What Does Sustainable Future Look Like? Thoughts from Executive Brad Fauteux

What Does Sustainable Future Look Like? Thoughts from Executive Brad Fauteux: Brad Fauteux is an executive with more than sixteen years of senior management and executive-level experience. Those who know Brad also know him for his advocacy to grow a better, greener world and educating others on how to live life in an environmentally friendly and responsible way.

What Does Sustainable Future Look Like? Thoughts from Executive Brad Fauteux

A lifelong environmentalist, Brad previously served as the Managing Director of Ontario Parks and the Ministry of Natural Resources where he was responsible for 2,500 employees.  As Managing Director, Brad worked with more than 300 separate intergovernmental, community, Indigenous and private sector partners to serve over 10 million clients every year.

Over the course of his career, he has also earned a number of awards, primarily in the areas of environmental policy and tourism. Under his leadership, Ontario Parks earned the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario Award 4 times (2012-14, 2015) and the Tourism Marketing Partnership Award from the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario in 2014, among numerous other honors.

We sat down with Brad Fauteux and asked him to respond to some of the most important questions facing conservation and sustainable development.

Q: First off, as an environmental advocate, what was it that drew you to work in conservation?  Was there a defining moment you can tell us about?

Brad Fauteux: Working in conservation was really just a natural extension of the things that mean the most to me and my family. I grew up in rural and northern Ontario and the truly foundational experiences of my life have all happened out doors and in nature. Gradually, as I developed in my career it became most meaningful to work in conservation and create linkages between my advocacy and my profession.

The defining moment of my conservation career was during my time as the Managing Director of Ontario Parks.  We were partners in the largest environmental remediation in Ontario history in Polar Bear Provincial Park which won the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario award in 2016. The park is the largest in Ontario and one of the most important wilderness parks in the world as a hub for migratory birds, caribou and polar bears among other important species.  To this day I can still remember stepping out of a helicopter and walking to the edge of James Bay, a herd of caribou to my left and set of polar bear cooling dens to my right. I had dreamt about seeing James Bay since I was child and it was the realization of a personal dream.

Q: The issue of plastic pollution has reached crisis level.  Beyond reducing our use of plastics, what can we do to play a role in wider, societal, waste plastics recovery?

Brad Fauteux: Our addiction to plastics is most concerning when it comes to water bottles, plastic shipping bags, straws and other single use plastics.  I think it’s important to remember that the plastics are not the only problem. We need to focus on the behaviour that drives us to use them. Certainly, there are enterprise level solutions that are leading to change where we see governments or corporations legislating single use plastics out of existence jurisdictionally or within a retail market. However, we need to focus on the behaviour of individuals who choose to use them.  Why are we drinking bottled water in a country like Canada with the finest water quality in the world? Often, we drink it because it’s convenient. So how do we make people more prepared with their own water bottles? How do we ensure more places for us to fill these up? Plastic bags are also a similar problem. How can we make the accessibility of reusable bags easier than single use plastics? How can we incent “reusable bag” behaviour?

I think our role to play is one of advocating that nothing is single use anymore.  Need a cup? Bring a cup. Need a bag? Bring a bag. Need a drink of water? Bring a bottle of water. Let’s make it so that it is no longer socially acceptable to use single use products. 

Q: The need to act on climate change is the greatest potential cause of disruption faced by businesses, and it also promotes innovation for those willing to tackle it. How can society, more specifically businesses and corporations, better embrace the clean energy revolution?  

Brad Fauteux: Real genuine commitment to embracing clean energy requires advocacy and leadership, but that leadership needs to come from those with the ability to make enterprise level impacts.  I truly believe that corporations need to act in concert with governments as real partners that value the social responsibility that comes with that enterprise level impact. We can’t simply wait for governments to act, we need corporations to act at a societal level as well.

If corporations can’t become more socially responsible, (which may require a model change in capitalism) the as yet unseen disruptions of climate change such as food insecurity, climate event impacts (which are already started), the loss of shoreline communities and the resulting climate migration will force the change on everyone.

Q: Teaching our children about sustainability is crucial to the overall well-being of our planet. How important is the role of teachers in promoting sustainable living?  How does access to conservation education improve our chances for a prosperous future?

Brad Fauteux: Teachers are role modelling adult behavior for all of our children. We need to be sure that we equip teachers with the tools and the curricula to not only inform but to demonstrate what sustainability looks like in the classroom and beyond. Why couldn’t every school be retrofitted with solar or wind?  How about we label our trash cans as “landfill” like we label cigarette packages with cancer risk messages?

Conservation education is the foundation of instilling the values necessary for a conservation centered lifestyle.  It took years of road safety education to ensure that seat belts and air bags became the cornerstones of safe vehicle. The message was simple…let’s make this vehicle safer for the occupants of the vehicle. Conservation education is much the same.  Let’s make this earth safe for all of it’s occupants….but instead of seat belts and airbags, it’s slowing and mitigating climate change, eliminating single use plastics and modeling sustainability and conservation in education.

from Chop News http://bit.ly/2Y4VMd8