leaders in agriculture, housing, economics, and policy convened in toronto this spring to discuss advancing policies that benefit the environment and economy.

following are panel highlights.

farming connectivity as climate policy
as significant weather events test the resilience of food systems and farming infrastructure, the agriculture sector is growing its appreciation for cybersecurity.

the challenge is, a knowledge gap in ag-iot (using technology in farming to monitor and manage crops and livestock) and a reluctance to trust farm-level data with the government, make the path to digital connectivity complicated.

still, the technology exists and canadian farmers remain in competition with global peers who are often held to lower standards in supply and distribution.

key to digital connectivity, say the speakers, includes: the agri-food sector aligning on principles for sharing data to accurately and publicly disclose quality standards, telcos expanding satellite reach to provide competitive connectivity options, technologists engaging farmers before building products to improve usability; and governments ensuring licensing criteria target last-mile connectivity, ag-iot investment incentives are strong, and climate impact assessments are conducted to support longevity.

speakers:
- anna kanduth, canadian climate institute
- sangeeta lalli, telus agriculture and consumer goods
- matthew mendelsohn, social capital partners
- scott ross, canadian federation of agriculture

indigenous economics as climate policy
as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy, the materials needed to build renewable energy systems, like copper and lithium, will come from indigenous land.

​the challenge is, a duty to consult viewed as a “check the box” problem, combined with few equipped to navigate regional sensitivities with knowledge and clarity, slows down the ability to work together.

still, a profound intergenerational call to care for their members and protect the environment means there is great wisdom in understanding the distinctions within first nations, métis, inuit communities.

key to indigenous economic development, say the speakers, includes: bringing diverse community views into broader societal debates; boosting community investing with loan guarantees and other capacity building supports; fostering support through distinctions-based dialogue; and providing equitable ownership, control, and participation in supply chain and project development processes.

speakers:
- kayli avveduti, confederacy of treaty six
- marissa nobauer, telus reconciliation and community relations
- jesse mccormick, first nations major projects coalition
- matthew foss, canadian council for aboriginal business

housing affordability as climate policy
as the government sets a target of 3.5 million housing units by 2030, solving the housing puzzle calls for an “all-sectors-on-deck” approach.

the challenge is, builders are struggling to meet the demand for affordable, sustainable, and climate-resilient homes. at the same time, rising energy prices and unpredictable weather continue to transform what our future housing needs to be.

still, the tools and ideas to build and update our homes and neighbourhoods, resourcefully and at scale, exist. 

​key to sustainable housing, say the speakers, includes building and updating homes for ‘lasting affordability.’ this means helping builders facilitate mutually-beneficial contracts with utility and mortgage providers, making flood maps publicly available to identify where to build, and including transportation, infrastructure, and energy costs in the calculations of a home’s value.

speakers:
- mike moffatt, place centre
- steve mennill, independent consultant
- phillip santana, mattamy homes
- rachel samson, institute for research on public policy

reference: 
thewalrus.ca/unexpected-climate-connections

youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbi4iNa8MkNICsRqg22IqTnN2LU3vhsQP

scientists, artists, cyberpunks, professors, and architects from the hague, sheffield, new york, denver, toronto, montreal, and singapore met virtually to discuss the complexities of dematerialization.

in a two-part series by designto, dematerialized discusses the process of breaking down our relationship with matter and converting physical experiences into virtual realms—and visa versa.

​​following are symposium highlights.

meandering on neo-futurist walks.
long walks that begin with a route and end in a chat. neo-futurist walkers drift through cities to study the glitches, gather historic and scientific data, develop the sixth sense, and create new stories. they believe in wild nature’s right to thrive, stimulating collective imagination, and the urgent call to form new habits.

“walking is our closest immaterial form of architecture.”
—spatial designers aušra česnauskytė and goda verikaitė

storing data to propagate wildlife.
design interventions that turn parasitic situations into mutualistic ones. by integrating cloud computing (gaming, media, transactions, servers) into earth’s natural patterns, like taking excess heat to desalinate water, green deserts, and protect animals, co-existence in the technological anthropocene possible.

“instead of attacking relationships, create new ones.”
—multidisciplinary designer justin park

defining the self through telco’s past.
collective and evolutionary phone identities. redefinition design, a speculative research method, suggests our devices are more traditional than we think. drawing on lessons from the historic, telco-disrupting carterfone, what if our devices reflected our uniqueness, connectedness, and stages through life?
​
“can we step beyond the system of the international mobile subscriber identity (ismi)?”
—interdisciplinary research professor austin houldsworth

seeding the sky with poetry.
a return to cloud-seeding experiments to geoengineer climate mitigation—and maybe rethink our interactions with the sky. put on hold after military use intensified geopolitical risks, renewing exploration of cloud-making bacteria and technology could look like embedding its DNA, and our skies, with literature and music.

“the most valiant motivation of science and art is that of discovery.”
—ecologist and research professor joel ong

pixelating the five (plus) senses.
sensations capable of 0 and 1 translation. while digitization offers an infinite number of outputs like the analog world, we can’t yet broadcast all a pixel can do—or pixelate all we can sense. because few senses are measurable with quantifiable data, the sensory experience remains exclusively analog, for now.

“our worlds are made up of what we can sense.”
—artist and research professor lynne heller

getting serious about archiving.
archives in the era of ‘mnemophagy,’ or of devouring memory. the walls of the web are mutable, with (often shock) interface changes, purgeable content, and changing terms of service. with platforms a repository of artifacts for 21st century life, a loss of the era’s lore would mean a future based on pre-digital history.

“forget what you’ve lost and save what you can.”
—cyberethnographer and professor ruby thélot

reading the particulate signals.
material representation based on inherent logic, not outward appearance. by ‘rehearsing’ with materials and zooming on the behaviour of substance, we can understand how it’s held up, manipulated, and formed. computation allows us to think through time, gravity, energy, and geometry to understand our activities.

“how do we draw and represent the immaterial?” 
—architect and practice owner alex yueyan

actualizing what’s imagined in cyberspace.
‘machinima’ or making movies in virtual realms to tell stories and conceive futures. with customizability to make avatars, live in improbable spaces, and time travel to historic events, immaterial places are a medium to explore our heritage, experiment with our imagination, and practice bringing new ideas into the physical.

“making them in real life is realizing the imaginary.”
—cyberpunk and multimedia artist skawennati

reference:
designto.org/event/designto-talks-dematerialized

danish builders and other european participants in emerging tech convened in copenhagen to discuss the future of decentralized web and distributed ledgers.

organized by the nordic blockchain association, the two-day event was backdropped by the immaculate urban planning of copenhagen, raising the question:​ is the nordics in the best position to showcase the transformative power of “new internet” to the world?

following are conference highlights.

owning internet
europe lost the web2 battle (social media, online shopping) due to lack of investment. it did not build and then became a secondary market to american builders. unlike web1, which was read only, and web2, which was read and write, web3 is about reading, writing, and owning. this makes europe well-suited to lead an ownership-focused internet because of intrinsic value alignment: prioritizing governance and protecting individual freedom.
​
comments by armin zadakbar, president of the european web3 organization

governing paradox
challenges in emerging tech are not technical issues but governance issues. from sourcing materials and delivering healthcare to managing refugees, processing payments, and powering energy grids, the concept of “digital privacy for the sake of social good” is contentious and debated. jurisdictions around the world hold deep and divergent beliefs around how to manage personal information. mediating these differences is key to unleashing their full potential.

comments by andreas holbak espersen, brian christensen, simon ousager

engaging fans
giving governance control to fans via blockchain infrastructure has drawbacks. fans have emotional connections to athletes and entertainers and may not bring a context certain situations require. involving fans in some decisions but focusing on using the tech to create intimate fan experiences is more sustainable.

comments by juan fuentes fernández, luis ferreira, michael jeppesen, lars-erik ravn, elgin kim.

negotiating innovation
few european startups go global, typically. with the lines of crypto governance blurred in the us while mena regulation merges with eu practices, this may change with emerging technologies. notably, while us-led negotiations are typically driven by contracts, the common negotiating practice in the eu and mena is conversation.

comments by yulin liu, samuel arvidsson, andreas baand larsen, bugge holm hansen

evolving crypto
crypto adoption is highest in africa because there’s an immediate need for simplified transactions, where the amount of choice and level of confusion in western countries is slowing down adoption. at the same time, if no one were to challenge or provoke regulators, the industry wouldn’t progress or be clarified.

comments by caner sevinc, tony evans, marius smith, adrian larsen, erina penkovsky
​
powering lifestyle
a shared challenge in the nordic startup ecosystem is the gap between those with funds and those with ideas focused on leveraging emerging technology to maintain a lifestyle as the primary incentive. this is in opposition to the conventional view of building tech infrastructure, products, and services for generating wealth as the primary incentive.

comments by morten rongaard

issuing identification
an evolution of the non-fungible token (nft), a soul-bound token (sbt) cannot be transferred. with this protocol, the entity or individual issuing the document, the issuer, holds the key. this concept is said to be the future of identification and recognition for critical documents such as for degrees, certificates, licences, subscriptions, finances, and travel. the question is: who should be the issuer? should it be the government, banks, tech, or teco? the easy answer is government. most likely, it has to be everything.

comments by nizzar ben chekroune, sander gansen, hanne shapiro, jake hirsch-allen, raido saar, armin zadakbar, frank poncelet

reference:
​https://www.nordicblockchain.com/

on september 23, legal advisors and corporate directors convened virtually to discuss new standards and best practices in climate-related oversight.

focused on disclosing exposure to risks and opportunities in the capital markets, lessons are useful to entities establishing best practices.

issb standards come into effect on january 1, 2024 for the 2025 reporting period. notably, reporting is voluntary, and there is no expanded legislation currently, but case law is rising.

entities subject to climate-related litigation risks include:

1. private, public, ngos targeted for greenwashing and greenhushing
2. companies requiring permits or regulatory approvals
3. companies producing and selling carbon
4. publicly-traded companies under securities law
5. companies that own, operate, design, repair infrastructure

​
following are highlights from the institute of corporate directors and chapter zero canada’s seminar navigating climate governance: legal update for directors:

standards: the international sustainability standards board (issb)'s inaugural standards were issued june 2023 and come into effect january 2024 for the 2025 reporting period. choose standards based on principles and values (to be debated and established between board and management) and set systems in place now.

liability: boards can mitigate risk of director liability by aiming for a transparent, authentic sustainability reporting strategy and being esg literate. litigation risk, class actions, shareholder activism are increasing and boards must be prepared.

oversight: map out climate oversight responsibilities for board and committees: who is responsible for what, how is it being evaluated, how much time is being allocated to understand and substantiate climate risks and opportunities? standards are evolving and duty of care is expanding: are oversight processes evolving and expanding too?

reporting: identify and explain the factors that will get you there and the factors that will not. ensure esg reporting is fact-based and avoids unattainable future performance or targets to avoid litigation risk. in capital markets, reporting on value creation is as important as reporting on risk mitigation.

communications: discern what to share and what not to share, and why, to level set stakeholder expectations. If the organization’s journey is not publicly documented, it's a missed marketing opportunity. communication needs to be consistent and updated continuously.

offsets: there is a lot of conflicting advice on carbon offsets, with standards frequently established and updated. generally, most companies are reducing carbon emissions as much as possible and using offsets only for those that they cannot reduce.

insurance: review and understand insurance cover related to weather events. do not make any assumptions. companies should be talking to energy distributors to understand what plans they have in place: understand their disaster management plans to develop your own disaster management plan.

seminar participants: andrew mclaughlin (major drilling group international); joan hertz (atb financial); patricia koval (transmountain corp), and sharon singh (bennett jones)

reference:
https://www.ifrs.org/content/dam/ifrs/project/general-sustainability-related-disclosures/project-summary.pdf

on march 7, industrial designers, professors, architects, and startup founders met virtually to share use cases on designing for alternative economies.

in a two-part series by designto, sustainable futures reviews contemporary issues, research, and creation from the perspectives of 'do it yourself' and 'circular systems' to achieve the above at scale.

following are participant highlights.

conducting speculative design, a practice of forming an image around a future scenario, is a means of questioning prevailing agendas in commerce and stimulating debate with the help of a visible reference point.
—industrial designer and public artist, khalil jamal

bringing people together to teach and learn lost skills, like mending and repairing, is a way of performing quiet activism in opposition to rampant consumption while building self-agency.
—textile designer and lecturer, anna schlimm

taking material creations into public spaces and letting others add to it can activate others to get involved in an issue because art has a way of visualizing what's intangible to most people.
—multidisciplinary artist and gardener, melanie billark

partnering with spacious, high-traffic spaces like malls make it possible to gather frequently discarded materials and create products to sell to the public. designing on-site can drive awareness to passersby and local residents to get involved.
—industrial designer and founder, renee lee

adapting construction waste like metal and glass and preserving organic material like stone and wood from demolition projects to furnish public spaces. creating a network of shipping operators, recycling facilities, material makers, and governments can scale this practice beyond one community.
—architect and creative director, anna horváth

solving the plastic waste situation may not be as simple as not using the material. plastic is durable, long lasting, low cost, and easy to produce. instead, we can eliminate the use of non-recyclable plastic, minimize the practice of single use, and view end-of-use plastic as a resource.
—industrial design researcher, tnachon benjapipatkul

reference:
https://designto.org/event/sustainable-futures-part-1-diy/

https://designto.org/event/sustainable-futures-part-2-
circular-systems/

from january 25 to 27, builders, investors, and advisors in web 3 met in miami to discuss sector developments and next steps for bridging blockchain infrastructure to mainstream industries.

following are highlights from quantum miami on-site panels and off-site meetups.

space and web 3 are the most promising, if polarizing, sectors of our time. together, they can incentivize the exploring of new frontiers because web 3 tools have the capacity to validate and monetize original research, to the benefit of contributors. notably, this includes the protection and cultivation of water, food, energy, and healthy habitats.

proponents include: sean graham, dionna bailey, ryan blowers, scot bryson, jim thomas

crosschain interactions—the communication between blockchain databases—are challenging to build and currently risky. but, they are also the future for achieving interoperability (reliable data exchange between networks) and decentralization (data ownership by users vs a central governing force) together. community moderation and regulatory frameworks can mitigate abuse and misuse, but the "how-to" remains up for debate.

builders include: polygon labs, sushi, thor chain, ledgerama, giddy, edge, fantom foundation, tacen

women in (technical) leadership make companies more productive. the gap between them and technical teams remains wide. talent exists, but it's being cultivated outside traditional learning, such as through self-teaching, mentorship, and independent courses.

bridgers include: justyna osowska, erin gee, petal walker, cleve mesidor

giving digital asset ownership to users, the big nft idea, is a power-to-the-people creative utility. this is why brands who have been testing it as an advertising tool aren't seeing value. in web 3, community uplifts the brand and what gets uplifted is radical authenticity.

participants include: lauren halstead, jessica ragzy, evan luthra, samuel verreault, scarlett arana.

securing capital as a founder means translating code into utility by pitching ideas without buzzwords. Investors look for calmness in a founder, their treatment of others, their hiring of staff and advisor expertise, and the way headquarters is talked about, where it is located, and why.

investors include: nine realms, elaine kunda, maja vujinovic

getting practical use cases into the public domain seems to be the consensus for what's next. mainstream adoption may not look like retrofitting products into fortune 500 infrastructure, however. instead, builders of web 3 would like to let market participants (users and investors) decide what’s valuable, and how to use it, in order to achieve utility and scale web 3 organically.

explainers include: blockbytes, cointelegraph, growic, the block

on december 7, governance advisors and corporate directors met virtually to discuss disclosure and practice trends for canadian boards in 2023.

following are seminar highlights.
​

• csa (canadian standards association) is driving dei & board composition requirements.  

 

• defining what it means to be qualified. candidates may have in-demand skills (cybersecurity, ai, diversity) but don’t have governance experience. asking if the board is willing to take on training. most are willing to pay for icd designation, if a candidate has other skill sets. asking: who is going to mentor, who is going to sponsor, what is the board education plan?  

 

• a ceo serving on other boards. in a new role, boards want the ceo focused on the board and company. this is being written into executive contracts with the option of joining later.

 

• boards are paying more attention to director attendance & evaluation. looking for outside support to measure performance and engagement.  

 

• strategy is driving executive appointments & board recruitment. some boards are increasing director numbers on a temporary basis to make room for additional skills as needed, and/or, asking absent directors to step off to create space for in-demand expertise or to achieve diversity.

—elaine roper, partner at executive recruitment firm odgers berndtson, head of board + chro practices.

• there is a sentiment that shareholder activism has decreased, but the truth is that boards are more aware of what to do now.  

 

• balancing act of esg expenses & shareholder returns can start by 1) reviewing expectations of the stakeholder community at large and 2) figuring out how to communicate esg costs to shareholders (vs: does that matter?).  

 

• may not want to be an ESG practice & policy leader because it continues to grow. have short-term (2/3-year) plans in place because we don’t know what will be required longer-term.

—dexter john, chief executive of shareholder-advising firm morrow sodali

• boards feel bombarded by increased expectations in the marketplace around enhanced disclosure & esg.   

 

• there is codification occurring. which framework to use? which one is appropriate for the company? what are shareholders expecting?  

 

• companies typically have senior management dedicated to these issues to support increased and evolving disclosure requirements.

—michael melanson, partner at corporate law firm bennet jones, focused on mining and capital markets.

• of the largest companies on the tsx, 75% have incorporated esg metrics into executive compensation. globally the number is 60% with europe leading. why are 25% not incorporating eg metrics into executive comp? Wwhat are the challenges? what is the message being sent to stakeholders by doing it or not doing it?   

• the “we don’t have consistent regulations” excuse is becoming outdated because there is a convergence across the globe. activist investors are becoming increasingly successful at challenging executive compensation when esg is not included.

• esg measurement risks: 1) cherry-picking metrics (ie. payouts are happening but might not be tied directly to change and progress), 2) reliable and measurable data, and 3) greenwashing accusations (ie. what are we saying and can we really support what we’re saying with real evidence)  

• esg measurement practices: 1) look at rating scores (how do we compare in terms of our peer group/industry? how quickly are we changing?), 2) start with soft targets (ie. include a few metrics in executive pay, focus on hard targets later), 3) silence is not golden (be prepared now or address it via shareholder issue later)

—emma purdy, senior partner at human-capital management firm global governance advisors, focused on risk, tax, and sustainability.

david milstead, a business journalist focused on institutional investing, accounting, compensation, governance, and head of the globe & mail's board games annual report on evaluating the performance of canadian boards, provided an update on changes to this year's evaluation metrics:

• the value of term limits has increased, as has non-gendered diversity.  

 

• climate is still not a metric. the rationale was lack of standardization. they expect to see climate metrics "within the next few years" to determine which questions are "reasonable and fair" to ask. 

 

• the value of equal voting rights has increased, which was "a direct result of analyzing the rogers situation last year," says milstead.

 

• the annual report was published on dec. 19: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-board-games-2022-how-we-ranked-canadas-corporate-boards/

reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phmiW3a645o

from june 20 to 23, technologists, investors, business leaders, and policy makers met in toronto to discuss the future of technology in finance, infrastructure, agriculture, public policy, science, and creativity.

following are speaker highlights.

creativity equals imagination plus technique. If technique is the soil, imagination is the seed.
—hovhannes avoyan, picsart

the nft market is shifting from a point of hype to a moment of delivering its promise. this shift happens with every technology. lots of excitement, and then who will go the distance?
—roham gharegozlou, dapper labs

users of [web 3] networks have an alignment of incentives to participate in those networks by being economically compensated for sharing their data. this is a huge foundational change in the business operating model of internet-based platforms.
—nicolas cary, blockchain.com

it’s easy to become timid in downturns, but that’s the worst time for it because there are always opportunities. be absolutely courageous in the face of it.
—sairah ashman, wolff olins

supersonic flight has a bad reputation for sustainability. a new generation of aviation fuel called power-to-liquid based on carbon capture will allow us to fly cleaner and further than the old fossil stuff.
—blake scholl, boom supersonic

what needs to be invented to reach ai’s potential while managing threats are new models for time, memory, and decision understanding. the key scarcity right now are systems with built-in learning.
—eric schmidt, google and schmidt futures

ai is a marketing term, and as a field is over 70 years old. targeted advertising and licensing models to third parties made it relevant again. the only way to do cutting-edge ai research is by having access to resources that are centralized and controlled.
—meredith whittaker, federal trade commission

cash is much more expensive than it used to be. founders hear things like, grow quicker and spend more, but what will drive the coming years is a plan for expenses and revenue that we believe in.
—eynat guez, papaya global

we’ve got the knowledge and we’ve got all kinds of amazing new technology. it’s the willpower we're missing at the political level. and we're gunna need the luck. we have to go from scaring the kids to scaring the politicians.
—margaret atwood

we should never have to change to fit into society. the world around us should adapt to embrace our uniqueness.
—chief r. stacey laforme, mississaugas of the new credit first nation

reference: 
https://www.youtube.com/c/collisionhq/