BCBusiness

a s the last of the Lower Mainland- ers mail in their ballots for the transit referendum this month, an environmental organiza- tion with roots protecting wetlands and policing salmon farming will be rallying them to vote Yes. That campaign—to convince Vancouverites that what's good for commute times is also good for the planet—is one that Peter Robinson, CEO of the David Suzuki Founda- tion, approaches with verve and wide-eyed idealism. In eight years as the foundation's CEO, Robinson—a former civil servant and CEO of Mountain Equipment Co-op—has seen his organization denounced by the federal government, crunched for funding post-recession and, now, planning for a future without its charismatic founder, David Suzuki. The foundation has thrown its lot in with the Yes side of the transit referendum. Why is an environmental organization so invested in a municipal issue? Transit is the single most effec- tive investment we can make in this region to deal with climate change because about a third of all of the emissions that contrib- ute come from transportation. If we can do this, we'll do more than anything else—and frankly this has the quickest payback: if you try to change the built form with structures, it takes a lot longer than the replacement of a vehicle or bus. Peter Robinson T h e C o n v e r s a t i o n the ceO of canada's preeminent environmental group on transit, the power of politics and life after david suzuki by Jacob Parry How do you choose which environmental issues merit the attention of the foundation and which don't? When I started in January 2008, I suggested to the board that we look out a decade and say what should be the issues we will focus on and what would be the results we'd have. From that came a set of guiding principles that we focused on: diverse and resilient ecosystems, livable communities, conservation work, climate and clean energy, and environmental rights. Our goal is to build a community of one per cent of Canadians who are involved with our foundation—either because they read our material or donate or volunteer with us. In your time with DSF, have you witnessed a change in how Canadi- ans view environmental issues? Overall, Canadians are concerned about the environment. They want to live in a clean environ- ment and they want to be outdoors—it's a quintessen- tial Canadian value, the wil- derness, so Canadians have never really lost that. But after the recession of 2008- 09, as people lost their jobs, they ended up worrying more about jobs and the economy than the environment. That recession hit the founda- tion rather hard, didn't it? When I started in early '08, I thought, "Great, everything's settled down, we have a secure donor base, I can just work on the outcomes with the teams." Within eight months, we had the market collapse, and although it didn't affect the bulk of our donor base—half of donations come from individuals—30 per cent comes from other founda- tions and 20 per cent from busi- nesses, both of which declined fairly precipitously. So I had to deal with the FAcTOID the DSf says the lower mainland's natural capital (the value of its ecosystems) is worth $5 billion yearly dsf sourCes of funding * 50% individual donors 30% foundations 20% businesses/ private sector * 20% foreign donors, primarily u.s. may 2015 BCBusiness 19 paUL JOseph

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