Wind turbines, such as these in southern Alberta, produce renewable energy that displaces energy produced by fossil fuels such as coal. Photo: David Dodge, The Pembina Institute.
The Oilsands Metrics Thought Leader Forum was a unique event that brought together a diverse group of stakeholders on May 3, 2011 from large and small companies, provincial and municipal policy makers, academics, landowners, First Nations and NGOs.
The Oilsands Performance Metrics Summary Report summarizes input from 60 thought leaders who attended the thought leader forum held on May 3, 2011 and it incorporates additional input collected from participants at three follow-up webinars held in June 2011.
Through a facilitated workshop process, we fostered a space for honest and open discussion, focusing and building on areas of consensus. The objective of the forum was to increase awareness and understanding of stakeholder opinions and expectations on oilsand performance metrics to support existing or emerging monitoring and measurement systems.
There is no shortage of statistics bandied about when it comes to the oilsands.
The hope of this forum is to help stakeholders find
agreement on what to measure — and how to ensure those measurements are reliable. Discussion
could then move to solutions and improvements in performance.
First up is Clive Mather, the
keynote speaker at the event. He says it's important for the varied stakeholder
groups to get together and come up with the guiding principles under which
oilsands development takes place. He would like to see measurable
standards created to help industry perform better and government
regulate better because "we frankly need to do things better and metrics
is a key way of ensuring that happens."
Jamie Bonham, NEI Investments
Bonham is a senior analyst with NEI Investments and he says oilsands
metrics are needed to ensure the environmental and social impacts do not
outweigh the economic benefits of the oilsands. He says the investment
community is increasingly engaging companies on matters of
sustainability and that good metrics are critical to help investors make
good decisions.
Barry Worbets, Canada West Foundation
Worbets says metrics are an absolutely, "fundamental piece of a system that's required to allow ourselves, with a clear conscience, to develop an oilsands resource in a sustainable way."
Jennifer Grant, Pembina Institute
Grant is the oilsands director of the Pembina Institute. She says metrics are a critical source of information to benchmark and assess company performance. She cites the Institute's in situ report card that looked at the environmental performance of nine different companies. Some of the information that came out of that work showed clear room for improvement. "We want to ensure oilsands development proceeds within the limits of air, land and water systems."
Peter MacConnachie, Suncor Energy
MacConnachie, the senior sustainability issues management specialist with Suncor, says the public has a poor understanding of oilsands and that metrics can help. With so much debate about the meaning of the facts surrounding oilsands development, MacConnachie says oilsands metrics will only mean something to people if they are involved in the process of creating them. "It can't be a bunch of industry folks sitting in a room and nor can it be a bunch of environmentalists sitting in a room."
Brad Stelfox, ALCES Group
Stelfox is an ecologist who says the GDP is not the only important tool for measuring the benefits and impacts of the oilsands; we need to understand and measure ecological goods and services, too. Stelfox was there with other folks from a variety of sectors to attempt to find some common principles under which a series of oilsands metrics could be developed.
Chris Powter, Oil Sands Research and Information Network
Chris Powter is the executive director of the Oil Sands Research and Information Network at the University of Alberta. Powter says he thinks people are confused about the current state of affairs in the oilsands and what is needed to make it sustainable. "A set of metrics that everyone can understand and can be communicated openly would help people get a better sense of whether oilsands development is in the public interest or not."
Kim Sturgess, WaterSmart
Sturgess points to finances as the "sleeper" issue of oilsands metrics. "It's the financial community and the insurance community who are now looking at the oilsands and risks associated with it," says Sturgess. These industries are already using some metrics to decide what form of energy or which company to invest in.
Clive Mather, Keynote Address
The former CEO of Shell Canada addressed the Oilsands Metrics Thought Leader Forum on May 3, 2011. He said common measures, commonly understood are desperately needed to restore credibility to the industry and the discussions about oilsands performance and impacts.
The Oilsands Metrics Thought Leader Forum was a unique event that brought together a diverse group of stakeholders on May 3, 2011 from large and small companies, provincial and municipal policy makers, academics, landowners, First Nations and NGOs.
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