may not result in the best return on investment. Taking the time to understand what is needed in each home is called a “diagnostic approach” and recognizes that there is no “one size fits all” solution to energy poverty or to improving energy inefficient homes. Walter’s story demonstrates the need for tailored solutions to energy poverty. There is no better way to tackle such a broad challenge than by developing programs that ensure the needs of individual homeowners are both seen and heard. In doing so, we can build a climate of trust with payment-troubled customers by taking the time to connect with their stories and the homes in which they dwell. Furthermore, investments will experience stronger returns as dollars are allocated to a home’s most pressing needs. With support from Alberta innovators, government and utility companies, we can work together to create a more prosperous future for all Albertans. By collaborating as a province, we can create an energy poverty reduction program grounded in a diagnostic approach. In doing, we can create a future for Alberta in which no person is left behind. #Future_Economy #Culture_Shift #Regional_Pathways #Energy_Poverty #2020

In Lieu of Lightbulbs: A Look at Energy Poverty in Alberta

Sitting in his kitchen with a ballpoint pen and a small coiled notebook, Walter considers his expenses. With December looming around the corner, he laments the fact that his furnace, after all these years, has chosen to retire on the heels of winter. With his natural gas furnace no longer working, Walter has purchased two electric heaters to warm his home. These new additions leave him feeling unsure of how best to tackle his energy bills and this nervousness inspires him to investigate his...

Read More
The outbreak of COVID-19 has triggered a global economic crisis that was unimaginable even two weeks ago, and perhaps nowhere is that being felt more acutely than in Alberta. In addition to the obvious consequences of social distancing on businesses and industry, we’re also dealing with a gut-wrenching collapse in oil prices that’s being driven in part by a deepening conflict between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Taken together, the combination of falling oil prices and a temporary collapse in the broader economy will put Alberta’s community and business leaders to the toughest test they’ve ever faced — one that they cannot afford to fail. But there’s an old saying that breakdowns can create breakthroughs, and there are some very important ones that could happen in Alberta if the right decisions are made in this crisis. Investments today can help enable structural changes that unlock longer term opportunities that will be key to future prosperity. Yes, the oil and gas industry needs support to weather the storm that it’s been hit with. At the same time, efforts by the federal and provincial government can’t just focus on sustaining what Alberta already has. They should also be directed towards areas where it can build new industries and opportunities, along with the jobs and investment they could sustain. The most strategic investments of all will leverage Alberta’s legacy assets and resources to enable the economy of the future. Thankfully, a growing network of innovators and partner organizations have been collaborating for years through the Energy Futures Lab to develop a shared sense of the big opportunity areas in an energy system and economy that are fit for the future. Here are five key areas where governments looking to offer help today should be directing their attention. Hydrogen The hydrogen economy has been slow to take off around the world, and its promise has been touted for some time now. But its role in a low-carbon economy is becoming more clear with each passing day, and Alberta is well-positioned to capitalize on that by leveraging its many resources and capabilities. By combining its massive deposits of natural gas with carbon-capture technology, Alberta could be a leader in the production and export of so-called “Blue Hydrogen” — a fuel source that combines high energy intensity with low emissions. Better yet, it can be produced in Alberta at half the wholesale cost of diesel. As the University of Calgary’s David Layzell and Jessica Hof noted in a recent op-ed for the Edmonton Journal, the economic possibilities here are tantalizing. “If the province produced and exported hydrogen as a transportation fuel,” they wrote, “instead of selling an equivalent amount of crude oil and natural gas to the U.S. at discount prices, the Alberta economy could generate three to 10 times more economic activity.” And as they noted in a recent report for CESAR (Canadian Energy Systems Analysis Research) and the Transition Accelerator, Alberta enjoys cost advantages over most other potential producers of hydrogen. Image courtesy of CESAR/The Transition Accelerator Yes, the market for the hydrogen economy has been slow to take shape, but that’s beginning to change. There were more than 50 strategies and targets put in place last year, from Germany to South Korea, to enable the development of hydrogen-based systems. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will not take place until 2021, but one thing we know for sure is that the Olympic flame will be powered by hydrogen for the first time in history. Hydrogen will also power the 6,000-unit Olympic Village, as well as the buses and cars that will move athletes between venues. According to Sam French, an editorial advisory board member with H2 View, “[The] Tokyo Olympics will provide the platform for hydrogen to pole vault into the mainstream. We’re on the cusp of a major energy transition. 2020 could very well be the year to shift public perception and unleash the global hydrogen market.” While electric vehicles are all the rage right now in many circles, hydrogen-powered ones are ready to make their move. The Toyota Mirai, which has been in production since 2014 and was recently revamped with a 30% larger driving range, is part of the Japanese automaker’s push to grow the market for fuel-cell vehicles. Then there’s the Nikola Motor Company, an American firm whose Badger is being touted as the most advanced zero emissions FCEV/BEV pick-up truck in the world. With 980 ft. lbs of torque, 906 peak horsepower, and 455 continuous horsepower, it won’t lack for muscle. Image courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy But where hydrogen really shines is in the heavy transport space, which accounts for a large and growing proportion of our overall emissions.As Layzell and Hof noted in their Edmonton Journal op-ed, in Alberta alone freight transportation accounts for 12 million tonnes of GHGs every year, along with 70 percent of diesel fuel demand. Replacing that with hydrogen would drive huge emissions reductions in the near term and even bigger economic opportunities down the proverbial road. That’s why it’s time for the federal and provincial governments to put their full weight behind ideas that increase the use of hydrogen in the heavy transport space. That includes everything from injecting hydrogen into existing diesel engine transport trucks, which would support the build out of the infrastructure that’s needed for a wider network of hydrogen fueling stations, to the Alberta Zero-Emissions Truck Electrification Collaboration Project, a $15 million, three-year joint venture between Emissions Reduction Alberta and the private sector. Hydrogen’s moment is upon us, and Alberta can play a major role in that — and benefit accordingly. Geothermal Energy Geothermal offers some of the lowest-hanging economic fruit available right now, given Alberta’s demonstrated capacity for drilling and developing sources of energy and its rich inventory of potential geothermal sites (which includes old oil and gas wells). If Alberta companies like Terrapin Geothermics and Borealis Geopower were empowered to build out 300 megawatts worth of geothermal electricity, along with an array of geothermally-heated district energy networks, it could spark a $3.6 billion economic boom — one that would employ welders, bit suppliers, construction workers, drilling crews, pumping equipment suppliers, and a host of other people and small businesses. The Pico Alto Geothermal Power Plant on the Island of Terceira in the Azores. Image courtesy of Terrapin Geothermics By drilling 186 new wells, it would support over $900 million in new drilling activity alone — a vital contribution to a sector that is being waylaid by collapsing oil prices and the resulting decline in the number of wells being drilled. And because geothermal wells are often larger and more complex than ones looking for hydrocarbons, they tend to last up to four times longer than conventional oil and gas drilling operations. Here, that would mean 7,500 total drilling days and 750 direct jobs, along with 5,625 indirect and induced drilling-related jobs. That’s not all. By unlocking 138 million gigajoules of low-carbon baseload heat, it could support district heating systems and meet industrial demand in a way that’s good for the environment and the economy. The creation of new district heating systems could support 10,000 jobs during the construction phase and 300 for their operation, along with 6,600 indirect jobs, and create an asset that industries like pulp and paper and agriculture can put to good use. Finally, if the 300 megawatts of waste thermal heat generated by the Alberta Industrial Heartland and Strathcona Industrial Area was captured, it could both reduce emissions and create value. At present, there’s approximately 7.5 million gigajoules of heat that’s vented into the atmosphere in those two places, a figure that represents $39 million in lost value. By building a 50 kilometre district heat network that connects these two areas, the province could activate $50 million in direct construction activity, support over 300 jobs, and create $92 million in total economic opportunity. The team at Borealis GeoPower Geothermal development is low-hanging fruit, and picking it will create jobs, reduce emissions, and support a sector of the economy that will otherwise suffer more with falling global oil prices. Lithium Another opportunity to leverage Alberta’s oil and gas assets to develop a new industry highly relevant for a low carbon emissions future is with lithium. This may strike some as ironic, given that lithium is a key component in the electric vehicles that some in the oil and gas industry see as a threat to their business. For those in the province’s burgeoning lithium sector, though, like e3 Metals and Summit Nanotech, EVs are a key driver of demand for their product — one that’s made right here in Alberta. And the more of those cars that get made, the more lithium will be needed to do it. Demand for lithium is expected to start outstripping supply as soon as 2025. Most of that supply currently comes from Australia, South America, and China, where it’s produced using environmentally dubious techniques like hard-rock mining or evaporation ponds. Here in Alberta, on the other hand, it’s already being produced as a byproduct in oil and gas drilling, especially in the brine that comes out of wells in the Leduc Reservoir region. All that’s needed is a willingness to extract the lithium and refine it — a process that would require the same kind of government support that helped lay the foundations for the oil sands industry a generation ago. Image courtesy of e3 Metals Corp Doing that could create hundreds of full-time jobs in the near term, and many more as the industry reduces its operating costs and starts to scale up. Eventually, Alberta could even play host to battery manufacturing plants, and the plethora of high-paying jobs and spin off economic opportunities that would create. Most importantly, it would give the province a valuable hedge against the possibility that electric vehicles really do take off in popularity, and put a dent in global demand for oil in the process. Bitumen Beyond Combustion It’s no secret that Alberta is sitting on hundreds of billions of barrels of bitumen, the thick and heavy deposits that have been getting steamed and mined out of the earth for decades. But the fact that we could be doing something other than putting that bitumen into barrels and sending it off to refineries? That very much remains a secret to many people, even right here in Alberta. To its credit, the Government of Alberta has been trying to change that. Through the “Bitumen Beyond Combustion” program that’s been championed by Alberta Innovates, it has invested in research that studies other economic opportunities and applications for bitumen. That research has already yielded some very interesting results, with potential uses ranging from asphalt and activated carbon to vanadium (for batteries) and carbon nanotubes. But the most exciting discovery is the possible applications in carbon fibre technology, something that is being supported by a $15 million Carbon Fibre Grand Challenge. Carbon fibre is ten-times stronger than steel, and composite materials that use it are being tested in a wide range of potential applications, from automobiles and the aerospace industry to concrete, plastics, and wood products. And while demand for crude oil and products refined from it like gasoline and diesel may start to decline in the near future, it is going nowhere but up for things like cars, homes, buildings, roads, and consumer goods. Bitumen-derived asphaltenes have two key advantages: a significantly smaller environmental impact than energy products that are combusted, and a dramatically lower supply cost ($0.50/kg versus polyacrylonitrile at $7–14/kg) than other potential sources of carbon fibre. Image courtesy of Corporate Knights While a bitumen-based carbon fibre industry is at least five years away from commercial production at meaningful scale, direct and meaningful government funding could help speed that along. It could also help grow the market and position Alberta as a leader in it. That market could be very, very big, given that it aligns perfectly with the lower-carbon emissions economy that’s being built as we speak. It can make cars lighter, and give them better mileage. It can make bridges more durable, and ensure they need to be replaced every 200 years rather than every 50. And it can make consumer products like hockey sticks, bicycles, and prosthetics more affordable. Best of all, it can do all of these things without creating significant downstream emissions — an obvious advantage over bitumen that gets combusted, where more than three-quarters of current emissions take place. Bitumen beyond combustion turns the carbon intensity of the oilsands from a liability into an asset. If the market reaches its potential, the value of every barrel in the ground in Alberta would increase by five to ten times — and a new industry could take root that might one day generate between $50 billion and $100 billion in annual revenue. Artificial Intelligence When it’s all said and done, artificial intelligence and machine learning may prove to be the most important economic developments of the 21st century. They are already transforming the way people work in an ever-expanding range of industries, from agriculture and oil and gas to tech and manufacturing, and their influence will only continue to grow. And much of that influence is coming right from our own backyard in Edmonton, where the University of Alberta and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute have long been leaders in this space. Their work, and their presence, helped attract Google’s Deep Mind to Edmonton, where it set up its first international research office in 2017. The power of AI is no secret to some of Alberta’s biggest companies, either. Suncor, for example, has made AI and machine learning a key part of its “Suncor 4.0” plan, which will see it partnering with Microsoft to bring new technologies to bear on its entire business. As Suncor’s Sandy Martin told the Financial Post, “If you think into the future — and wherever that future is — there isn’t an environment where any company survives without becoming digital.” Imperial Oil, meanwhile, recently announced a two-year agreement with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute that will see them work together to help the oil giant build out its in-house machine learning capabilities and apply them to a wide range of environmental and operational challenges. But Alberta’s advantage in this space is starting to slip, as other cities and countries compete to attract AI talent and capital. Where the University of Alberta used to rank in the top five among post-secondary institutions in the world for AI in terms of the number of publications and academic citations, it has slipped to 13th over the last five years. While universities around the world are investing billions of dollars in new facilities and infrastructure — MIT alone is investing $1 billion to create a new college that combines AI, machine learning, and data science with other academic disciplines — the University of Alberta is starting to fall behind. What’s needed is a renewed commitment by government to supporting the AI sector, both in words and deeds. That will mean reinstating the Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Credit and increasing, rather than decreasing, budgets for entities like Alberta Innovates and the University of Alberta. Most importantly, it will mean treating new forms of economic activity in the province as a genuine opportunity rather than competition for incumbent industries. AI researchers and innovators thrive on solving problems in other sectors and systems, and Alberta’s energy sector is both rich in data and ripe with challenges that need to be addressed as it looks to strengthen its cost and carbon competitiveness and stay relevant in a shifting energy landscape. Alberta should be fertile ground for AI innovation, and government can play an important role in making that happen. Yes, It’s Time Albertans understand what it means to chase a shared economic goal, and they’ve been very successful in doing that over the last few decades. Now, it’s time to chase a new one: a future in which the term energy encompasses a wider range of possibilities, where we use our past strengths on new opportunities, and where these new opportunities aren’t impeded by old blind spots. It’s a future defined by economies of support, where one opportunity begets and actually advances another. That’s why these aren’t five separate tracks but rather interconnected pathways of opportunity and possibility. And that’s why they deserve to be supported as we all try to put the pieces of our lives, our businesses, our province, and our country back together. #Hydrogen #Geothermal_Energy #Lithium_from_Brine #Batteries #Bitumen_Beyond_Combustion #Advanced_Materials #CCUS #Artificial_Intelligence #Clean_Technologies #Culture_Shift #Future_Economy #2020

Five Big Ideas for Alberta’s Economic Recovery

The outbreak of COVID-19 has triggered a global economic crisis that was unimaginable even two weeks ago, and perhaps nowhere is that being felt more acutely than in Alberta. In addition to the obvious consequences of social distancing on businesses and industry, we’re also dealing with a gut-wrenching collapse in oil prices that’s being driven in part by a deepening conflict between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Taken together, the combination of falling oil prices and a temporary collapse in the...

Read More
We are excited to announce our newest Fellows! The EFL has been steadily welcoming new Fellows since its inception in 2015. We now have over 65 Fellows from different organizations and communities to advance EFL initiatives and continue to shape the energy system the future requires of us. The EFL Fellows have demonstrated the power of shared leadership, co-creation, and experimentation. We are proud of our Fellows and are excited to announce this impressive group who will contribute alongside the current cohort: Aatif Baskanderi, QUEST Abbas Ali Beg, ATCO Brandon Holterman, Seven Generations Chelsea Donelon, TransAlta Corporation Dallas Dunn, TransAlta Corporation Hossein Shahandeh, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) Jennifer D’Aoust, Energy Efficiency Alberta (EEA) Jordan Stein, City of Calgary Mark Chidwick, eDecisions Solutions Ltd. Petr Musilek, University of Alberta Steve Saddleback, Indian Resource Council Sydney Kjellander, Alberta Clean Technology Industry Alliance (ACTia) Yasmin Abraham, Empower Me Welcome to the Energy Futures Lab! #Culture_Shift #Fellowship #2020

Welcome Fellows 2020!

We are excited to announce our newest Fellows! The EFL has been steadily welcoming new Fellows since its inception in 2015. We now have over 65 Fellows from different organizations and communities to advance EFL initiatives and continue to shape the energy system the future requires of us. The EFL Fellows have demonstrated the power of shared leadership, co-creation, and experimentation. We are proud of our Fellows and are excited to announce this impressive group who will contribute...

Read More
In March this year we were all shocked by the COVID pandemic, causing a massive disruption in our personal and professional lives. One of the areas that, in particular, was disrupted were in-person gatherings, such as workshops, conferences and meetings. For those, like myself, who work on challenges that require innovation and collaboration of diverse groups of people, this provoked a major question: How can we continue to create engaging online experiences that are effective in moving our work forward? Over the past 6 months, we have had the pleasure of delivering dozens of engaging online workshops, from 9 person team retreats to 30 people workshops to 500 people conferences. Recently, we have had people reach out with questions seeking advice on how they can create similar experiences, and we thought that we would take a moment to share some key lessons that we have learned in case they are useful for you. Before going further, a couple of quick things. As always, please consider your context as a filter. You know your situation best, so take ideas that make sense for you and feel free to leave those that do not. Also, I am not going to discuss the basics of good meeting and workshop design, e.g. clarifying your need and purpose, framing meaningful questions, know your audience, etc. These continue to apply in an online context. So, without further ado, here are a few lessons about effective and engaging online collaboration. Lessons #1: Shift Your Paradigm The biggest mistake I have seen when approaching online workshops is to take what has worked effectively in-person and simply try to mimic it online. This won’t work. Rather than lamenting that you can’t get together in person, consider the positives of coming together online and design around those. For example, it allows more frequent connection, it is easier to fit into schedules, and teams can come together from greater geographic distances. This may lead to different patterns of engagement from, for example, larger longer in-frequent in-person gatherings to smaller, purposeful and more frequent gatherings. Lessons #2: Think Harvest Before Technology One of the first questions that we get asked: what online collaboration technology should I use? We suggest that you actually start with another: What do I want to harvest from this gathering? Consider what information is most useful for you and your team to capture and leave with. For example, if you are hosting a gathering and simply want some live reaction to a few questions, then something with a low learning curve like Slido could work for you. If you are working with a team looking at a complex innovation challenge, then something more flexible like Miro could act as work mat to allow teams to capture and manipulate ideas. Lesson #3: Build in Movement into Activity and Breaks Although seemingly obvious, it is easy to get into designing an online workshop and forget that people are fatigued by sitting in front of their screens. One way to address this is to build in some movement every 45 minutes or so. For example, this could simply be a break with a little stretch or encouragement to step outside. Another option is to build in paired walks into your design, asking participants to call each other on their cellphones (yes, they make calls as well) to explore a question or idea together while taking a stroll. Another is a solo journaling exercise with pen and paper. Another is to ask people to sit outside in a quiet spot and dial in on their phone for part of the conversation. You get the idea. Have fun and be creative, people will enjoy the human experience. Lesson #4 Design with Interaction in Mind One important rule in effective facilitation is to engage people with sight, sound, and movement within five minutes of the start, and to ideally continue to do this for the rest of the workshop every 15 minutes or so. This is even more important online where our past experiences of long presentations cause many of us to put the webinar in the background while we attend to other things. Lesson #2 and #3 above offer some ideas to do this, and I also wanted to give a shout out to the humble chatbox, a simple feature in online meeting platforms like Zoom or Teams. The chatbox allows for interaction amongst participants in a way that is not possible in-person. For example, rather than a design where you have a 60 minute panel of presentations and then stop for 30 minutes of Q&A, consider a series of snappy back to back 5 – 7 minute presentations where participants are encouraged to pose questions in real time via the chatbox, and where other participants and the presenter (once finished) can also respond in real time. When one presenter stops and another starts to keep the energy high. We have seen high levels of engagement and positive feedback to this approach that is only possible online (remember: shift the paradigm). I hope that this has been useful for you. This list is certainly not exhaustive, so feel free to share some of your lessons, ideas and best practices in the comments section. Questions also welcome and best of luck with your online sessions! #Culture_Shift #Fellowship #2020 #Process_Design

Four Lessons for Engaging and Effective Online Collaboration

In March this year we were all shocked by the COVID pandemic, causing a massive disruption in our personal and professional lives. One of the areas that, in particular, was disrupted were in-person gatherings, such as workshops, conferences and meetings. For those, like myself, who work on challenges that require innovation and collaboration of diverse groups of people, this provoked a major question: How can we continue to create engaging online experiences that are effective in moving our...

Read More
As governments and industry around the world work to jump-start their economies and restart their businesses without triggering a second wave of COVID-19 infections, they’re suddenly open to ambitious ideas and policies that were on a slow track before the virus struck. But in straining for the highest fruit on the tree, we need to be careful that we don’t miss one of the easiest pieces to pick: energy efficiency. It will deliver results — and deliver them quickly. Installation of commercially available high-efficient technology saves more money than it costs, reduces emissions, and supports the local economy, producing high-quality local jobs while keeping investment in the community. But for too long, we’ve overlooked this opportunity. The good news is that now is the perfect time for that to change. A 2019 study by Navigant Guidehouse gives us a glimpse into the economic upside of an investment in energy efficiency in Alberta. Under a scenario where $150 million is invested in energy efficiency programming, the potential electricity savings in buildings, and non-oil and gas industrial facilities would be around 1% per year, a figure that’s similar to electrical efficiency targets found in other jurisdictions in Canada and the United States. And while 1% per year may not sound like very much, this represents $290 million in private sector investment and $1 billion per year in gross savings. Energy efficiency benefits are cumulative, which means by 2040 we’d see savings of 20% or more. That spending, a portion of which could come from an existing carbon levy, would also offset 900 megawatts of electricity system capacity, making it easier — and less expensive — to green the grid. Sustainable Projects Group staff reduce energy costs for their industrial and commercial clients by making their buildings and facilities run more efficiently. So if the math is this compelling, why haven’t we put it to work already? In part, it’s because we haven’t put a price on the value it creates. For example, no matter what your opinion may be on its effectiveness, exposure to the carbon pricing concept has led to an awareness within government and industries of an implied value of carbon as a commodity. Commodities can then be bought, sold, and traded, creating a market and revenue stream. Products like renewables and geothermal already have “value.” In other words, there is a mechanism in place that puts a price on the outputs of those projects and is generally accepted by business and financial institutions. We have yet to do that for the output of energy efficiency. If we did, it could be a game changer for business competitiveness in Alberta. That’s because it would help companies reduce their operating costs while increasing their resiliency to change and new challenges. This is important, given that our business sector was already facing competitiveness challenges from jurisdictions around the world before COVID hit. And while companies have recognized the value of incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into their corporate policies and business decisions, there are now (thanks to the economic impact of the virus) limited funds available for them to invest in energy efficiency opportunities. Without that additional investment, energy efficiency will remain unpicked fruit on the tree of opportunity. Building management companies such as Strategic Group use energy scans to identify opportunities to trim building operating costs while increasing comfort levels for tenants. CLEAResult staff supported this energy scan as part of the Strategic Energy Management program. Working to ensure this opportunity doesn’t get wasted is what inspired a partnership between the Energy Futures Lab and Energy Efficiency Alberta. This includes developing a rural small business pilot that makes energy efficiency improvements more accessible and financially viable. Working with municipalities to take the lead with an initiative that will offer Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. And a new study that demonstrates the effectiveness of energy efficiency as a way to manage increased demand for electricity (which is anticipated to skyrocket with the electrification of the transportation system). We’re not the only ones who see the opportunity that energy efficiency offers right now, either. The recently announced Task Force for a Resilient Recovery, which features a wide range of high-profile business and environmental leaders, also believes that energy efficiency should play a key role as we rebuild our economy and invest in “shovel-worthy” projects. Now, we need to act — and there are four key ways that we can enable an energy efficient economic recovery. First, we should explicitly recognize energy efficiency as a resource under the Electric and Gas Utilities Act. Second, we need to increase access to the Alberta emission offset market, and address administrative barriers to entry that currently exist for smaller projects. Third, we can incorporate energy efficiency into our utility system, and use it to offset or defer higher-cost generation, transmission and distribution alternatives. And finally, it’s time to support ESG reporting and give lending institutions and investors the ability to more fully value the benefits of energy efficiency in their risk assessments and valuations. Over 2,200 rooftop solar panels on Calgary’s IKEA store are offsetting approximately 744 tonnes of C02 emissions per year. None of us would have chosen this current set of economic circumstances. The human and economic cost has been staggering. But as the world grapples with how to safely restart economies and move into recovery, we have a unique opportunity in Alberta to finally capture the value that energy efficiency can create for our industries, businesses, and institutions. If we do that, we’ll be that much closer to the prosperous and sustainable future that everyone wants to reach. #Electricity #Clean_Technologies #NonWires_Solutions #Rooftop_Solar #Shovel_Ready_Projects #2020

Why Energy Efficiency is An Opportunity Alberta Can’t Afford to Pass Up

As governments and industry around the world work to jump-start their economies and restart their businesses without triggering a second wave of COVID-19 infections, they’re suddenly open to ambitious ideas and policies that were on a slow track before the virus struck. But in straining for the highest fruit on the tree, we need to be careful that we don’t miss one of the easiest pieces to pick: energy efficiency. It will deliver results — and deliver them quickly. Installation of...

Read More
Dear Energy Futures Lab Fellows, Partners & Steering Committee Members, Recent events demonstrate the importance of acknowledging and actively addressing systemic racism. Knowing these traumas are a part of Canada’s social fabric, we invite our community to lean collectively into this grief, discomfort, and moment of witness. We encourage you to reflect on the importance of being open to new ways of being, thinking, and doing. We want to recognize the members of our community who are hurting right now. We deeply empathize with how this must be a very difficult time for many of you and our hearts go out to you and your loved ones. To those of us who are born into white privilege, how can we each learn from our discomfort during this time? How can we sit with it long enough to more viscerally hear, feel, see, and know how the system in which we exist within is inequitable and unjust? The Lab continuously references our Learning Journey in our collective and individual understanding of Canadian Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation. This is, ultimately, the discovery of the truth of how our societies are built upon systemic, generational injustice and racism. We believe this is an important moment in that journey to acknowledge the significance of this truth. The Energy Futures Lab is far from perfect, but as we come together to create the energy system the future requires, we will continue to build safer, inclusive spaces, to listen and to enhance our ability to elevate your voices. Sincerely, The Energy Futures Lab Team #Culture_Shift #Reconciliation_Journey #EFL_Vision #EFL_Platform #2020

An Open Letter to the EFL Community

Dear Energy Futures Lab Fellows, Partners & Steering Committee Members, Recent events demonstrate the importance of acknowledging and actively addressing systemic racism. Knowing these traumas are a part of Canada’s social fabric, we invite our community to lean collectively into this grief, discomfort, and moment of witness. We encourage you to reflect on the importance of being open to new ways of being, thinking, and doing. We want to recognize the members of our community who are hurting...

Read More
In August of 2018 I had the good fortune to spend two weeks at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity for a Summer Writers Retreat. My project for that time was to write about the Energy Futures Lab. It was an intimidating program in the sense that I was there with people who were actual writers. I was one of only two non-fiction writers amidst a group of almost 20 very talented storytellers. At that time I had already made a shift in my role with the Energy Futures Lab to a part-time contract, having passed the mantle of leadership for the Lab to Alison Cretney at the outset of 2018 and set out for what would be the better part of a year in Costa Rica with my family. The idea with the retreat was that I would use the time to document the origin story of the EFL and some of the insights gathered along the way, perhaps one day to be compiled into a book. I mostly used the time well and did good work. A couple priority “EFL 2.0” fundraising proposals got in the way of the main objective, but time dedicated to writing those was surely well spent! I also produced some decent early drafts of the first few chapters and an outline for the rest of the book. It didn’t get any further than that, other than that one of the “vignette” stories I wrote at that time – about two of the original EFL Fellows Daniel Clarke and Alison Thompson – was eventually published in Corporate Knights magazine. I was reminded of that work as I sat down to write this newsletter article on the occasion of yet another shift in my relationship with the Lab, to more of a participant role, as I step into a new position as Vice President, Sustainability and Citizenship with The Co-operators. The EFL was a good idea back in 2014, and it is an indispensable platform for change now. That is being made more obvious with every passing week, as the narratives and initiatives cultivated in the Lab make their way into the mainstream of public consciousness and the EFL’s profile and influence grows. My words of encouragement at this moment can be boiled down to this statement that a wise mentor, Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, once shared with me: “Hug the framework.” By that, I am referring to the science and systems-thinking framework that underpins the work of the EFL and its host organization The Natural Step. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) and the insights it offers about what the future requires of us was instrumental for those of us involved in the early days of the EFL. Its implications were at the root of our belief that common ground could actually be found amidst all the dissension and polarization on energy and climate issues. And though it doesn’t often show up visibly in the day to day interactions of the Lab, every now and then its continued relevance as a lens for understanding the complexity we face is made obvious again. Most recently for me it was when Michael Moore’s Planet of the Humans movie was released. That film and the various reactions it caused highlighted for me the importance of backcasting from sustainability principles as a way to manage trade-offs (instead of getting stuck in lose/lose conundrums), leveraging the assets and resources around us for a better future (instead of lamenting where it all came from), and most importantly engaging constructively with one another (instead of demonizing people and groups with different interests). If you haven’t spent time with the content of the FSSD recently – and I suspect most of us haven’t – I encourage you to revisit some of the core learning materials of The Natural Step and Sustainability Illustrated. Perhaps after having done that, you’ll even rewatch Planet of the Humans with a new lens to reconsider its content. Or maybe even more productively, you’ll use that lens to consider what’s happening around us – to recognize patterns, to spot opportunities for connections. That’s what I’ve been doing for five years in various roles with the EFL. It’s what I’ll be continuing to do in the EFL going forward in my new capacity and also in my new role with The Co-operators, where that very lens is built into the organization’s core approach to business. We’re on a roll with the EFL. The world needs what we’re doing more than ever, so let’s lean in, hug the framework, and then reach out even more broadly than we have so far to be positive agents of hope and change. #Culture_Shift #Radical_Middle #Framework_for_Strategic_Sustainable_Development #Backcasting #System_Sensing #Fellowship #2020

Chad Park reflects on his time with the EFL

In August of 2018 I had the good fortune to spend two weeks at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity for a Summer Writers Retreat. My project for that time was to write about the Energy Futures Lab. It was an intimidating program in the sense that I was there with people who were actual writers. I was one of only two non-fiction writers amidst a group of almost 20 very talented storytellers. At that time I had already made a shift in my role with the Energy Futures Lab to a part-time...

Read More
A New Reality Our world is shifting towards a low-carbon economy and the Canadian and global energy marketplace is changing. Many will debate the pace of this shift, but one thing we are certain of is that the shift is happening. Much of this is driven by increasing concerns about our changing climate. A recent study by Canadian federal scientists and academics has warned that Canada’s climate is warming more rapidly than the global average. These shifts and uncertainties have left many communities in Alberta rethinking their future and exploring how to create resilient communities, building on their human capital while taking advantage of new economic opportunities. EFL Accelerator: Community Resilience The recent EFL Accelerator on Community Resilience centered around the question: How can communities enhance long-term resilience in light of the shifting energy landscape? EFL Accelerators focus on advancing initiatives to help Alberta achieve the EFL vision created by the Lab’s diverse Fellows and partners. The Accelerator brought together community leaders, funders, strategists, First Nations, and advisors – even four youth from Pincher Creek who brought their perspective on energy transition and hopes to learn how to shape the future of their community. “What’s great is that I was able to collaborate with people from different backgrounds: education, energy, business…you get different ideas about different topics. It is cool to see out of the box thinking,” said one of the youth Ayden Pitcher from Matthew Halton High School in Pincher Creek, Alberta This EFL Accelerator advanced four initiatives: Blockchain to Transact Carbon Offsets from Aggregated Micro-Solar Pilot, led by EFL Fellow and CEO of ReWatt Power Prageet Nibber Energy Efficiency Program for Small Rural Businesses Pilot, led by former EFL Fellow and Director of Energy Efficiency Alberta Financing Programs Justin Smith SouthWest Alberta Experiential Learning Lab (SWELL) Concept, led by EFL Fellow and Innovation Architect at Ventus Development Services James Van Leeuwen Louis Bull Renewable Schools Pilot, led by EFL Fellow and Executive Director of Iron and Earth Lliam Hildebrand More about these initiatives can be found below. Energy Transition in Southwest Alberta “Learning about the socio-economic impact predicted by the loss of the Shell gas plant near Pincher Creek hit home for me,” said Diandra (DJ) Bruised Head – one the new EFL Fellows and also Climate Change Coordinator at Blood Tribe Land Management. DJ participated in the SWELL Concept initiative, led by EFL Fellow James Van Leeuwen at the Southwest Alberta Sustainable Community Initiative, which is focused on energy systems, and building capacity to design and develop energy systems the future will require. At the Accelerator, SWELL’s initiative explored the implications of closing Shell Canada’s Waterton Gas Complex, which has been a major economic generator for southwest Alberta since the early 1960s. “My community is within the vicinity of the gas-plant; we can see the lights of the plant from the Blood Reserve some nights. While the socio-economic impact assessment was for Pincher Creek, it will impact Southern Alberta as a whole. My community prides itself on maintaining oil and gas as a prime industry, and there’s gratefulness in that statement: we’ve had the opportunity to elevate our Tribe economically and been successful in this area. The future challenges our historical success; however, the global economy for oil and gas is shifting, and is calling for investment into renewables.” In 2018, the Blood Tribe was awarded a contract in partnership with Électricité de France (EDF) to invest in windmills and contribute to the community’s economy, but DJ recognizes that “there is a space to fill to bring in community buy-in for renewable energies.” She acknowledges that in order to develop renewables, the community would need visible projects and continued engagement to build capacity within the community. New Digital Innovations and Community Resilience Another initiative focused on how a successful pilot might contribute towards creating a more interconnected, accessible, and adaptable electricity system in the province. The pilot used blockchain technology to verify and aggregate emission reductions across solar sites from rural Albertan micro-producers. While it demonstrated additional value to small producers in the form of emission credits, perhaps more importantly, it also showcased the potential of the technology and the value of different stakeholders agreeing on a shared architecture. Participants explored what is needed to deploy this and other newer technologies in support of increased transparency and accessibility in Alberta’s power system. Re-thinking Work, Re-training Workforce The main premise of the Louis Bull Solar Renewable Schools Pilot, led by Fellow Lliam Hildebrand at Iron & Earth, is to assist un- (or under) employed oil and gas workers and Indigenous community members in expanding their skill sets to include renewable energy projects. Nick Clark, Director at Utilities, Network and Partners, a Calgary-based organization affiliated with the Olds Institute also participated at the Iron & Earth session and shared a different perspective on community-based projects. He strongly encouraged community leaders to look at market-based approaches. “What you need to possibly think of is, if subsidies and government grants disappear, if the programs are not sustainable on their own, how do you achieve your objectives?” said Nick. The session focused on the potential for Iron and Earth to apply a social enterprise approach to its work, with experts from the TRICO Changemakers and ATB Financial. Ranice Macyk, Senior Manager, Entrepreneur Capital Business & Agriculture at ATB Financial participated and brought a wealth of knowledge on financing options for community-based organizations: “I loved to see some of the projects that everyone is working on and I think it is a great idea to bring individuals from different backgrounds and industries together to help solve problems,” said Ranice. Each session brought a different initiative, a different story, and a variety of experts to help initiatives advance at this EFL Accelerator. Moving forward Many Alberta community leaders and organizations are aware of the implications of energy transition and how it will continue to impact community resilience and the province’s future workforce. The EFL will continue to work with interested stakeholders to develop these initiatives. If you are interested in getting involved with the EFL, please check out the opportunities here. For those in rural Alberta, consider participating in an Energy Futures Roadshow near your community. Roadshows typically include a series of workshops over a few days with community members, businesses, governments, schools, economic and community developers and the general public, followed by support from the Energy Futures Lab team to enable action. So far, we have delivered four Roadshows in Alberta communities, namely Crowsnest Pass, Hinton, Devon, and Grande Prairie. These Roadshows have been praised and attracted a diversity of community and government leaders. Join us at Energy Futures Roadshows in Banff, Drayton Valley, and Red Deer in fall 2019. Stay tuned! #Regional_Pathways #Community_Resilience #Community_Resilience_Accelerator #EFL_Vision #Fellowship #Energy_Efficiency_Program_for_Small_Rural_Businesses_Pilot #SouthWest_Alberta_Experiential_Learning_Lab_SWELL_Concept #Louis_Bull_Renewable_Schools_Pilot #Crowsnest_Pass_Roadshow #Hinton_Roadshow #Devon_Roadshow #Grande_Prairie_Roadshow

Accelerating Community Resilience in light of Energy Transition

A New Reality Our world is shifting towards a low-carbon economy and the Canadian and global energy marketplace is changing. Many will debate the pace of this shift, but one thing we are certain of is that the shift is happening. Much of this is driven by increasing concerns about our changing climate. A recent study by Canadian federal scientists and academics has warned that Canada’s climate is warming more rapidly than the global average. These shifts and uncertainties have left many...

Read More
“We can’t forecast our way to the future that we want,we really need to begin with the end in mind.” – Chad Park, Lead Animator with Energy Futures Lab For years, the work explored within Energy Futures Lab (EFL) has flown mostly under the radar. Our community has collaborated on initiatives aimed at building a thriving, future economy. Now, a global shift is occurring and the Lab is seeing opportunities to expand our community and engage more broadly. On April 16th, the EFL held its first public online event, drawing over 250 participants from across Canada. The event was based on an article co-written by the Lab’s Managing Director and Lead Animator, Alison Cretney and Chad Park, titled Five Big Ideas for Alberta’s Economic Recovery. The article was incredibly well-received, so the Lab hosted an event, further exploring each of the five ideas. Since these are only five of many Alberta-based initiatives, the EFL will also launch a virtual “Big Ideas” series to continue highlighting work being done within the Lab. Our presenters offered a dynamic range of voices and expertise, covering topics relating to geothermal energy, lithium, hydrogen, artificial intelligence and alternative uses for bitumen. Below, you will find recordings from each session. In listening, we invite you to contemplate the role each of these fields will play in not only recovering Alberta’s economy, but in building a new vision of the future. Learn more about our presenters: Sean Collins, Alison Thompson, Bryan Helfenbaum, Liz Lappin, Maggie Hanna, Hossein Shahandeh and Greg Bennett. Near the end of the event we concluded by asking our audience: What actions do you feel you can take to help facilitate this energy transition? We were flooded with thoughtful and constructive answers as participants expressed a desire to adopt new technologies, seek out learning or engage researchers in developing scalable pilot projects. So as we continue responding to challenges arising as a result of COVID-19, we also remember that breakdowns really can create breakthroughs. In these times of crisis, we look for moments of opportunity. #Future_Economy #Culture_Shift #Clean_Technologies #Virtual_Conference_Five_Big_Idea_for_Albertas_Economic_Recovery #2020

Virtual Conference: Five Big Ideas for Alberta’s Economic Recovery

“We can’t forecast our way to the future that we want,we really need to begin with the end in mind.” – Chad Park, Lead Animator with Energy Futures Lab For years, the work explored within Energy Futures Lab (EFL) has flown mostly under the radar. Our community has collaborated on initiatives aimed at building a thriving, future economy. Now, a global shift is occurring and the Lab is seeing opportunities to expand our community and engage more broadly. On April 16th, the EFL held its first...

Read More
There’s never a bad time for the Energy Futures Lab to meet, but the gathering in February in Cochrane was particularly timely. In the wake of Teck Resources’s decision not to proceed with its Frontier Oil Sands project, and in the shadow of both a national conversation over Coastal GasLink and Indigenous rights and a growing provincial one about the merits of separation from Canada, the time was right to ask some tough questions. Things would get even crazier in the days that followed, as oil prices collapsed under the weight of a renewed price war between OPEC, Russia, and the US shale industry, and the provincial government scrambled to react. Winston Churchill famously said that you should never let a good crisis go to waste, and this one seems perfectly aligned with the EFL’s vision and purpose. If the EFL can’t ask the tough questions about our energy future now, when can we? That said, nobody should expect any easy answers to emerge — and they certainly didn’t from the session in Cochrane. That’s why, instead of a tidy summary of the clear-cut answers that were generated during that day, we’re left with a new list of questions that need to be grappled with. These questions get at the heart of our energy dialogue in Alberta, and they may be useful in both moving past partisanship and building a more productive dialogue in this province. If there’s a group that can ask them, it’s the EFL. First, though, there were some points of agreement to build on. Most importantly, there was consensus that polarization sucks — a belief that’s built into the Lab’s DNA. And there was agreement that it’s not enough to dismiss or decry polarization, given that there are people and organizations who both benefit from polarization and routinely seek to exploit and expand it. The challenge for the Lab is figuring out a way to operate in that environment. Second, there was agreement that partisanship is a problem. Some thought it was a problem worth looking past, or trying to work around, while others believed it was better to engage directly with the system. But everyone agreed that it was a force to be reckoned with — and that the failure to do so would inevitably get in the way of the EFL’s mission. And third, there was a consensus that language matters, and that the words we use and the way we frame things publicly has a major impact on how they’re understood and experienced by others. Using the word “transformation”, for example, in place of “transition” can make the concept more approachable for many people. The Alberta Narratives Project covered this subject in much greater detail, and it’s a resource that anyone who is in the habit of discussing energy and climate issues should keep handy at all times. There was also agreement that we need to find common ground on this issue, but what that common ground looks like is up for debate. After all, where and what that common ground is shifts based on the questions in play and the people involved. Some have common ground on economic security, for example, while others find it on health outcomes. And while concepts like “human flourishing” might sound and seem like they have universal appeal, even they can be problematic. After all, one person’s human flourishing may involve the oil and gas industry being more active and prosperous — and that directly impacts another’s concept of flourishing in a negative way. The search for common values is similarly challenging. After all, if efforts to find shared values activate our tribal identities as either progressives or conservatives, are they a pathway to a more productive conversation or a trigger that pushes people back to a partisan one? More than anything, what the day in Cochrane revealed is that for all the technical and wonkish aspects of this conversation, it’s really much deeper than that. It’s about our identities, our histories, and how those sit in the world, as well as the tensions those all create. As with many things in Alberta, the real value is beneath the surface. What do those tensions look like? Here are five that came to the fore. Tension 1: Fear vs. Opportunity Does the EFL speak to people on the basis of their fears — be it for their own economic interests or the futures of their children and grandchildren — or their sense of the opportunities that may lie ahead in the energy transition? Tension 2: Complexity vs. Simplicity Should the EFL lean into the complexity of the conversation, and focus on the nitty gritty of policy proposals and technical solutions, or try to engage people on the basis of broader themes and ideas? Tension 3: Needs vs. Wants Is it better to focus on aspirational targets for the future, or near-term concerns about employment and stability? This dovetails with number one, but it has its own dimensions that are worth exploring. Tension 4: Disrupt vs. Destroy Some people felt that it was important to work with what we have, and improve the system in which our choices are being made. But others said that the status quo is the problem — and that the only way to fix it is to break it. Tension 5: Today vs. Tomorrow Building a consensus around the kind of future we want to build isn’t that difficult, especially when you stay at the level of broad and positive objectives that don’t require compromise. After all, who wouldn’t want to live in a future defined by a robust economy, a thriving environment, and fairness and justice for all? Deciding how we get there, and who should pay the highest price along the way, is where it gets messy. Sadly, there’s no way to resolve these conflicts in a way that leaves everyone satisfied and secure. That’s why we need to embrace the messiness that’s inherent here, and try to encourage others to join us in this space. As one fellow noted, there’s a literal physical disconnect between progressives and conservatives, and nowhere is that more apparent than when it comes to conversations about energy and climate. They worship in different places, socialize in different places, and often get educated in different places. The EFL is one of the few places where they regularly come together and share competing ideas. One of the goals going forward should be to recreate this space in as many places and spaces as possible. It won’t automatically resolve those five tensions, but it would certainly go a long way towards understanding them better. #Culture_Shift #Fellowship #Radical_Middle #EFL_Platform #2020

Navigating Tensions at the EFL

There’s never a bad time for the Energy Futures Lab to meet, but the gathering in February in Cochrane was particularly timely. In the wake of Teck Resources’s decision not to proceed with its Frontier Oil Sands project, and in the shadow of both a national conversation over Coastal GasLink and Indigenous rights and a growing provincial one about the merits of separation from Canada, the time was right to ask some tough questions. Things would get even crazier in the days that followed, as...

Read More
Since its inception, the EFL has had the intention to both include Indigenous people, partners, and perspectives as well as acknowledge and address, in its work, issues related to Indigenous people’s relationships to the energy system. As we step along our Truth and Reconciliation journey, we are embracing a knowing that this aspect of our work needs to be improved and deepened if we truly intend for the Lab to represent what is possible for today’s energy system in Alberta, and beyond. There have been many lessons along the way. Lessons that, I believe, pull us deeper into grasping the gravity of this journey, as opposed to lessons that form a clear sequence of steps or actions to take. But even while holding the highest intention for our work – to be genuinely collaborative and co-creative – we are learning and uncovering how the biases and beliefs we are personally and collectively rooted in ultimately shape the limits of our intentions. Our journey is more than tallying which efforts and initiatives have succeeded or not, but is the task of unlearning the limitations of what a Western mindset requires for success so that we can unlock true potential and innovation for a co-created future. And it’s far from “easy” or “solvable”. But what we are learning – or maybe remembering – is how to be in relationship again. Relationship with ourselves, each other, our communities, the land, and even re-consider our relationship with wealth, energy, and power. This journey has evolved into much more than we ever could have expected, which shouldn’t be (but, unfortunately is) surprising. What has been the most profound for me has been to witness the little moments when people are able to find common ground between a Western and Indigenous perspective. Sometimes it will be in the context of an initiative or social challenge that a small group is convening around, but often these moments are ignited within each person as something clicks and connects their head to their heart. And maybe, I would offer today, this simple bridging of a logical, task-oriented, goal-driven mindset with a holistic, compassionate, heart-first energy is the north star for our journey. With the north star being an invitation and a guide, not a mandate or responsibility. It then becomes the opportunity for each of us to recognize and respond to the importance of moving in this direction – and then choosing to, in our own time and own way. As a Lab, a large part of our collective commitment is to ongoing learning and adaptation. This work is not excluded from that dynamic. We certainly aren’t perfect, but we continuously strive to step into an awareness of our own personal work in tandem with respectfully strengthening the Lab’s capacity for authentically working in, across and between Western and Indigenous worldviews. 2020 promises to generate a lot of momentum for our Truth and Reconciliation journey. We have some exceptional new Fellows, new partners, and we truly believe that our hearts and minds are opening in ways that are both innovative and necessary for the future that is required of us. Looking forward to seeing you along the way. #Indigenous_Knowledge_Insight_and_Leadership #Culture_Shift #2020 #Reconciliation_Journey

Our Truth and Reconciliation Journey

Since its inception, the EFL has had the intention to both include Indigenous people, partners, and perspectives as well as acknowledge and address, in its work, issues related to Indigenous people’s relationships to the energy system. As we step along our Truth and Reconciliation journey, we are embracing a knowing that this aspect of our work needs to be improved and deepened if we truly intend for the Lab to represent what is possible for today’s energy system in Alberta, and beyond. There...

Read More
For as long as the EFL has existed, its work has been creating productive and solutions-oriented conversations about energy and climate as well as expanding the dimensions of what we like to call the “radical middle.” But with political polarization on the rise, and the dialogue around the energy transition becoming more binary by the day, we thought it was time to expand our reach — and our ambitions. We’ve heard from many of our Fellows over the years that they wanted to see us engage much more with the public, share our stories, and what we value with them. We will be asking you and many Canadians to share what your energy future looks like to showcase the diversity of perspectives around energy. We want to exchange, listen, and have rich conversations about our energy future. And that’s exactly what will happen in 2020. The campaign, which encourages Albertans and Canadians to think about their energy future and the role they can play in it, will kick off with a video that frames the conversation in a productive way. It was edited by our own Fellow Rio Mitchell, and features some of the EFL’s own members sharing their vision of the energy future. But that video is just the beginning. It will be featured on a new website, and supported by Twitter and Facebook accounts dedicated to expanding its reach. That website will also feature new content about the technologies and ideas we explore in the Lab, and how they’ll create opportunities for us all to build a better future. Over the course of the spring and summer, we hope to take this campaign and the materials it will create on the road, whether to conferences and symposiums or town-hall style meetings with the public. We’ll be talking about it with the media, and we may ask you to do some talking of your own. And we’ll be doing everything we can to influence the national conversation and shift it in a more positive and productive direction. How can you help? First, by sharing the campaign and its content on your own social channels, and within your circles of friends, family, and colleagues. Encourage the people you know and love to think about what their energy future will look like, and talk about it with one another. Stay tuned for further developments as we build out the My Energy Future campaign. #Radical_Middle #Culture_Shift #My_Energy_Future_Campaign #2020

Introducing the “My Energy Future” Campaign

For as long as the EFL has existed, its work has been creating productive and solutions-oriented conversations about energy and climate as well as expanding the dimensions of what we like to call the “radical middle.” But with political polarization on the rise, and the dialogue around the energy transition becoming more binary by the day, we thought it was time to expand our reach — and our ambitions. We’ve heard from many of our Fellows over the years that they wanted to see us engage much...

Read More
We are thrilled to share a number of connections to the recently announced Clean50 awards. David Hughes, President & CEO of The Natural Step Canada, host organization for the Energy Futures Lab, has been named as a member of Canada’s Clean50 for 2020. David played an instrumental role in co-founding the Circular Economy Leadership Coalition. He helped galvanize momentum and mobilize leading businesses, academics and NGOs towards achieving a prosperous, sustainable, closed-loop, zero-waste circular economy in Canada. Fellow Julia-Maria Becker from the Pembina Institute has won the Clean50 top project award for her role in leading The Alberta Narratives Project. In the current divisive and polarized environment around energy issues, this project involved more than 20 organizations and funders, and convened important climate and energy conversations with Albertans from all backgrounds. Fellow Alison Thompson, CEO of Borealis GeoPower, also won a top project award for her unique work on Geothermal Energy District between Kitselas Geothermal & Borealis GeoPower. This project takes an original approach to geothermal energy development for base-load electricity and renewable heating/cooling alternatives. According to Geothermal Energy District, this project not only opens avenues to ethical mining by dissolving rare minerals and metals in geothermal brines, but also each 15 MW of geothermal electricity developed is predicted to eliminate 70 kt of CO2 emissions each year. Every year, Canada’s Clean50 recognizes Canada’s leaders in sustainability for their contributions. There are 16 categories in the Clean50 Individual awards or “the Clean50” which go beyond numerous industries, academia, and various levels of government, and are based on accomplishments delivered over the prior two years. The EFL was awarded a Clean50 Project award in 2018 and we are proud of the continuous connections to this program through EFL Fellows and The Natural Step President & CEO David Hughes. “I’m deeply honoured and want to acknowledge that this wouldn’t have been possible without the leadership, expertise and investment of the many partners who make up this coalition,” says David. Meet the other 47 leaders on the Clean50 list! #Culture_Shift #Fellowship #Sustainaville_Geo_Park #2019

EFL Connections to Canada’s Clean50 in 2020

We are thrilled to share a number of connections to the recently announced Clean50 awards. David Hughes, President & CEO of The Natural Step Canada, host organization for the Energy Futures Lab, has been named as a member of Canada’s Clean50 for 2020. David played an instrumental role in co-founding the Circular Economy Leadership Coalition . He helped galvanize momentum and mobilize leading businesses, academics and NGOs towards achieving a prosperous, sustainable, closed-loop, zero-waste...

Read More
Energy Futures Lab Logo White

We gratefully acknowledge the original territories of the Siksikáwa, Îyârhe Nakodabi, and Tsuut’ina Dene, of Mohkínstsisakápiyoyis, Wincheesh-pah, Kootsisáw, or the colonized lands which many now refer to as Calgary, where the Energy Futures Lab is headquartered. These Lands are also home to members of the Métis Nation of Alberta under the Otipemisiwak Métis Government — District 4 & 5, whose peoples have deep relationships with the land. This reminds all of us to walk in a good way and remember our commitments to Indigenous Peoples.

Get in Touch

Contact Us

Careers

Subscribe

​

Sign up for our newsletter to stay updated on all the latest news and events

About Us

 

The Energy Futures Lab is a platform for shaping the people-powered solutions to Canada's most complex energy challenges.

bottom of page