Six Canadian organizations were awarded yesterday in Toronto by the Global Compact Network Canada (GCNC) for their outstanding efforts to help advance action towards the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Her Honour the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell gave the welcome and congratulatory remarks to all awarded organizations during the ceremony.

The Awards were announced and presented by Mrs. Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie to winners in two categories – SME and Large Organizations. Winners in the SME category include: MScSM Program at University of Toronto, Operation Eyesight, and Enviro-Stewards. Winners in the Large Organizations category include: Frontera Energy, BASF, and University of Calgary.

The awarded organizations also presented their business case for the SDGs and the impacts of their efforts to the ceremony attendees, which consisted of senior business leaders and representatives from the top echelons of the Canadian government.

During the ceremony, a special partnership between three GCNC participants, Global Affairs Canada (GAC), Teck Resources Limited (Teck), and Nutrition International was unveiled. The partnership is Zinc Alliance for Child Health (ZACH) and plans to reach millions of children with zinc treatments to help save lives in Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya and Bangladesh.

To further highlight the theme of strategic partnership for greater impact, the Awards ceremony also hosted a panel discussion on partnerships with experts from Frontera Energy, Global Affairs Canada, and Agrium sharing their insights on the fundamentals of fruitful partnerships for the Canadian corporate sector.

A recording of the panel and the event will be published on the GCNC website on October 2^nd, 2017. 

About the SDG Awards 2017

The annual SDG Awards hosted by the Global Compact Network Canada (GCNC), the Canadian network of the United Nations Global Compact aims to recognize and help foster existing efforts by organizations to help advance action towards the 17 SDGs. The Awards also aims to highlight the business case for organizations to embed the SDGs to promote their adoption in Canada. 

The GCNC hopes that the Awards can spark interest among organizations who are not currently embedding the SDGs by providing a platform for organizations to benchmark their initiatives and showcase best practice examples for others to follow.

The event is sponsored by Host Sponsor, Teck Resources; Bronze Sponsors Frontera Energy and Kinross Gold; Breakfast and Lunch Sponsor, Baker McKenzie.

”Often private sector organizations don’t know where to start or how to explore options to embed the SDGs to their company’s sustainability strategy, the SDG Awards provides a great opportunity for those companies to join the discussion and be part of one of the largest SDGs-related initiative in Canada. ” explains Helle Bank Jorgensen, President of the Global Compact Network Canada.  

Details on the application and nomination process are available on the Global Compact Network Canada’s website. Online public voting began on July 28^th and adjourned on September 14^th.

Official Web Page for the SDG Awards 2017: http://globalcompact.ca/sdg-awards-2017/

Global Compact Network Canada

Global Compact Network Canada

The UN Global Compact is the world’s largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative with over 10,000 signatories in 130 countries committing to ten universally accepted principles. The Global Compact Network Canada builds the capacity of the Canadian corporate sector to embrace sustainable business practices.

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