As a Canadian multi-national company headquartered in Calgary, Parkland’s purpose is to provide our customers and communities with fuels, food, and convenience items they need today and those they will need tomorrow. Each day, across our business, we serve over 1 million customers as the owners of consumer brands that include ON the RUN, M&M Food Market, Chevron, Ultramar, Pioneer and FasGas.

We do so in a sustainable way by providing our customers with safe, reliable energy and products they need while making strategic decisions and innovative investments that contribute to a lower-carbon future.

At Parkland, we recognize the profound opportunity that exists for our industry as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy. We believe it is our responsibility to work together and with governments around the world to help meet net-zero targets. From electric vehicle charging, renewable fuels, solar and carbon offset trading – we are leaders in helping our customers lower their environmental impact across the 25 countries in which we operate.

Electric vehicles (“EV”) currently represent a small percentage of the total vehicle fleet in Canada and the United States, and we know that EV adoption will not happen overnight, particularly in harder to electrify sectors in the near to medium term. There will be challenges throughout this transition, but together we can ensure that options that decarbonize fuel for vehicles, aviation, rail, and marine are developed on a faster timeline. This is why it is critical that our industry focuses on innovation and developing solutions to these challenges.

Fuelling the energy transition is a critical part of our future as a company. We have several exciting initiatives on the horizon that will enable greenhouse gas reductions through our value chain including expanding our low-carbon fuel offerings and growing our EV charging network.

Expanding our low-carbon fuel options

Parkland is a leader in low-carbon fuels innovation and our focus has been on realizing significant GHG reductions in the most capital and asset efficient way. We are doing this by using existing infrastructure and leveraging technical expertise because it is the quickest, most effective way to manufacture low-carbon liquid fuels at scale.

Parkland’s Burnaby Refinery was the first in North America to produce renewable fuels by co-processing bio-feedstocks with existing infrastructure. This has resulted in renewable fuels with one-eighth of the carbon intensity of conventional fuels that can be used in existing vehicles without any changes or modifications required. This achievement is a clear example of a made-in-Canada success story, leveraging Canadian innovation and Canadian- sourced feedstocks at every step of the way.

Building on our success of co-processing, we will continue our leadership in renewable fuels manufacturing by increasing our production of low-carbon fuels which will reduce our customers’ GHG emissions by 1MT per year by 2026. This is the equivalent of taking over 350,000 cars off the road and we have outlined our plan in our most recent Sustainability Report titled “Drive to Zero".

Growing our EV charging network

In addition to low-carbon fuel options, we recognize the important contribution electrification and electric vehicles have in the energy transition.

Last year, we announced plans to launch one of the largest ultra-fast networks of EV chargers in British Columbia in the second half of 2022. We are on track to open twenty-five locations which will connect Vancouver Island to Calgary through an ultra-fast network of On the Run convenience stores and Triple O’s restaurants. This will help reduce range anxiety while providing the amenities consumers need while charging their vehicle.

We also recently announced plans to build the ‘Electric Charging Destination of the Future’ that will reimagine the gas station of the future and set a new standard for electric vehicle charging and customer experience. Parkland has developed its initial architectural concept by sponsoring an international design competition operated by Electric Autonomy Canada. Bringing the winning design to life is a natural extension of our energy transition vision and renewables activities.

Our low carbon fuel offerings and our EV charging network are just some of our initiatives aimed at fuelling the energy transition. We are proud of our work and progress to date, and we are committed to continuing our leadership and innovation across all jurisdictions we operate in.

Hear more from Parkland's Christy Elliot, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary and Chief Sustainability Officer at the upcoming Transform: Energy Summit.

About Christy Elliott

Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Chief Sustainability Officer

Ms. Elliott oversees all of Parkland Corporation’s legal, regulatory, and compliance matters with responsibilities spanning Canada, the United States, and 23 countries across Central and South America. She leads Government, Indigenous, and External affairs enterprise-wide and was appointed Parkland’s first-ever Chief Sustainability Officer in 2020.

Prior to joining Parkland, Ms. Elliott practiced at a litigation boutique in Calgary and with the Court of Appeal of Alberta. She has appeared before all levels of court in Alberta and at the Supreme Court of Canada. A former instructor at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law, Ms. Elliott has taught legal research and writing, and coached and judged in the faculty’s mooting program. Ms. Elliott has also presented on civil litigation for the Legal Education Society of Alberta.

Ms. Elliott is a Member of the Law Society of Alberta and has a GCP.D designation. She holds a Doctor of Law (J.D.) degree and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) degree, both from the University of Calgary. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for Trellis and is the executive sponsor and lead of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Parkland.