The wind was crisp against my face as I stood on the roof of Vancouver’s recently retrofitted Bentall Centre. Below me, the city’s glass towers reflected the October sun, while the North Shore mountains stood sentinel in the distance – their snowcaps noticeably thinner than when I first moved here a decade ago.
“Five years ago, this wouldn’t have been a priority,” said Maya Hutchinson, sustainability director for the property management firm, gesturing to the solar array and garden spaces around us. “Now it’s non-negotiable for our tenants and investors.”
Hutchinson’s transition story is playing out across Canadian businesses in various forms. While headlines focus on political upheavals, inflation concerns, and geopolitical tensions, a new report from the Institute for Sustainable Finance at Queen’s University suggests climate transition planning remains fundamental to Canadian business survival – even amid competing priorities.
The report, “Maintaining Course: Climate Transition Planning Through Economic Headwinds,” found that 62% of surveyed Canadian businesses consider climate transition plans “mission critical” despite facing other significant pressures. This represents a notable shift from similar surveys conducted just three years ago.
“What we’re seeing is maturation,” explained Dr. Sean Cleary, the institute’s executive director, when I spoke with him via video call. “Canadian businesses have moved past questioning whether climate adaptation is necessary and are instead focusing on how to implement changes while navigating other economic challenges.”
The persistence of climate planning amid competing priorities reflects both regulatory pressures and market realities. The report notes that 76% of businesses cited investor demands as a primary motivator, while 68% pointed to consumer expectations.
Walking through the bustling port area of Vancouver later that week, I met with Leanne Patterson, operations director for Pacific Shipping Alliance, a medium-sized logistics company that’s been quietly transforming its business model.
“Look at these containers,” Patterson said, pointing to the stacks of multicoloured metal boxes. “Every decision about how these move now has a carbon calculation attached to it. It’s become part of our operational DNA.”
Patterson’s company began developing its climate transition plan in 2021, well before Canada’s mandatory climate-related disclosures came into effect for publicly traded companies. The decision, she told me, was driven by European clients who wouldn’t work with suppliers lacking clear emission reduction pathways.
“We didn’t wait for regulations to force our hand,” she said. “By the time the rules came, we were already three years into implementation.”
This proactive stance aligns with trends identified in the report, which found that 58% of Canadian businesses with transition plans began developing them before formal requirements emerged, largely in response to market pressures and risk management strategies.
What exactly constitutes a credible climate transition plan remains somewhat fluid, though. According to the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, effective plans include governance structures, concrete strategies for managing climate-related risks and opportunities, metrics for measuring progress, and specific targets aligned with science-based pathways.
Environment and Climate Change Canada estimates that approximately 40% of Canada’s GDP now flows through businesses with climate commitments, though the quality and ambition of these plans vary significantly.
“There’s still a gap between aspiration and implementation,” admitted Rachel Samson, Vice President of Research at the Canadian Climate Institute, when I called her to discuss the findings. “But what’s encouraging is seeing climate planning becoming integrated with core business strategy rather than treated as a separate sustainability exercise.”
The integration Samson describes was evident when I visited Pemberton, BC, where Lil’wat-owned forestry operation Líl̓wat Forestry Ventures has developed a climate transition approach that marries Indigenous knowledge with climate science.
“This isn’t just about carbon accounting for us,” explained Operations Manager Thomas Pierre as we walked through a selectively harvested stand. “It’s about managing the forest in ways that increase resilience to wildfire and drought while maintaining cultural values and economic returns.”
Pierre showed me how the company has shifted to longer harvest rotations and maintaining more diverse stand structures – practices that both sequester more carbon and better withstand climate impacts already affecting BC’s forests.
“Our transition plan isn’t just about reducing emissions from our equipment, though we’re doing that too,” Pierre said. “It’s about rethinking our relationship with the land in ways that prepare for the climate we know is coming.”
This holistic approach represents the leading edge of climate transition planning, according to the Institute’s report, which distinguishes between “compliance-focused” and “opportunity-oriented” approaches. Businesses taking the latter approach were 2.8 times more likely to report positive financial outcomes from their transition efforts.
Not all sectors are advancing at the same pace, however. The report identifies significant gaps in high-emission industries like transportation and heavy manufacturing, where technical barriers and capital constraints create implementation challenges.
“The gap between leaders and laggards is widening,” Dr. Cleary told me. “Companies with advanced transition plans are capturing new markets, reducing costs, and attracting investment. Those without credible plans face increasing financing challenges.”
This divergence creates potential economic vulnerabilities in communities dependent on transition-resistant industries. Statistics Canada data shows that approximately 300,000 Canadian jobs are in sectors facing high transition risks without adequate preparation.
Back in Vancouver, I met with Karla Martinez, who leads the Just Transition program at Climate Justice Coalition. Over coffee near Commercial Drive, she emphasized the human dimension of business climate planning.
“When we talk about transition planning, we’re really talking about people’s livelihoods,” Martinez said. “The most successful business transitions we’ve seen involve workers in planning from day one.”
Martinez pointed to several local manufacturing businesses that have created transition committees with equal representation from management and workers to develop implementation pathways that protect jobs while reducing emissions.
“Climate action doesn’t have to come at the expense of workers,” she insisted. “But that outcome requires intentional planning.”
As our conversation ended, the clouds that had been threatening all afternoon finally opened up. Martinez and I ducked under the café awning, watching sheets of October rain sweep across the street.
“This is the work of our time,” she said, gesturing broadly as pedestrians scrambled for cover. “Learning to adapt together to what’s already changing while preventing what can still be prevented.”
And perhaps that’s the most important insight from this latest research: despite competing crises and economic pressures, Canadian businesses increasingly recognize that climate transition planning isn’t optional. It’s simply becoming the way business is done – with those who plan deliberately gaining advantage over those who delay.
