OUR GREAT MINDS

    by Tina Olivero

    TECH FOR NATURE: announces global environmental commitment

    RBC announced its updated roster of partners for the RBC Tech for Nature program. Empowered by a commitment from the RBC Foundation to support new ideas, technologies, and partnerships, RBC Tech for Nature is focused on preserving the planet’s greatest wealth: our natural ecosystem. Launched in late 2019, the program invited environment and community-focused organizations to submit their application to join the ongoing commitment to advancing sustainability through technology-driven solutions.

    Our approach is based on the belief that innovative usage of data and technology can fundamentally transform and improve the world we live in. RBC Tech for Nature brings together charitable partners, technology experts, the public and private sector, as well as RBC’s own unique capabilities to build the multi-partner coalitions needed to work towards solving our shared environmental challenges.

    “The effects of climate change connect us all. The actions we take today can prepare us with the solutions needed to protect our shared future,” said Valerie Chort, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship for RBC and Executive Chair of the RBC Foundation. “At RBC, we believe climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time. That’s why we continue to invest in a diverse set of partners and technologies solving environmental challenges – and support innovative ideas that move us towards a sustainable economy.”

    There has never been a greater opportunity for leadership, collaboration, ingenuity, and vision as it relates to the environment. Through the support of RBC Tech for Nature, our partners will be enabled to accelerate and scale the solutions needed to address our most pressing environmental challenges. Below are examples of our partners and their innovative solutions:

    ●      Canadian Red Cross: The Canadian arm of the largest global humanitarian network is collaborating with RBC to integrate data science into their emergency management framework. This innovative, enhanced approach to assessing disaster risk and improving beneficiary support will make milestone improvements for aiding individuals facing environmental crises.

    ●      Earth Rangers: The largest program of its kind globally, engaging over 200,000 Canadian children in environmental education and activities. RBC Tech for Nature supports the Earth Rangers app, a platform that encourages youth to participate in a wide range of real-world environmental actions as well as track participation and calculate the resulting impact.

    ●      Energy Futures Lab: An award-winning multi-sectoral collaboration platform that enables innovators to explore and shape Canada’s energy future. The initiative explores and tests how digital innovations can help solve the climate challenge, while accelerating the transition to a sustainable energy system.

    ●      Second Harvest: An innovative online platform that connects food businesses with surplus food to local social service agencies to supply hunger relief or meal programs. The surplus food can be offered and rescued on-demand, and ultimately reduces the amount of food destined for landfill.

    ●      SIKU: An online platform and mobile app managed by the Arctic Eider Society that enables Indigenous communities to document their knowledge and observations in real time, while maintaining intellectual property rights. Their aggregated insights – including centralized Inuktitut language/terminology data and systems for tracking sea ice conditions, wildlife, climate changes, and location names – are used for the benefit of Indigenous communities and their regions as a whole.

    ●      Swim Drink Fish: An organization that envisions a world with swimmable, drinkable, fishable water for everyone. Using technology to educate and build a movement of citizen-scientists dedicated to protecting local waters, Swim Drink Fish crowdsources its water conditions data through its mobile app. Using that data, it then distributes water safety information for beaches, lakes, rivers, and swimming holes to millions of people each year.

    ●      Thames21: An environmental charity educating and engaging people in practical volunteering activities to care for rivers, streams and ponds across London, UK. Building an innovative, new education program using digital visualization tools, Thames21 is helping secondary students better understand water issues and provide the tools needed to take action. Their visualization tools will bring together several computer models, including from the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute and the University of Reading’s Integrated Catchment Model, to help bring water issues to life.

    In addition to accelerating and scaling technology innovations, RBC Tech for Nature also supports projects that improve the availability and accuracy of environmental data, influence positive behavior change as it relates to environmental conservation, and result in tangible outcomes for more sustainable communities.

    RBC Tech for Nature is a core pillar of RBC’s Climate Blueprint – our enterprise approach to accelerating clean economic growth and supporting clients in the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable economy – and contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

    To view the updated list of RBC Tech for Nature partners, visit RBC.com/techfornature.

    About RBC

    Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 84,000+ employees who bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada’s biggest bank, and one of the largest in the world based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our 17 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 34 other countries.Learn more at rbc.com.‎

    We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. See how at rbc.com/community-social-impact.

    Tina Olivero

    30 years ago, Tina Olivero looked into the future and saw an opportunity to make a difference for her province and people. That difference came in the form of the oil and gas sector. Six years before there was even a drop of oil brought to the shores of Newfoundland, she founded The Oil and Gas Magazine (THE OGM) from a back room in her home on Signal Hill Road, in St. John’s, Newfoundland. A single mother, no financing, no previous journalism or oil and gas experience, she forged ahead, with a creative vision and one heck of a heaping dose of sheer determination. With her pioneering spirit, Ms. Olivero developed a magazine that would educate, inspire, motivate and entertain oil and gas readers around the world — She prides herself in marketing and promoting our province and resources in unprecedented ways. The OGM is a magazine that focuses on our projects, our people, our opportunities and ultimately becomes the bridge to new energy outcomes and a sustainable new energy world. Now diversifying into the communications realms, a natural progression from the Magazine, The OGM now offers an entirely new division - Oil & Gas Media. Today, The Oil and Gas Magazine is a global phenomenon that operates not only in Newfoundland, but also in Calgary and is read by oil and gas enthusiasts in Norway, Aberdeen, across the US and as far reaching as Abu Dhabi, in the Middle East. Believing that Energy is everyone’s business, Ms. Olivero has combined energy + culture to embrace the worlds commitment to a balance of work and home life as well as fostering a foundation for health and well being. In this era of growth and development business and lifestyle are an eloquent mix, there is no beginning or end. Partnering with over 90 oil and gas exhibitions and conferences around the world, Ms. Olivero's role as a Global Visionary is to embrace communication in a way that fosters oil and gas business and industry growth in new and creative ways.

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