TORONTO –Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Huron-Wendat – Climate Engagement Canada (CEC), an investor-led engagement initiative, has engaged Manifest Climate and Quinn+Partners to assess Canada’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters against its newly released Net Zero Benchmark.
The CEC Net Zero Benchmark provides a set of common standards for investors to evaluate corporate issuers’ progress towards aligning with the Paris Agreement’s ambition. The Benchmark extends the evaluation to the highest-emitting Canadian companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The assessment will enable CEC Participant Investors to frame their engagements with Canada’s top emitters to drive meaningful progress on climate change.
Quinn+Partners and Manifest Climate are both award-winning, female-founded Canadian firms with extensive experience advising leading investors and issuers on climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy. The benchmarking will be powered by Manifest Climate’s proprietary AI-powered software engine to identify relevant public company disclosures with precision, speed, and accuracy. Quinn+Partners’ advisory team will complement the software outputs to assess company performance on each benchmark indicator and produce the final assessment.
“The benchmarking will provide CEC participants with actionable information this fall, facilitating more effective investor engagement with key Canadian corporate emitters as they work to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement,” said Kevin Thomas, CEO of the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE), a member of the CEC’s joint secretariat.
“We anticipate the Climate Engagement Canada Benchmarking will provide decision-useful insights to investors and set the bar for climate engagement excellence across the Canadian market,” said Laura Zizzo, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Manifest Climate. “Our joint team is honoured to conduct CEC’s inaugural Benchmark assessment and support its mandate to advance corporate climate action through dialogue and promote a just transition to a net-zero economy,” said Francisca Quinn, Founder and President of Quinn+Partners.
The CEC Net Zero Benchmark, when used along with the recently developed Taxonomy Roadmap Report by the Sustainable Finance Action Council, will provide Canadian investors with a standardized approach to measure companies’ performance against climate objectives and will help define objectives for future climate engagements.
About Climate Engagement Canada (CEC)
Climate Engagement Canada (CEC) is a finance-led initiative that drives dialogue between the financial community and corporate issuers to promote a just transition to a Net Zero economy – to the benefit of investors, companies, employees, and consumers. CEC is coordinated by its Joint Secretariat: the Responsible Investment Association (RIA) and the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE). The initiative is also supported by international investor networks, the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) and Ceres.
About Quinn+Partners
Quinn+Partners is a leading management consultancy specializing in corporate sustainability, sustainable finance, climate change and responsible investment advisory services with more than 40 professionals based in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Since 2013, the firm has worked closely with the largest public and private companies and institutional investors, giving insight into ESG excellence. Quinn+Partners’ unparalleled experience and proven track record support their clients to design and execute leadership strategies and many clients have receive industry awards and improvements in ESG rankings. In 2021 and 2022, Quinn+Partners was recognized by The Globe & Mail Report on Business’ Canada’s Top Growing Companies, and the company is a B Corp as well as a Great Place to Work® workplace.
About Manifest Climate
Manifest Climate is the leading global Climate Risk Planning solution designed to support organizations with climate-related insights, analytics and recommendations. Launched to scale the reach and impact of strategic climate services, Manifest Climate’s cutting-edge software is specifically designed to assess and benchmark corporate climate disclosure, derive data-driven insights and foster strong climate risk and opportunity management. In 2020, Laura Zizzo, a climate change pioneer known for her integrated legal and consulting leadership, joined forces with proven technology entrepreneur Jeremy Greven to create Manifest Climate.
Backed by some of Canada’s largest institutional investors like OMERS, Business Development Bank of Canada, and Climate Innovation Capital, Manifest Climate is a Canadian-owned and female-led organization that employs 50 people in Canada and the United States. The company has been recognized as a leading fast-growing climate tech company by Corporate Knights and LinkedIn and consistently receives Great Places to Work honours.
Contacts
Media Enquiries
Karishma Porwal, Communications Specialist, Climate Engagement Canada
karishma@riacanada.ca
416-461-6042 ext 19