Today, RBC announced its 2021 roster of partnerships, made up of 100 community organizations located around the world.

With the impacts of climate change permeating all communities and sectors of the economy, there has never been greater opportunity for leadership, collaboration, ingenuity, and vision to achieve the transition to net zero. Rooted in the belief that the innovative use of data and technology can fundamentally transform and improve the world we live in, RBC Tech for Nature advances the new ideas, technologies, and partnerships required to solve pressing environmental challenges.

“As a society, we need to chart out our shared path towards a smart transition. That is why developing a diverse network of partnerships has never been more important,” said Valerie Chort, Vice-President, Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability, RBC. “With our continued investment in RBC Tech for Nature, we are harnessing the power and ambition of environmental science, innovation, and community to co-create solutions and build the sustainable, inclusive future we all want to see.”

Bringing together community partners, technology experts, the public and private sectors - and RBC’s own capabilities and convening power - RBC Tech for Nature is building the multi-partner coalitions needed to protect the environment. New partners announced today, and their innovative solutions, include:

ALUS: An award-winning charitable organization whose name stands for “Alternative Land Use Services,” reflecting the idea that farmers can use their land to produce ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration or pollinator support, as well as food and fibre. RBC Tech for Nature is supporting the development of a new scientific modelling tool to empower community decisions about natural infrastructure projects created and maintained by hundreds of farmers in the Lake Erie Basin. These projects will reduce the harmful nutrients entering waterways which cost communities $272 million annually, while mobilizing action to address climate change and improve resiliency.

Datastream: A blockchain-enabled open access platform providing much-needed data sharing infrastructure for monitoring, research, and innovation in the water sector. RBC Tech for Nature is supporting the organization’s expansion across Canada, with the goal of becoming the country’s first national water data hub. RBC Foundation played an integral role in bringing blockchain to Datastream, convening the community partners who made the project a reality by contributing to the design and development of the blockchain solution that Datastream now uses.

Ecotrust Canada: An organization working to realize Canada’s immense community-led and nature-based carbon mitigation potential. RBC Tech for Nature is supporting the use of blockchain technology to enable the issuance and exchange of Canadian governmental forest carbon credits - and the international trading of Blockchain Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes
(BITMOs). Built on the Ethereum blockchain, this platform will establish a critical piece of carbon market infrastructure for the operationalization of the Paris Agreement, helping Canada to advance towards its own targets.

The Nature Conservancy (New York): The New York chapter of a global environmental nonprofit working to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. RBC Tech for Nature is supporting efforts to leverage cutting-edge science and geospatial technology to identify, map, and conserve networks of connected landscapes in the Eastern U.S. These landscapes range from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to the boreal forests of Canada and play a critical role in sequestering carbon from our atmosphere and protecting against biodiversity loss by providing a safe place for plants and animals to thrive as the climate changes.

Nature United: A national conservation organization supporting Indigenous leadership, sustainable economic development, and large-scale conservation. RBC Tech for Nature is supporting National Climate Solutions which mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions by protecting, managing, and restoring ecosystems through new science showing its potential in Canada, as well as the use of geographic information systems, remote sensing, and computer-assisted interpretation of satellite imagery. The support will ultimately mitigate up to 10 million tonnes of CO2e across Canada (measured cumulatively over 3 years).

RBC Tech for Nature is a core pillar of RBC’s Climate Blueprint - an enterprise strategy to accelerate clean economic growth and support our clients in a socially inclusive transition to net-zero.