BCLC is embarking on a multi-year plan to increase its efforts towards positive environmental and social impacts as outlined in the recently released 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report.
The report comes after a 16-month project to develop an ESG policy and framework to establish a set of metrics that BCLC will publicly report on annually.
“We previously had a great sustainability report, but it wasn’t a report card and didn’t hold us accountable,” said Chris Fairclough, BCLC’s Director of Social Purpose & Community and Stakeholder Engagement. “With this new ESG policy and framework, we’ve made some bold commitments and investments, and this is our scorecard to hold ourselves accountable and transparent to the public.”
The ESG report outlines three key goals:
- To become an industry leader in addressing climate change, including by becoming a zero-waste business
- To create a positive social impact, including by influencing the global gambling industry to adopt BCLC’s goal that no player is harmed by gambling
- To govern in the public interest, including by being accountable to its stakeholders and fostering equitable relationships
BCLC collaborated with internal and external subject-matter experts to establish the framework themes and sub-themes. The framework meets the provincial governments’ climate expectations, and a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability-related disclosure standards are being used to develop performance indicators and success metrics, including for areas like player health, crime and security.
Jim Gudjonson, BCLC’s Manager of Sustainability Innovation, explained that the report indicates BCLC’s progress on its journey to becoming net zero on Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030.
“When we’ve purchased a hybrid car in the past, we didn’t really know what it meant in relation to greenhouse gas reductions or any defined climate goal,” Gudjonson said. “Now, when we purchase an electric vehicle, we know that vehicle is a specific percentage of our fleet emissions. We know we have to replace a set number of fleet vehicles to meet our 50 per cent reduction goal by 2025, and toward our net zero goal by 2030. There’s an integrated thinking, planning and reporting process, and the ESG framework keeps us on track.”
As a social-purpose company, BCLC continues to seek ways to integrate its purpose—to generate win-wins for the greater good—into all that it does. The new ESG policy helps BCLC to manage risk and drive behaviour change throughout the organization.
“Our social purpose guides the impact we want to make, and it starts with the small changes we need to make internally,” Fairclough said. “We’ve defined our social purpose and we need to embed purpose to be better for society. We need to ask ourselves, are we truly making the difference expected of us?”
One of the objectives of the ESG policy is to enable all BCLC employees and contractors to incorporate environmental and social principles into their work, to help BCLC reach its ESG goals. A new Social Purpose and Sustainable Procurement policy also complements the framework and supports employees in making purchasing decisions that are aligned with the broader ESG goals.
“We want an ESG program that makes a difference while still bringing entertainment value to our players,” Fairclough said. “Through every touchpoint we have with our players, our stakeholders and the communities we serve, we want people to know that we’re committed to doing our part for a better society.”
To read BCLC’s full ESG report, please visit bclc.com/ESG.
