econext is celebrating Environment Week with the release of recent research it has undertaken to understand climate action priorities in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“This spring econext engaged with 42 community stakeholders across the province to understand what their climate action priorities were,” said Kieran Hanley, CEO of econext. “Environment Week presents a great opportunity for us to share some of what we found with a larger audience.”

Hanley said that the purpose of the research was to help econext understand the current level of climate action taking place in communities throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as the future initiatives and projects that were being prioritized.

Click Here to Download a Research Summary

“Communities in Newfoundland and Labrador care a great deal about the environment and want to do their part to protect and enhance it,” said Hanley, “but these towns don’t always have the time and expertise available that’s needed to make things happen.” Hanley said that a key objective of the research was to better understand some of the barriers that communities faced in taking climate action.

Hanley said that econext hopes to be able to provide some support to communities across the province to help overcome those barriers. “We can help communities achieve some progress.”

Between 2019 and 2021 econext worked with six municipalities in the province to help them quantify their greenhouse gas emissions, develop plans to address them, and even made small investments into each community to help them get started.

“The conversations that we have had with communities across the province in taking on this research have helped us to understand what some of the priorities are for them in terms of climate change adaptation and mitigation,” said Hanley. “Our next step is to do what we can to help them take some next steps.”

econext is an association of businesses that accelerates clean growth in Newfoundland and Labrador and works on behalf of over 200 members to foster environmentally sustainable economic development. More information can be found at https://econext.ca.

Media Contact:
Kieran Hanley
CEO
kieran@econext.ca