Director Spotlight Valerie Chort

Director Spotlight is a regular feature that provides an opportunity for a prominent director to discuss practical insights and critical developments on climate governance, important for boardrooms. Chapter Zero Canada recently spoke with Valerie Chort, ICD.D, ESG Expert and Director, BNP Paribas, Legrand SA, Transat A.T., North West Rubber Group, Women’s College Hospital Foundation, and International Institute for Sustainable Development. Here are the highlights of our recent conversation with Valerie about how climate discussions in the boardroom have been shifting over the last year, differences between European and Canadian board approaches to climate, as well as her outlook for corporate climate action in Canada.

Q: How are the boards you are serving on discussing climate risk today? Has this changed over the last year?

Across the boards I serve on, climate risk is now firmly treated as a core strategic and enterprise risk, rather than a standalone ESG topic. The way it is integrated is deliberately tailored to the industry segment (e.g. financial services, industrial, airline, manufacturing), reflecting differences in asset intensity, geographic exposure, supply chain complexity, client segmentation, and regulatory pressure.

I see a much clearer distinction today between adaptation and mitigation. On the adaptation side, board discussions are focussing on asset resilience, supply-chain continuity, and operational risk. On the mitigation side, the emphasis is on emissions-reduction pathways that are directly linked to business levers such as capital allocation, technology choices, and portfolio decisions.

Boards are increasingly pragmatic and execution-focused. Though net-zero ambitions remain part of the conversation, there is less appetite for aspirational commitments and much greater focus on whether targets are credible, economically viable, and strategically aligned. Over the past year, I have seen a significant shift toward scrutiny of data quality and progress, especially where climate and ESG information is publicly disclosed. Boards are spending more time testing assumptions, methodologies, and controls, recognizing the regulatory and reputational risk associated with weak or inconsistent data.

Finally, all the boards I serve on have formalized their governance structures for climate and ESG, with clear responsibilities across audit, nomination and governance, remuneration, and strategy and/or ESG committees. This has materially strengthened oversight and accountability, and is a recognition of the horizontal nature of the issues.

As a board director of French and Canadian organizations, is there a marked difference between how they discuss climate and nature in the boardrooms? Have the general approaches been converging or diverging (or neither) in the last year?

From my experience serving on both French/European and Canadian boards, there are meaningful differences in approach, largely driven by regulatory context. French boards generally take a more structured and comprehensive view of climate and environmental issues, influenced by EU regulation and a double-materiality perspective. Climate is more explicitly embedded into strategy, governance, and long-term planning, and nature-related considerations are entering the conversation more quickly. Canadian boards tend to approach climate through a financial materiality and risk management lens, with the depth of integration scaled to sector exposure and investor expectations. Climate discussions are often more focused on emissions, transition risk, and disclosure, with less formal attention to biodiversity unless it is clearly material.

That said, over the past year I have seen clear convergence in terms of governance rigour. Boards in both jurisdictions are strengthening committee mandates, clarifying accountability, and raising expectations around credible transition planning and high-quality disclosure. Where divergence remains is mainly in the breadth and pace of integration, particularly on nature-related risks.

What do you think the near-term and longer-term landscapes are looking like for corporate climate action and reporting in Canada?

In the near term, I expect the focus in Canada to be less on making new commitments and more on ensuring the credibility, accuracy, and assurance of climate and ESG data, particularly in public reporting. Boards are increasingly aware that misalignment between ambition, disclosure, and execution represents a material governance risk. At the same time, I see leading boards reinforcing that climate and ESG must be clearly aligned with company strategy and value-creation levers and tailored to the industry context. Climate initiatives are being assessed based on their impact on resilience, capital efficiency, cost structure, and access to capital, rather than treated as a separate ESG agenda.

Over the longer term, I expect that climate considerations will be fully embedded into strategy, capital allocation, and performance management in Canadian boardrooms. Net-zero ambitions will remain relevant, but primarily as directional anchors supported by credible, sector-specific transition pathways. Boards that succeed will be those that integrate climate in a disciplined, proportionate way that strengthens long-term competitiveness and enterprise value.

FULL BIOGRAPHY

Valerie Chort is a respected Corporate Director and business leader with deep expertise and an exemplary track record in ESG, risk management, operations, EHS (Environment, Health & Safety) and sustainable finance. For over 30 years she has helped boards, businesses, governments and non-government organizations execute innovative strategies to manage ESG and reputational risks and create organisational value.

She serves on the boards of BNP Paribas SA, Legrand SA, Transat A.T, North West Rubber Group, Women’s College Hospital Foundation, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. She is also a founding member of Women for Nature and a recipient of the King Charles III Coronation Medal.

Over the course of her career, Valerie held senior roles in consulting, industry and government. From 2015 until 2023, she was the Vice President, Corporate Citizenship for the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), responsible for developing an integrated citizenship strategy aligned to RBC’s purpose and business objectives. Key pillars under her leadership included enterprise ESG, social impact and innovation, employee engagement, and impact measurement. She also served as Executive Director of the RBC Foundation, one of Canada’s largest corporate foundations.

Prior to RBC, Valerie was Deloitte’s Americas Leader for Sustainability & Climate Change and a Partner with Deloitte Canada’s Enterprise Risk Services, where she built a national practice serving Canada’s largest corporations and FP500 companies, specializing in strategy and risk management in the areas of environmental, social and reputational risk. She also held roles as Vice President, EHS and Product Safety with Husky IMS and Management Consultant with Arthur D. Little, Inc. She is also the co-founder of a thriving peony flower farm enterprise, Fleur de Roy Inc., based in southern Ontario.

Valerie earned a Bachelor of Science in Biochemisty and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ottawa.