James Tansey

Feature News

Skills - the global currency of 21st century economies
Skills have become the global currency of 21st century economies. Without proper investment in skills, people languish on the margins of society, technological progress does not translate into economic growth, and countries can no longer compete in an increasingly knowledge-based global society.
Home Energy Management Market Will Surpass $2 Billion in by 2020
May 16, 2012 - Even as deployments of smart grid infrastructure have accelerated in recent years, the once hyped home energy management (HEM) market has struggled to gain traction.
Rethinking the role of government in cleantech
Is it time for a different tune when it comes to government involvement in cleantech, focusing more on enabling the private sector to deploy capital to assume risk in cleantech?
Is The World Ready For Your Innovation?
Our current retail system is set up to sell new products, which are used and then disposed of – very much a linear (and inefficient) process. The Closed Loop system implies that once products are used they can be reconditioned and brought back into the sales loop
Europe`s future depends on cities resilient to climate change
Around three quarters of Europeans live in cities. Most of Europe's wealth is generated in cities, and urban areas are particularly at risk due to climate change.

James Tansey

CEO, Offsetters & Executive Director of ISIS Research Centre at UBC Sauder School of Business, Canada

Dr. James Tansey is the CEO and co-founder of Offsetters, Canada's leading carbon management solutions provider. He is also the Executive Director of ISIS, a Research Centre at the Sauder School of Business, focused on leveraging business tools to advance social innovation and sustainability. James is an Associate Professor who has taught in MBA, EMBA, Executive Education, MSc and Undergraduate programs in the UK and Canada.

In 2005, James saw a growing demand amongst colleagues and corporations in BC for a dependable source of high-quality offsets; Offsetters was created to serve that need. Under James' leadership, Offsetters has helped over 150 organizations understand, reduce, and offset their climate impact. At the same time, Offsetters develops and invests in high-quality offset projects that promote the shift to a low carbon future. Offsetters was the first Official Supplier of Carbon Offsets in Olympic history, playing an instrumental role in making the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games the first carbon neutral Olympics.

Following the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, James was selected as one of four international advisers working with the United Nations Environment Programme on the environmental strategy for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. James has also worked as an advisor and contributor to the World Economic Forum, the UK National Audit Office, Oxford Analytica, Cisco, ISIS Innovation (Oxford), Environment Canada and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

James received his PhD from the University of East Anglia in 1999. After a number of years in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at UBC, he returned to the UK as a lecturer in Science and Technology Studies at the Said Business School in Oxford, where he was also deputy director of the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization. He returned to UBC in 2006 where he joined the Sauder School of Business.

In 2010, James was recognized as a Top 40 Under 40 by Business in Vancouver and was a Pacific finalist in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2010 Awards.