Canada's ocean economy is growing and evolving into what is known as the blue economy, a concept which places equal emphasis on economic and environmental sustainability as well as social equity
"The health of the ocean is rapidly declining due to human activity," says Marie-Chantal Ross, Director of the National Research Council of Canada's (NRC) Ocean program. "Its ability to sustain life is greatly affected, which is putting human survival in question. While rich countries are currently benefiting from the ocean's vast resources, marginalized communities are most affected by the changes in ocean health. For humanity to thrive, the blue economy is necessary."
Ocean health, ocean wealth
The blue economy is the focus of the NRC Ocean program. The program funds research projects that are aligned with the twin goals of 'ocean health' and 'ocean wealth' and which, in many cases, involve collaborations with industry, academic and not-for-profit partners.
One such project, the 'Blue Economy Assessment Framework for Atlantic Canada', aims to develop a practical definition for the business community of what it means to be a blue economy company. The research was the work of Ronnie Noonan-Birch, a master's student at Dalhousie University co-supervised by Marie-Chantal Ross.
"Ronnie was interested in how the blue economy is linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and how that could be used to help companies make decisions," Ross says
Leveraging the UN's goals for sustainable development
The United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) form a global framework or method to create a sustainable future for our planet by 2030. The goals include ending poverty; ending hunger; achieving gender equality; promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all; and, conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources.
"The UN SDGs align seamlessly with blue economy objectives," Ross says.
Each SDG is associated with a number of targets, and Noonan-Birch identified 11 of these targets as being of particular relevance to Canada's blue economy. These targets are interdependent, she explains, and they all relate back to what are considered the pillars of sustainable development: the economy, society and the environment.
"If you impact the biological goals, that impacts the health goals, which impacts the economic goals," Noonan-Birch says, adding that she chose the SDGs as a theoretical backdrop to her work because of their global acceptance, but also because they address their goals using a systems approach, meaning they acknowledge that the challenges are dynamic and interconnected.
Creating a framework for Canada's business community
Cross-referencing the SDG targets with the activities of companies in Atlantic Canada, Noonan-Birch created a framework for companies to begin to measure their effectiveness at contributing to the blue economy.
She then shared her framework with companies in Atlantic Canada that self-identified as being part of the blue economy to help analyze how well these businesses were aligned with the notion of an 'ideal' blue economy company. Overall, Noonan-Birch found that, although there was more that these companies could be doing, they were heading in the right direction.
Noonan-Birch is quick to emphasize that the framework she has created is not meant to be exclusionary, but rather a goal to work towards. "It's a way for companies to benchmark themselves," she explains, "and eventually the hope is for Canada's public and private sectors to see the value that such a framework provides.
"The next steps will be to better define, with industry, how to create a realistic and useful measure by which companies can be designated as being part of the blue economy. For those that don't yet meet the standard, guidance from the framework can help them create a path to greater environmental performance and social equity."
Marie-Chantal Ross says she wants the business community to see that the blue economy is the way forward, adding that projects like Noonan-Birch's demonstrate to businesses that there are strategic ways to participate in the blue economy that deliver measurable results. By linking ocean health and ocean wealth, Ross says projects like this also help the NRC make good decisions, such as who to partner with or what innovations to support.