Enbridge Centre for Corporate Sustainability?

An open letter to Leonard Waverman the Dean of the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary who recently announced that the primary funding partner of their Centre for Corporate Sustainability is Enbridge, one of Canada's largest oil and gas companies who is currently attempting to build the northern gateway pipeline. From: Neil Pegram Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 4:52 PM To: 'leonard.waverman@haskayne.ucalgary.ca' Subject: Enbridge Centre for Corporate Sustainability (ECCS) Mr. Waverman, I am writing to express my deep concern over your partnership between Enbridge and your CCS. I am a sustainability professional currently leading a CSR program for one of Canada’s largest corporations. I understand the needs of business and economic development. I also understand the sustainability challenge facing our country and planet. The paring of an extractive energy company and a “Centre for Corporate Sustainability” is a dichotomy in my mind. By definition sustainability is a theoretical point in the future when human society is in balance with the natural flows and systems of this planet. Therefore the corporate strategy of an extractive energy company is fundamentally unsustainable by definition. It’s business model cannot continue indefinitely, so it can never strive for “Corporate Sustainability”. I am well aware that companies I have in the past and currently work with are not perfect, and are at best doing continuous improvement, however only organizations that strive to meet a fundamental human need with their products and services, while not systematically degrading our natural systems, have the ability to become sustainable in the long term. It reads like a partnership between a military weapons manufacture and a centre for peace studies. It is true that military tools are used by peacekeepers, however their fundamental business relies on conflict, just as Enbridge’s valuable energy production relies on unsustainable extraction and degradation of natural resources. The irony of your partnership has not been overlooked by your external stakeholders and likely has had a detrimental effect on your schools credibility. The financial windfall for your school will likely paid by your graduates, as the logic of hiring or retaining a graduate of your program for professional sustainability services (outside of oil and gas) is beyond me. Sincerely, Neil Pegram