Corporate Knights magazine gives award for green GDP vision to former PM Paul Martin

Corporate Knights magazine has given former prime minister Paul Martin its award of distinction "for his visionary leadership to open the way for Canada’s abundant natural capital wealth to be included in our core economic measurements." The award was to be presented at a luncheon in Toronto, with Martin introduced by former world bank president James Wolfensohn.

"Eleven years ago, then finance minister Paul Martin commissioned the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy to develop environmental and sustainable development indicators in collaboration with Statistics Canada.," Corporate Knights said in a release. 

"In his presentation to Parliament at the time, he noted that “as we move to more fully integrate economic and environmental policy, we must come to grips with the fact that the current means of measuring progress are inadequate.” He went on to say that “in the years ahead, these environmental indicators could well have a greater impact on public policy than any other single measure we might introduce.” 

Mr. Martin’s early clarion call for natural capital wealth to be integrated into the core economic indicators used by policymakers is viewed as a fundamental precondition for sustainable development, as you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Following in Mr. Martin’s footsteps, over 20 countries including China, India, and Norway are now set down a path to integrating natural capital wealth into their gross domestic products."