Sustainability Leaders

Climate risk is a business risk, and companies that ignore it face growing financial exposure and operational disruption. In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, Alma Cortés Selva, Senior Advisor with the BMO Climate Institute, speaks with Jeffrey Hollender, Co-Founder of Seventh Generation, about why sustainability must be grounded in a clear business case. Jeffrey Hollender explains how clima...

Canada’s sustainable finance market is at a turning point, and scaling capital, enabling Indigenous participation, and innovating new instruments will determine how effectively the transition is financed. This episode of Sustainability Leaders explores that shift through a panel discussion from the BMO Government, Reserve & Asset Managers Conference, moderated by John Uhren, Global Head of Sustain...

Financial coercion can often be a hidden form of violence—leaving Indigenous women survivors with debt, damaged credit, and barriers to rebuilding their lives. In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, a panel presented by BMO’s Office of Reconciliation in collaboration with Victim Services Toronto examines how financial systems are used as tools of control in trafficking and exploitation, and ho...

Most building upgrades and retrofits stall not because of technology or economics but because owners lack clear data on their buildings, delaying decisions and raising costs. In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, Michael Torrance, Chief Sustainability Officer at BMO, speaks with Brodie Boland, Co‑Founder and CEO of Upgraid, about how better data and analytics can accelerate building upgrades...

Climate change is not a belief or a niche theme—it’s a 10,000‑year economic shift that reshapes how we should be thinking about energy, food, and materials. In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, Angela Adduci of the BMO Climate Institute speaks with Sanjeev Krishnan, Managing Partner of S2G Investments, about how investors need to rethink capital, risk, and returns in the climate economy. Kri...

Despite global policy divergences, the fundamentals underlying sustainable finance and investment still hold and corporate issuers, asset owners and investors are using them to make business-first decisions. Host Melissa Fifield, Head of the BMO Climate Institute, is joined by John Uhren, Global Head of Sustainable Finance for BMO Capital Markets, and Nalini Feuilloley, Head of Sustainable Investm...

What if the organic waste we send to landfills could instead become a scalable climate solution? In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, Alma Cortés Selva, Senior Advisor at the BMO Climate Institute, speaks with Jerry Kristian, co‑founder of NuLife GreenTech, about how industrial waste—from food processing residues to sewage sludge—can be transformed into permanent carbon removal and low‑carbo...

Food businesses are discovering that transparency and better data can strengthen food supply chains, reduce risk, and support growth at the same time. In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, Emily Hobbs, Senior Advisor at the BMO Climate Institute, speaks with Anya Doherty, founder of Foodsteps, about how improved measurement and traceability are helping food companies navigate rising volatilit...

Running one of the world’s largest logistics networks requires managing fuel use, infrastructure constraints, customer expectations, and long‑term operational risk at scale. In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, Michael Torrance, Chief Sustainability Officer at BMO, speaks with Andreas Mündel, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Operations at DHL Group, about how sustainability is shaping t...

The rapid expansion of AI data centers is reshaping power systems and increasing the importance of social license where some communities are demanding greater transparency. Doug Morrow, Director of ESG Strategy at BMO Capital Markets, explains to host Alma Cortés Selva, Senior Advisor with the BMO Climate Institute, how surging investment in Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, and automation...

Farmland values, water rights, and climate resilience are reshaping how investors think about agriculture as a long‑term asset class. In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, Angela Adduci of the BMO Climate Institute speaks with Alyssa Go, Head of Impact at RRG Capital Management, and Craig Wichner, Founder and Managing Partner of Farmland LP, about how regenerative agriculture and water strate...

Host Melissa Fifield, Head of the BMO Climate Institute, speaks with John Piotti, CEO of the American Farmland Trust, about why farmland should be viewed as essential climate infrastructure and what it takes to invest in it accordingly. They discuss how well-managed farms can deliver measurable climate and environmental benefits, and why connecting public and private capital to regenerative practi...

This episode explores how large-scale ecological restoration can drive resilience and economic opportunity, using California’s Redwoods Rising project as a case study. Learn how environmental conservation can simultaneously heal landscapes and create jobs in rural communities.   Hosted by Emily Hobbs of the BMO Climate Institute, the conversation features Shelana deSilva (California State Parks),...

In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, Alma Cortés Selva of the BMO Climate Institute is joined by Michaela Neuberger, Executive Director of Affine Climate Solutions, and James Burrow, Director of Sustainable Finance at BMO, to explore the findings of the Banking on Buildings research. Drawing on more than 20 years of global data, the conversation examines the growing evidence that green and c...

Leah Weatherill, Head of National Agriculture with BMO Commercial Bank in Canada, is joined by Kate Congreves, Jarislowsky and BMO Research Chair in Regenerative Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan. Their conversation explores regenerative agriculture as both a scientific approach and an ethical framework for farming, touching on soil health as the foundation of agriculture, the vital ro...

Michael Torrance, BMO’s Chief Sustainability Officer, sits down with Stuart Neely, Partner with Norton Rose Fulbright in London, to discuss how regulations are driving developments with sustainability in human rights, the role of multinational standard setting, and important litigation trends to monitor globally.   In a previous episode of Sustainability Leaders, Michael Torrance discusses how ris...

Jayen Veerapen, Senior Advisor with the BMO Climate Institute, sits down with Kayli Smith, CEO and Co‑Founder of Friendlier, a reusable packaging company, to explore why single‑use packaging is such a stubborn climate and waste problem—and why most of its impact happens long before disposal. Smith explains Friendlier’s “packaging‑as‑a‑service” model: durable, trackable containers, a deposit-and-re...

In this inaugural episode of a special series on the Sustainability Leaders podcast focused on Reconciliation, host Kayla Jacobs, Director with BMO’s Office of Reconciliation, is joined by Nadir André, Partner at JFK Law and Co‑Chair of BMO’s Indigenous Advisory Council. Together, they explore Nadir’s personal and professional journey as an Indigenous legal expert, including his background in Indi...

In this episode from BMO's Metal Matters podcast, BMO Commodities Analyst Helen Amos is joined by Ro Dhawan, President and CEO of the ICMM to discuss how the role of sustainable mining is shifting in a world where mining and critical minerals has been thrust into the foreground of global geopolitics. They discuss the new Consolidated Mining Standard which marks a major turning point in harmonizing...

In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, Alma Cortes‑Selva of the BMO Climate Institute speaks with Viola Lutz, Head of the Moody’s Climate Center of Excellence, about how climate risk analytics are reshaping the way businesses prepare for increasingly severe natural disasters. The conversation explores what physical risk analytics are, why they matter, and how they translate hazard data into ac...

In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, host Michael Torrance, Chief Sustainability Officer at BMO, sits down with Mike Richter, President of Brightcore Energy, to explore Richter’s unconventional journey from NHL Stanley Cup–winning goaltender to clean energy executive. Their conversation explores how Brightcore is helping commercial, municipal, and institutional clients reduce carbon emission...

In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, the authors and reviewers of new research on climate risk and real estate discuss how to use quantified climate-risk insights to prioritize assets for investment, build the business case for adaptation, and treat resiliency not just as an aspiration, but as an investable strategy. Angela Adduci, Senior Advisor from the BMO Climate Institute, joins a panel...

Aging power grids in the U.S. and rising clean energy demand are both influencing the outlook for buyers in 2026. In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, host Angela Adduci from the BMO Climate Institute sits down with Rich Powell, CEO of the Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA), to explore the evolving dynamics of corporate clean energy procurement. They discuss: How the US can meet rising e...

In collaboration with IBM through the IBM Impact Accelerator, the University of Illinois developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered flood forecasting system that improves rainfall prediction and flood forecasting in the Appalachian Mountains in the U.S., with the potential for the program to be applied and adapted in other parts of the world. In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, Micha...

In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, Caroline Donlin, Managing Director and Head of Engineering and Construction at BMO, speaks with Kristal Kaye, Interim CEO of CarbonCure, and Marty Ozinga, CEO of Ozinga, about their partnership to advance sustainable concrete. Their conversation explores the economic, technical, and cultural shifts needed to decarbonize one of the world’s most essential b...