Supporting new ideas, technologies and partnerships to solve pressing environmental challenges.
The effects of climate change connect us all. Our shared future faces great challenges – from food security to air quality, from energy needs to access to clean water. There has never been a greater need for extraordinary solutions or more opportunity for leadership, collaboration, ingenuity and vision.
RBC Tech for Nature is our multi-year commitment to preserving the world’s greatest wealth: our natural ecosystem. We work with partners to leverage technology and innovation capabilities to solve pressing environmental challenges. RBC Tech for Nature brings to life the fifth pillar of the RBC Climate Blueprint, our enterprise approach to accelerating clean economic growth.
Multi-Sectoral Approach
In order to positively influence our environment, we need to address not only the issues at hand, but also the methods we use to confront them.
The most impactful programs often require multi-sector expertise. That’s why RBC® is working to bring the right partners together to tackle these global challenges. The program aims to develop multi-sector partnerships to create positive progress.
Technology & the Environment
The pressing environmental challenges of today are growing at a rate that often outpaces the solutions designed to address them. We recognize that technology offers immense potential to develop innovative solutions that provide new pathways to address those challenges.
RBC is leveraging its technology capabilities in areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, and app development to work with charitable partners to address water, climate and other environmental challenges. We are actively seeking partners who share our vision and are pursuing technology-based solutions.
Donation Approach
Our funding is supporting technology-driven programs in three key areas:
Data
There is a lack of organized data on the health of our planet and how our actions affect it. We believe creating a common language about the environment through data will allow for informed and meaningful decision-making.
Innovation Ecosystem
We believe that we need to launch and scale up game-changing solutions by empowering the entrepreneurs, ventures and charities working to build solutions to solve the pressing environmental challenges of today.
Communities of Action
Each person holds more power than they think. We believe that through technology, we can empower individuals to work with their communities and positively change their behaviour to produce a notable change for our planet.
Project examples:
- Technology platforms or apps to enable conservation or stewardship efforts
- Water, biodiversity or environmental data hubs to house accurate, reliable and trustworthy data for better decision-making
- Digital tools used to predict extreme weather changes to help communities better prepare for the impacts of climate change
- Technology-based innovation challenges and competitions to find and scale innovative solutions to environmental challenges
- Citizen science projects that help residents become stewards of their local ecosystems and contribute to data collection
- Multi-sectoral partnerships that explore AI pathways to reduce emissions and sequester carbon emissions
- Digital tools that support remote communities in tackling environmental challenges
Highlighted Partners
Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is Canada’s largest national land conservation organization. The support of RBC Tech for Nature is enabling the NCC to expand its Land Information System (LIS 2.0) with the right technology infrastructure to establish a spatial database where conservation data can be shared, analyzed and used by Canadian land trusts.
The Centre for Social Innovation’s Earth Tech accelerator supports social entrepreneurs working on climate or freshwater technology solutions. The World Wildlife Fund Canada Generation Water Tech Challenge seeks innovative and transformative solutions to help address threats to Canada’s freshwater health. RBC Tech for Nature’s support to both programs is also enabling collaboration between partners with winners of the WWF-Canada Challenge participating in Earth Tech to accelerate the development, testing and launch of their solutions.
Earth Rangers is a leading youth environmental organization offering programming that instills environmental knowledge, positivity and confidence in children to inspire them to take action and help the planet. RBC Tech for Nature’s support led to the Earth Rangers’ mobile app, which uses gamification to encourage youth members across Canada to take real-world environmental actions, see the resulting impact and receive awards for their participation
RBC Tech for Nature will begin accepting applications for 2022 funding starting November 2021.
Visit RBC’s website for more details on eligibility guidelines and to apply.
All applications are assessed using a risk-screen and due diligence check conducted by the RBC Foundation. Questions about RBC Tech for Nature and the application process can be directed to [email protected].
