Climate change is a significant issue facing the world today, and one which requires action by individuals, governments and business. The challenge is balancing the worlds growing need for energy, with the need to reduce our collective impact on the environment. At the sharp end of this challenge are companies like Parkland; a leading convenience retail and fuel marketing company with a growing renewable business. Parkland operates across 25 countries including Canada, the US, the Caribbean and Central America and South America. Each day, Parkland serves over one million customers, providing them with the fuels they need to get around, with quality foods and convenient snacks and helping them achieve their goals of lowering their environmental impact. Bob Espey, President and CEO at Parkland says that the company has been working hard towards a greener future. “We need to start to move into lower carbon energy. Parkland wants to play a leading role in that transition, and there are two parts to it: one is continuing to supply our customers with existing fuels, but also at the same time, looking for innovative alternatives.” One alternative is co-processing, a technique in which renewable feed stocks are processed alongside conventional crude oil. This creates low carbon gasoline, diesel and jet fuel products, which produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Christy Elliott, Chief Sustainability Officer at Parkland, says that the company has been working hard towards a greener future: “Parkland purchased the Burnaby Refinery back in 2017. It’s one of the only remaining refineries on the west coast of Canada and it provides a significant volume of the transportation fuel to British Columbia, Canada, and the Vancouver International Airport, a major North American air hub. We wanted to continue the great work that was going on at the Burnaby Refinery, producing low carbon fuels. There’s a lot of exciting work and low carbon innovation going on, including co-processing canola and tallow through that refinery and creating low carbon fuels for our customers that have about one eighth of the carbon intensity of regular gasoline and diesel. This is something we’re really proud of and we see how important it is to continue investing in those technologies.” Bob Espey highlights the significant environmental benefits of co-processed fuels, which have 1/8 the carbon intensity of conventional fuels and can be used in existing vehicles without modification. “In 2020, we co-processed over 44 million liters of fuel, which was the equivalent of taking 40,000 cars off the road. In 2021, we upped that to a hundred million liters, which is the equivalent of taking 80,000 passenger vehicles off the road or making them net zero.” Parkland’s low-carbon leadership extends into the other regions in which the company operates. Roger Bryan, VP Commercial at Parkland International speaks about the solar work occurring in the Caribbean: “The initiative in Barbados is particularly exciting as Parkland is developing the installation of state-of-the-art PV [photovoltaic] systems for eight retail sites in Barbados and in addition some 70 sites across the region in 2021 and 2022. Parkland owns about 200 sites across the region and we are looking to deploy PV installations on those sites in the coming years. This shows the significant impact for one site, and if we replicate this across the region, it will have a considerably positive impact on clean energy production.” One thing that is unlikely to change is consumers’ reliance on privately owned motor cars. However, with emerging growth in electric vehicles in select markets, Bob Espey says that Parkland is seizing the opportunity to create a charging network that can help make electric vehicles a realistic alternative for customers. “We were really proud to announce British Columbia’s first and largest ultra-fast charging network that basically covers all major roads in the province. And we’ve made a commitment to installing at 25 of our sites so that we can provide an extensive network across the province.” Christy Elliott says that Parkland recognizes the profound opportunity that exists for its industry as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy: “Parkland is so proud to be part of fueling the low carbon transition. And we’re excited to work with governments and like-minded organizations and the communities in which we operate. From low-carbon fuels, to EV charging, to solar, we see nothing but opportunity in this transition.”