Celebrating the ESG Merits of 7 Saskatchewan-Based Businesses

ESG: It’s our favourite thing to talk about, and it’s rising in popularity as a hot topic for organizations everywhere.

With our last blog covering how to get started with ESG, what comes after those initial steps? Finding practical solutions for meeting your company’s ESG goals will enable your business to have great ESG results to report for the long term. You’ll want to create a meaningful impact on the environment while addressing social and governance issues important to your stakeholders.   

ESG enhances the experience of the work you’re doing, and there are plenty of solutions to help your business be successful. So, with that said, we should celebrate all that we’ve accomplished here at home!

In Saskatchewan, we’re doing a lot of great things that we should be proud of. Let’s break down the E, S, and G initiatives of some of these prairie-rooted projects:

1. Greenwave Innovations

Greenwave Innovations is an energy management company providing electricity, natural gas, and water sub-monitoring solutions. Their technology accurately identifies the energy efficiency opportunities that produce consumption and carbon emission reduction results. Partnering with their clients, they implement predictive maintenance strategies, monitor the readiness of safety and emergency systems, and reduce the risk of loss and insurance claims. All this acquired data supports them with properly sizing renewable energy generation and storage solutions as part of supporting sustainability initiatives.

Environment
Greenwave’s energy dashboard helps their clients tell their sustainability story and engage with tenants, guests, employees, executives, and investors. Their client monitors display real-time performance metrics and the positive environmental impacts of their energy conservation efforts. In short, Greenwave helps people save money to conserve energy.

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With live monitoring to ensure that systems are working properly, their technology can identify and resolve any failures in solar panels, faulty wiring connections, snow accumulation, and more. Not only does this tell a business's holistic sustainability story and identify opportunities for greater energy efficiency, but it also establishes safety in these environments.

Governance
Greenwave has partnered with SaskTel to offer energy management and monitoring solutions to businesses across the province. With data from their dashboard, Greenwave implements and accommodates re-commissioning efforts (non-capital) and ROI-based capital expenditures to size renewable systems properly. They actively work to support Federal, Provincial, and Municipal governments’ climate initiatives by producing immediate results through energy efficiency.

2. HYON

HYON keeps corporate items (such as furniture) in circulation and out of landfills by creating internal and external marketplaces for assets. With their transparent e-commerce experience, HYON reduces the environmental impact of consumerism and recognizes environmental protection as their guiding principle and a key component of their business performance.

Environment
By giving items a second chance internally and externally through their circular economy model, HYON helps organizations reach their sustainability goals by minimizing their environmental impact and avoiding landfill contribution. Their transparent platform certifies all pre-owned items to help customers feel secure about their purchase while being mindful of better quality in the future.

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HYON partners with corporate offices, non-profit organizations, and schools to maximize their assets' value and lifespan while minimizing their environmental impact. Through their e-comm platform, consumers spend less time searching for quality assets at affordable prices.

Governance
HYON upholds standards of integrity and corporate governance to exceed in its daily operations while ensuring a healthy corporate environment. Enabling their tech platform, they are lobbying for programs to establish goals, rules, and policies around waste reduction by talking to provincial and national corporations.

3. Prairie Robotics

Artificial intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Prairie Robotics platform: they use sensors and data-gathering technology at the first stage of the recycling process and then produce recycling education that reduces contamination by more than 40%. The platform uses cameras installed on recycling trucks to identify recycling contamination at the household level, matches contamination to households using a series of proprietary technologies, generates customized educational materials through the findings, and tracks improvements to understand trends.

Environment
The technology behind Prairie Robotics is highly robust and impressive, and their mission is simple: make recycling simple. Their goal is to create automated cart audits for every household and provide powerful education tools to change the way waste management operates.

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This project saves cities money while educating citizens on their garbage and the consequences of contamination. One 2019 Regina case study shared reports where city staff completed 6,000 recycling contamination audits, which increased revenue and decreased costs.

Governance
Through their work, they’ve helped municipalities and waste haulers implement industry best practices to engage residents on all issues, from waste diversion to contamination. Prairie Robotics is working with industry leaders to showcase the impact contamination has on their operations, from increased wear and tear on equipment to exposing workers to dangerous materials and everything in between.

4. Wave9

Wave9 uses AI for leak and gas detection at oil wells and pump jacks. In the past, oil and gas companies have tasked staff to physically drive to oil wells to inspect them for any issues. One solution was to use remote cameras to monitor oil wells, yet that still required thousands of photos to be taken and inspected by employees. So, Wave9 took that a step further by removing the arduous task of examining photos and handing them off to AI instead, where cameras and sensors placed on pump jacks would get processed by the software and any issues would be alerted via the app. The impact of monitoring in this way reduces carbon emissions on the road since people aren’t driving as frequently to well sites, which also lowers emissions from vehicles. Transitioning from daily site visits to only checking every 5 or 7 days really reduces carbon footprints.

Environment
In the oil and gas industry, this digital transformation is a huge opportunity to identify risks of fluid leaks before they become disasters. Wave9 flags specific attributes to identify situations that operators should review to direct their attention to the right sites to mitigate environmental impacts. By focusing attention and minimizing site visits, companies improve their environmental stewardship by proactively addressing degrading conditions while taking a step to reduce the carbon costs of production and produce fewer carbon emissions due to vehicle use.

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On a surface level, it might look like people are losing jobs with this kind of automation, but employees in these positions appreciate the automated help! Allowing more efficient workflows, people have more time to do better work and a greater capacity to be more proactive versus reactive. It’s also a major health and safety win to cut down on employees driving from site to site, resulting in fewer accidents.

Governance
By providing status and event info, Wave9 eliminates the need for daily physical inspections, allowing operators to take on 3 to 5 times the number of sites managed today. Proactive rather than reactive actions lead to several positive solutions, some examples being: minimizing spills and leaks, which also means less reporting; reducing unnecessary site visits to make maintenance work more timely and efficient with less exposure to hazardous areas; the safety of reducing the time people are driving, which equates to lower carbon emissions from transportation; reducing false alarms to avoid costly mistakes.

5. Maven Water & Environment

Maven uses a unique approach to develop treatment strategies for mining and oil sands water. Historically, most water treatment testing had to be done in off-site, specialized facilities. Maven has created customized, modular testing systems that can be delivered right to testing locations. From feasibility assessments, design, and optimization through permitting and implementation, their focus is on modern-day semi-passive water treatment and integration of these technologies with traditional active treatment.

Environment
Maven focuses on water treatment for the mining and oil and gas sectors, producing many materials critical to the advancement and application of clean energy. By empowering people and applying technology, they have developed a range of natural and powerful water treatment and source control technologies to ensure water resources remain safe while sourcing the materials needed for a sustainable future.

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Along with their core team, Maven collaborates with experts as sub-consultants and advisors to add expertise to their services. Their entire mission revolves around the safety, health, and well-being of not only the technology that keeps water clean in the mining and oil and gas industry but also in the way that their team operates to make that happen.

Governance
The big question for Maven is: what happens if all of our water resources are being polluted and no one is doing anything about it? They’re working hard to influence how things are getting done so they’re not the only ones focused on this issue, which includes working with government agencies to regulate quality standards.

6. Pivot Furniture

Pivot takes a circular approach to furniture with a subscription-based approach for customers to furnish their homes with quality furniture at a fraction of retail prices. With their advanced technology, Pivot manufactures couches, chairs, beds, and other furniture with reclaimed materials. They also rely on their technology to recover and clean the raw materials from rented furniture. The concept is aimed at people who value flexibility and sustainability—people who would rather see furniture refurbished and reused than end up in a landfill after a few years.

Environment
Millions of tons of furniture end up in landfills every year, even though most of the frames and connectors still have recoverable value. By using technology to recover the raw materials from furniture, Pivot cuts down on consumption and waste.

Social
With its circular economy, Pivot has created a unique waste diversion model. Circular economies reduce the use of non-renewable resources, lower carbon emissions, provide benefits for the consumer, and open new opportunities. Knowing how common it can be for people to afford quality furniture the majority of the time, they are trying to unlock value by creating higher quality, reusable furniture pieces that are accessible to the majority of the population.

Governance
Aiming for explosive growth across Canada, Pivot has worked with multiple government levels to support its technology for making the most sustainable, long-standing products. If there were to be policies in the future around circular economies and sustainable consumer goods, Pivot would be in the ideal position to reach and exceed those standards.

7. JNE Welding

JNE Welding is one of Saskatchewan’s largest full-service fabricators that serve the mining, environmental, construction, oil sand, and power-generating sectors across Canada and the US. They operate with the philosophy of “partnering with our customers to build project integrity and mutual success.” JNE Welding uses the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association audit tool (Certificate of Recognition) to measure their safety program. Further to their commitment to maintaining a safe and sustainable workplace, they are members of ISNetworld and the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association.

Environment
JNE is a trusted partner of SSAB: one of the first companies worldwide to produce “green steel.” SSAB is taking the lead in decarbonizing the steel industry. The steel industry is currently one of the highest CO2 emitters, accounting for 7% of all emissions globally. While SSAB is already one of the world’s most CO2-efficient steelmakers, they know that the industry still has a long way to go. Their objective is to lead the steel industry in the development of fossil-free steel.

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JNE’s differentiator is that they have developed the skills and processes to build big and scale by capitalizing on the barriers to entering the industry by investing in developing their people, processes, and facilities. Their employees receive training not only on the job but also financial support to participate in training related to their jobs through evening, online, and extension programs. JNE is committed to safety, employee and family wellness, culture, and community involvement.  

They also celebrate the further richness of diversity on their team, comprised of Canadian immigrants from around the world, including Ukraine, the Philippines, South Africa, and more. With this investment in diversity, safety is part of everything they do at their worksites and away from the workplace.

Governance
In 2016, JNE Welding became 60% Indigenous-owned. By partnering with First Nations organizations, they can grow Saskatchewan’s economy and foster long-term Aboriginal economic development.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” — Chinese Proverb

All these Saskatchewan-based businesses (and many more!) are doing excellent work in the ESG space. Kudos to them for being part of the conversation around the significance of ESG and taking action on it—we could all benefit from thinking with that proverbial mindset of planting that tree now.

Along with these projects, companies are embracing the small and large steps they can take to address their material ESG topics. Today, many businesses want to make a meaningful impact on issues important to their stakeholders. These Saskatchewan-based companies prove there are opportunities to build a business around addressing ESG needs.

Tell us about your Saskatchewan project! Whether you’re well on your way in your ESG initiatives or you’re just getting started, we’d love to hear what your company is getting up to in this space. (And if you’re just getting started, we’d love to help you out—get in touch!)