Month: September 2023

*FRENCH VERSION TO FOLLOW / VERSION FRANÇAISE À SUIVRE

With gratitude, we acknowledge that we live, work, and play on the traditional territories of many Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island and we affirm our ongoing commitment to principles and processes of reconciliation and to the TRC 94 Calls to Action.

TORONTO, September 6, 2023 /3BL/ – Social Value Canada (SVC), the Digital Governance Standards Institute (DGSI), and the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) announced the release of the first ‘Technical Specification (TS) for Impact Statements’ issued by for-profit entities seeking to report credibly on impact and sustainability performance.

Moving Canada Forward on Sustainability Reporting Practices

With the increasing demand for credible non-financial reporting within ESG and sustainability reporting, this Technical Specification (TS) for Impact Statements for Profit- Oriented Entities offers essential guidance for all companies seeking to report credibly on the social, environmental, and financial impact linked to their operations, goods and services, and relationships.

Developed by a technical committee of leading Canadian experts in sustainable finance, impact measurement, and reporting, the technical specification is aligned with international standards and norms in the field of non-financial reporting. This includes UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN DRIP), Impact Management Project Norms hosted by Impact Frontier, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the SDG Impact Standards, the Social Value International Principles and Standards, the European Union Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), the Corporate Sustainability Responsibility Directive (CSRD) regulations, and the Draft Canadian Sustainable Finance Taxonomy.

“The Digital Governance Standards Institute is happy to lend our expertise to the development of the Technical Standard”, said Darryl Kingston, Executive Director of the Digital Governance Standards Institute. “Canadian companies face an increasing demand to produce credible sustainability reports and we hope the reporting process outlined will be of great benefit to those tasked with creating those reports.” 

“A major challenge to companies is to develop a process to consistently report on impact”, said Chantal Guay, CEO of the Standards Council. “This Technical Specification offers guidance in an area that is an increasing corporate priority.” 

Aligning with Global Leadership

With federal net zero and the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals clearly in mind, Canada joins other nations, including Britain, France, New Zealand, Taiwan, and Japan, in raising expectations for corporate non-financial disclosure. “The development of this TS was an opportunity for technical experts in impact reporting to come together and share expertise to the benefit of sustainability reporting”, said Stephanie Robertson, Acting Executive Director, Social Value Canada and International Co-Chair of Social Value International. “The TS benefited greatly from the combined efforts of the Technical Committee which included experts from Rally Assets, Raven Capital Partners, The Common Approach, and impak Analytics, and from the highly valuable feedback received through public consultation.” 

By providing a clear structure for transparent and high-quality impact statements that avoids greenwashing and ensures relevant data is included, the TS will serve as a cornerstone for Canada’s non-financial reporting for listed and private companies.

“This giant step towards corporations’ sustainable accountability is also the very first step towards a transition plan and the generation of more positive impacts. This pioneering initiative will not only help the Canadian financial sector’s sustainable transformation, but its entire economy,” explains Paul Allard, CEO of impak Analytics.

For more information or any questions about the standards development activities, please contact Darryl Kingston.

More about the Lead Organizations

The Digital Governance Standards Institute develops digital technology governance standards fit for global use. The Institute works with experts, as well as national and global partners and the public to develop standards that reduce risk to communities, business and governments adopting and using innovative digital technologies in today’s digital economy. The Institute is an independent division of the Digital Governance Council. Learn more at dgc-cgn.org.

Social Value Canada is Canada’s professional network for social value and maximizing impact. As part of a global movement transforming how the world captures and assigns value in decision-making, the network extends across all sectors of the Canadian economy and throughout Canadian society. New tools and methods are developing, and assurance standards and practices are emerging, all toward the goal of maximizing the well-being of people and the planet.  Learn more at socialvalue-canada.org.

About The Standards Council of Canada
The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) was created by the Government of Canada as a Crown corporation in 1970. SCC leads and facilitates the development and use of national and international standards and accreditation services in order to enhance Canada’s competitiveness and well-being.
scc.ca/en 

For media inquiries: 

Adam Pillsbury 
Social Value Canada 
adam@socialvalue-canada.org

Darryl Kingston 
Executive Director 
Digital Governance Standards Institute 
darryl.kingston@dgc-cgn.org

*en français

Nouvelles directives publiées visant les entreprises canadiennes pour la comptabilité de leur impact durable 

TORONTO, Canada, 6 septembre, 2023  

Avec gratitude, nous reconnaissons que nous vivons, travaillons et jouons sur les territoires traditionnels de nombreux peuples autochtones de l’île de la Tortue et nous affirmons que notre engagement continu en faveur des principes et processus de réconciliation et des 94 appels à l’action de la Commission de vérité et réconciliation. 

TORONTO, Canada, le 6 septembre 2023 – Social Value Canada (SVC), l’Institut des normes de gouvernance numérique (INGN) et le Conseil canadien des normes (CCN) ont annoncé la publication de la première « Spécification technique pour Bilans d’impact » pour les entités à but lucrative cherchant à comptabiliser de manière crédible leur impact et leur performance en matière de durabilité.  

Élever le Canada dans les pratiques en matière de rapports de durabilité 

Face à la demande croissante de rapports non-financiers dans le cadre ESG et de durabilité, cette spécification technique (ST) pour Bilans d’impact pour les entités à but lucratif offre des directives essentielles. Ceci vise à guider toutes les entreprises qui cherchent à évaluer de manière crédible les impacts sociaux, environnementaux et financiers de leurs activités, biens et services, ainsi que de leurs relations. 

Développée par un comité technique composé d’éminents experts canadiens en matière de finance durable, de mesure d’impact et de rapports, la ST est conforme aux normes et standards internationaux dans le domaine des rapports non-financier. Il s’agit notamment de la Déclaration des Nations Unies sur les droits des peuples autochtones (UN DRIP), des Impact Management Project Norms de la part de Impact Frontier, des objectifs de développement durable des Nations Unies (ODD), des normes d’impact pour la réalisation des objectifs de développement durable du PNUD, des principes et normes de Social Value International, de la régulation de l’Union européenne sur la divulgation d’informations en matière de finance durable, la directive de la Responsabilité sociétale des entreprises (RSE) issue de l’Union eurpéenne  et du projet de taxonomie canadienne en matière de finance durable. 

« L’Institut des normes de gouvernance numérique (INGN) est heureux de mettre son expertise au service du développement de la norme technique, » a déclaré Darryl Kingston, directeur exécutif de l’INGN . « Les entreprises canadiennes sont de plus en plus exigées de pouvoir produire des rapports crédibles en matière de durabilité et nous espérons que le processus décrit sera d’une grande utilité pour les personnes chargées de créer ces rapports. » 

« L’un des principaux défis pour les entreprises est de développer un processus permettant de comptabiliser l’impact de manière constante », a déclaré Stephanie Robertson, directrice exécutive de Social Value Canada et co-présidente internationale de Social Value International. « Cette ST offre des conseils dans un domaine qui constitue une priorité croissante chez les entreprise. » 

S’aligner sur les normes mondiales  

Ayant clairement à l’esprit la carboneutralité fédérale et les objectifs de développement durable des Nations Unies d’ici 2030, le Canada se joint à d’autres pays, dont la Grande-Bretagne, la France, la Nouvelle-Zélande, Taïwan et le Japon, pour accroître les attentes en matière de divulgation non financière des entreprises. « L’élaboration de cette spécification technique a été l’occasion pour les experts techniques en matière de rapports d’impact de se réunir et de partager leur connaissance au profit des rapports de durabilité », a affirmé Stephanie Robertson. « Les ST ont grandement bénéficié des efforts combinés du comité technique, qui comprenait des experts de Rally Assets, Raven Capital Partners, l’Approche commune et impak Analytics, ainsi que des commentaires très utiles reçus dans le cadre de la consultation publique. » 

En fournissant une structure claire pour des déclarations d’impact transparentes et de haute qualité, qui évite l’écoblanchiment et garantit l’inclusion de données pertinentes, la ST servira de pierre angulaire pour les rapports non-financiers du Canada, notamment pour les sociétés cotées et privées.  

« Ce grand pas vers la responsabilisation des entreprises par rapport à la durabilité est aussi le tout premier pas vers un plan de transition et vers une génération d’impacts plus positifs. Cette initiative pionnière contribuera non seulement à la transformation durable du secteur financier canadien, mais aussi à celle de l’ensemble de l’économie », explique Paul Allard, PDG d’impak Analytics.   

Pour plus d’informations ou pour toute question concernant le développement des normes, veuillez contacter Darryl Kingston.  

Plus d’informations sur les Organisations Leaders 

L’Institut des normes de gouvernance numérique (INGN) élabore des normes de gouvernance de technologies numériques adaptées à une utilisation mondiale. L’Institut travaille avec des experts, des es partenaires nationaux et mondiaux, ainsi qu’avec le public pour développer des normes visant à atténuer les risques liés à l’adoption des technologies numériques. Dans notre actuel économie numérique, ces normes sont conçues pour protéger les communautés, les entreprises et les gouvernements engagés dans cette transition technologique. Pour en savoir plus, consultez le site dgc-cgn.org.  

Social Value Canada constitue le réseau professionnel canadien dédié à la valorisation sociale et à l’optimisation de l’impact. Dans le cadre d’un mouvement mondial qui révolutionne la manière dont le monde saisit et mesure la valeur dans le processus décisionnel, notre réseau s’étend à tous les secteurs de l’économie canadienne ainsi qu’à l’ensemble de la société du pays. De nouveaux outils et de nouvelles méthodes sont en cours d’élaboration, des normes et des pratiques d’assurance voient le jour, le tout dans le but de maximiser le bien-être des personnes et de la planète. Pour en savoir plus, consultez le site socialvalue-canada.org.    

À propos du Conseil canadien des normes
Le Conseil canadien des normes (CCN) est une société d’État créée par le gouvernement du Canada en 1970. Dans le but d’améliorer la compétitivité économique et le bien-être collectif du Canada, le CCN dirige et facilite l’élaboration et l’utilisation de normes nationales et internationales.
scc.ca/fr

Pour les demandes de renseignements des médias :  

Adam Pillsbury   
Directeur de la communication 
Social Value Canada  
adam@socialvalue-canada.org 

Darryl Kingston  
Directeur exécutif  
Institut des normes de gouvernance numérique   
darryl.kingston@dgc-cgn.org  

As we celebrate World Entrepreneurs’ Day on August 21, it is interesting to reflect on how an established company like Cisco—a Fortune 500 company with more than 80,000 employees—relates to entrepreneurship.

Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at Cisco. In fact, the qualities that define an entrepreneur such as risk taking, creativity, perseverance, and passion are foundational to the way we operate and pursue opportunities to serve our customers and communities. In fact, the very reason Cisco started in 1984 was born from personal desire to solve an urgent issue and need for personal connection.

Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner were not able to email each other from their respective offices at Stanford University because they were on different networks with different local area protocols. They developed the multiprotocol router, and that’s how Cisco was born!

Their entrepreneurial spirit lives on in a company that strives to solve business challenges for our customers today. Not only that, but Cisco also helps businesses large and small to seize the opportunities of tomorrow.

Training future entrepreneurs

For more than 25 years, Cisco Networking Academy has trained people to build and maintain networks utilizing the latest technology. But it has done so much more than that. As part of the process, learners are encouraged to work collaboratively, and the program fosters a mindset of identifying and solving problems.

These are core entrepreneurial skills. Numerous Networking Academy learners have gone on to use those skills, not only in networking, but in business too.

Antonius, from Indonesia, had never encountered a computer until a tsunami brought rescue workers to his hometown, where he saw the value—and opportunity—in tech. He went on to study at Networking Academy and earn CyberOps Associate certification. In one of his first jobs after studying, Antonius used his problem-solving skills to conclude that the network of the large organization where he worked had been hacked, and that rebuilding the system from scratch was the best solution.

Niels, in Belgium, took a different path. After working in kitchens from a very young age, Neils decided to embark on Networking Academy study. “I have been in love with tweaking computers all my life,” he says. While he found the study challenging at times, with support from the Networking Academy community, he went on to attain CCNA certification. Niels credits the program with giving him the self-belief necessary to start his own penetration testing company.

Doing more

Obviously, the tech revolution has seen a vast increase in the demand for the sort of hard skills that are the basis of Cisco Networking Academy, and those skills continue to be indispensable.

The World Economic Forum found over 85% of organizations surveyed for the 2023 Future of Jobs Report identified increased adoption of new technologies and broadening digital access as the trends most likely to drive transformation in their organization.

The same report, however, finds that technological literacy is only the third in the list of skills businesses see as growing in importance over the next five years. Creative thinking and analytical thinking rank as numbers one and two, respectively.

Recognizing that technical skills alone are not enough for success in today’s business environment, Networking Academy has recently launched several new courses on our Skills For All platform:

Engaging Stakeholders for Success provides essential skills for any professional, regardless of the industry. Learning to effectively engage with stakeholders is a core skill in any workplace. In this course, learners gain the insights and tools to identify, prioritize, and engage with stakeholders for success.Discovering Entrepreneurship offers a solid foundation for anyone interested in developing entrepreneurial skills. The course covers entrepreneurship fundamentals, including the entrepreneurial perspective, identifying opportunities, and crafting an entrepreneurial story.

The big idea

Obviously, no course can teach the entrepreneurs of tomorrow how to have the big idea that drives a new business or industry. But by helping learners recognize that idea and teaching them the analytical and personal skills to make that idea grow, we can help them along that journey.

A problem as simple as being unable to send your partner an email saw the founding of the company that would grow into the Cisco we know today. What’s your big idea?

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Saundra Gilliard started her business in early 2020, just weeks before COVID-19 would officially become a pandemic. It turns out, she was far from alone. A few years later, one trend is emerging from the pandemic’s economic shock: more Black women-owned businesses are being founded and growing quickly, outpacing other businesses. In fact, Gilliard and her woman-coaching business Femininely Free! are part of a surge in new Black women-owned businesses, which grew 32.7% between 2019 and 2023. That’s compared with the 12.1% growth of all women-owned businesses during the same period, according to the upcoming 2023 Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Businesses report to be released in November.

“I was trying to make a business out of a hobby that I had for about 20 years,” said Gilliard, who’s based in Philadelphia. “I think that sometimes you have a dream and you’re not really sure how to get the business going.”

To help her launch Femininely Free! Gilliard turned to Milestone Circles, a mentoring program for women entrepreneurs offered by the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center (NEC) and funded by Wells Fargo Foundation support. Participants, 86% of which have been Black, African American, and/or Afro-Caribbean, learn to improve their business alongside a “circle” of fellow entrepreneurs.

Milestone Circles, now entering its third year, has connected nearly 2,000 women business owners to powerful peer networks that help them hit their business milestone. Wells Fargo and the NEC plan to double the number of graduates to 4,000 by the end of 2024 to better meet the needs of the thousands of women entrepreneurs who’ve already applied to the free program, which is part of Wells Fargo’s Connect to More program.

“[Milestone Circles] helps women entrepreneurs like myself to know that, listen, you’re not by yourself,” said Cynthia Hurley, a Brooklyn, New York-based entrepreneur and founder of Make Cent$ With Your Money, which promotes financial literacy to women and young people. “This is a community of women who are facing challenges, who are all looking to do the same thing: grow their business.”

Black women-owned businesses are growing

Black women-owned businesses aren’t just increasing in number after the pandemic, they’re growing faster, too. While the average revenue among Black women-owned businesses is still lower than others, it’s catching up, increasing 35.3% between 2019 and 2023 compared with 7.1% and 4.1% for women-owned and Black-owned businesses, respectively, according to the Wells Fargo report.

Tamika Chance of Waldorf, Maryland, has grown her IT support firm T12 Technologies by learning to better market herself and her services, which helped her win new contracts. It’s a skill she picked up in her Milestone Circle.

“As a woman entrepreneur, it’s very difficult to have people speak to you and sometimes take you seriously in the services that you do,” Chance said. “With Wells Fargo, they’re providing the tools, information, and paths to reach those tools and resources you need to grow.”

One reason for growth: support

One factor behind the recent growth in Black women-owned businesses is that these business owners are harnessing new opportunities and resources.

While Black women are more likely to earn less, get less financing, and not have networks to rely on, the past few years have brought new investment from banks to support small businesses and a renewed push from consumers to support Black-owned businesses, according to the report. For example, Wells Fargo, the Bank of Doing, launched the $420 million Open for Business Fund in 2020 to help small businesses impacted by the pandemic with a focus on expanding financing opportunities for women- and Black-owned businesses through community development financial institutions, or CDFIs.

Through the Milestone Circles program, thousands of women entrepreneurs have built their own community and made their business ideas into a reality.

“It’s important that banks help the communities in which they serve. Wells Fargo has been a partner in the community ever sense I can remember,” Gilliard said. “If you’re in the community, you should be a part of the community. That’s my motto.”