Did you know we host free events to help you intentionally be missional in your business? We recently had the privilege to hear from Mark Polet on Creation Care as it applies to our biblical businesses.

Creation Care (Environment), is one of the four bottom-lines we prioritize within Business As Mission (BAM) as a global movement unique and separate from other approaches to business. While we don’t normally share our recordings and follow-up resources externally (all are located in the BAM Canada Network!), this one was too good not to share. Lean into fire-side chat and resources, below!

Biologist, author, BAM Global Creation Care champion, and friend to the BAM Canada Network, Mark Polet challenged and taught us all about being involved in Creation Care through our business.

Polet is passionate about bringing engineers, scientists, and business together to develop solutions to challenging environmental issues. Similar to our last speaker, Polet has been involved with BAM Global and had the privilege of coordinating the BAM Global Creation Care Consultations. Prior to working in the impact business space, Polet and Terri, his wife, owned a number of companies, including an environmental services company and an environmental consultancy.

We love learning from experts and practitioners who've gone before us. If you missed this conversation live, it's worth the listen! 🙌

Here are some things we touched on in this Round Table (the replay is below!):

Why does Creation Care matter in business? (And how/why to prioritize it when there are so many priorities as a business owner?)
How every business can, and should, engage in the Creation Care space?
Practical encouragement for the entrepreneur and business owners applying this (as well as some great stories!)

Watch our community recording with Polet, here:

Polet’s background made way for the integration of business and the environment.

Here are the highlights of his journey:

From the moment Polet heard about biology in Grade 11, he has had a love for it!

After high school, Polet studied aquatic invertebrates, and later obtained a Masters degree in environmental science.
He was one of the first biologists hired by an oil company to do environmental consulting, which is where it first occurred to him that businesses could interact with environmental care.
Polet and his wife started two successful businesses but wondered how they could integrate their faith into their businesses.

"We grew in our understanding that it was God's businesses that we had, and that we were stewarding. That was a slow process with lots of stops and starts in our understanding and what that looked like."

Others in his family had gone on short-term missions trips and when they came home he was moved to say,"Whatever happened to them, I want it!" So together they started to ask questions about what it meant to be missional in their businesses.
Polet was inspired by Canadian, Dr. Helen Huston and her work taking her profession global. She told him that as a business man he had the opportunity to bring Jesus anywhere in the world.
After seeing a gap in the understanding and resourcing of people to move from impacting three bottom-lines to all four, Polet wrote the Creation Care papers in collaboration with BAM Global (check them out in this blog’s additional resources section below)

Creation stewards, not creation abusers

With many stories to share, Polet highlighted the importance of being creation stewards, not creation abusers. One of the most powerful examples of this is found at 18:36 in the recording, where he humbly told the amazing story of working in Alberta to conserve an integral trout spawning stream. This was only possible because of the collaboration of the Metis, First Nations, government, and businesses involved in this project, who saw that they were stewards of the land and resources.

Ultimately, as Christian business leaders, we are called to the work of this creation stewardship regardless of the industry we are a part of. As Polet explained:

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF CREATION CARE BUSINESSES:

Those that come up with environmental solutions (solar/wind panels, waste to energy & recycling business - one great example is Safe Water Social Ventures)
ALL the other businesses in the world. They need to be environmental stewards through a VIRTUOUS SUPPLY CHAIN. (Aubrey Tozer brought up the same connection to our Modern Slavery Supply Chain Round Table with guest Dr. Stephen Morse last year. Check out the REPLAY on the BAM Canada Network here!)

If your business falls into the first type of Creation Care businesses, that is great! Keep doing what you’re doing to conserve natural elements, restore environmental spaces, and create green technology! 👏

If your business falls into the second type of Creation Care businesses, know that not only is there a spiritual case for sustainability, but there is a strong business case as well:

Relationally - attracting and building a cohesive team of people who share a concern for the use of resources

Financially - Polet has seen a possible reduction of expenses to even 20% that can be attributed to using the right kind of paper, the best kind of lighting, reducing excess waste, etc.
Strategically - engaging the next generation of environmentally conscious consumers

"Operational stewardship will lead to operational excellence. We are called to do ALL things in a God honouring way" - Aubrey Tozer

Polet concluded by sharing his BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal): "What if we could bring Christian entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, capital and governance together to help restore creation through the provision of clean air, clean water, clean food and clean energy?”  This is the question that he is investing his time in now, as he sits on two boards of great companies. Looking to the future, he is looking to launch something he calls: (Re)generation. Be sure to watch for more details as it launches! 👀

To give a picture of why this collaboration and restoration is important, he shares a moving story of an environmental refugee and what their alternative reality could have been. Go to the recording timestamp 34:58 to listen to this real life depiction.

If you want to connect with Polet to discuss any Creation Care & Business questions you may have, reach out to Carrie-Anne Ballantyne.