Blog, News & Updates

A new chapter for Green Economy Canada

By Mike Morrice, Executive Director, Green Economy Canada &
Matt Hoffmann, Board Chair, Green Economy Canada

Ten years ago a friend and I stumbled into a research project that started me on a journey beyond my wildest expectations, all because I listened to what felt like a calling. I read a book that shook me to my core, I met a professor that was willing to mentor me, and my community at the time, Waterloo Region, rallied around an idea – embedding sustainability into how businesses operate – whose time had come. Five years later my role shifted but the path was the same: we started Green Economy Canada (at the time, Sustainability CoLab) to respond to interest in scaling this social innovation, now referred to as a Green Economy Hub.

Today, I’ve realized that I need to once again listen to that sense of calling – except this time it’s a call to let go, without knowing what may come next. And so, I’ve decided it’s time for me to move on from Green Economy Canada. And rather than moving to a new role with a new organization, I will be taking time for a personal sabbatical: to reflect, replenish, and reorient how I can best continue taking action on climate change.

Of course I’m doing so with mixed emotion; our work is not done. Without a doubt, we’re at an inflection point: we have strong funding in place to launch 4 more Hubs in Ontario by 2020, plans for 20 Hubs within 5 years across Canada, a Board I love working for, a team talented beyond measure, and 7 Green Economy Hubs across the province, proving every day the power communities and businesses have to show leadership, rally around a common goal, and demonstrate a more sustainable economy really is possible.

It’s obvious to me that the best is yet to come, which is why – though I still love what I do – I’m also excited to be stepping aside at this particular time: I want to give space for a new leader to take Green Economy Canada, and Green Economy Hubs, to the next level. I believe deeply in setting up the next person for success. And I’m confident the leadership needed to keep building on our success to-date is all around us.

Because I’m not moving into a specific role with a specific organization, the Board’s main priority is to select the right person to lead Green Economy Canada, rather than striving for a particular timeline. There are also plans to overlap roles for a period of time, and to retain my support as needed in the months following. Matt Hoffmann, Green Economy Canada’s Board Chair, has written the second half of this post note below, to share more about the Board’s plan for a smooth transition.

On we go, as always,

Mike

On behalf of the Board at Green Economy Canada, I wanted to first express our thanks to Mike for his tremendous contributions over the past decade toward making this a greener economy, and especially for his leadership of CoLab, now Green Economy Canada, for the past five years. I have been privileged to observe Mike’s tireless efforts and passion translate into a thriving network of Green Economy Hubs dedicated to accelerating the transition to a sustainable and low-carbon economy.

As Mike has said, it is an exciting time as we start a new chapter for Green Economy Canada, and we do so with significant momentum. Our network will be expanding and Green Economy Hubs are accelerating their activities thanks in part to substantial new funding from the Government of Ontario. Today we have posted the Executive Director position on a variety of job boards, and we welcome all interested candidates (both internal and external) to apply. In fact, if you know of someone who might be interested in this important leadership role, please point them to our posting. Our plan is to fill this role as soon as possible and we are looking forward to finding the ideal leader to guide Green Economy Canada in its crucial work.

As we look to the future growth of the network, we have also approved a new organizational structure creating two new Director-level positions that we will be posting/filling once the Executive Director’s role is filled. In the meantime, the leadership team at Green Economy Canada has already begun recruitment for a handful of Coordinator-level positions.

As a Board, we are excited about the future of Green Economy Canada. We’ll miss Mike to be sure, but we are confident that Green Economy Canada will continue to be driven by the commitment to and passion for pursuing a low-carbon future that led Mike to found the organization in the first place.

For more details, please see this media release and the full executive brief. We will continue to use this blog, our bimonthly newsletter, and Green Economy Canada’s Twitter account to keep all those interested up to date on our progress through this leadership transition in the coming months.

Matt Hoffmann
Board Chair
Green Economy Canada