Today, all eyes are on one odorless, invisible waste product whose effects are nonetheless undeniable: CO2. Human activities pump out more than 36 billion metric tons of CO2 every year, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Mother Nature absorbs about half of this through plants, trees, and the oceans. That still leaves about 18 billion metric tons of CO2 per year accumulating in the atmosphere. That’s a staggering amount.
Renowned author and Oxford Professor, Robert G. Eccles, sat down with our President and CEO, Claude Letourneau, to discuss his perspective on the carbon management market, the challenges and opportunities that the growing carbon management landscape presents, and the important role that he sees capital playing in the deployment of this climate solution for the “Green Industrial Transition.”
Eccles: Claude, thanks for taking the time. For starters, tell me a bit about your background.
Letourneau: I grew up in Quebec City after living in Germany when I was 10 to 14 years old. My dad was posted on a Canadian military base to open a school for the French-Canadian students. Very young I developed an interest in chemistry and how to make things. After graduating from Laval University in Chemical Engineering, I met a professor who exposed me to Technology Management and Strategic Planning. He was my mentor for several years and taught me to become a CEO of a technology-based company. I was hooked on managing the innovation process.
Eccles: Your mentor was clearly a very formative person in your life.
Letourneau: Yes, he was. For more than 30 years, I’ve been helping both start-up and incumbent companies manage the transition created by disruptive technology innovation and/or shift of business model. I develop business transformation plans and go about implementing it with courage. Change requires effort and courage—the courage to challenge the status quo, the courage to get out of one’s comfort zone, and the drive to move forward on how to convince people, not just to accept change, but be invigorated rather than threatened by change.
