Harnessing the Operational Benefits of Sustainability

Parkland Corporation supplies over 21 billion liters of petroleum products across North American and the Caribbean. It has a refinery in Burnaby, BC and operates nearly two thousand convenience stores across Canada alone under well-known brands like Pioneer, Ultramar, Fas Gas Plus, Chevron, and On the Run / Marché Express.

But as the energy transition gathers pace, is the company’s business model under threat?

Definitely not, according to Jeremy van Loon, Director of Sustainability at Parkland Corporation. If anything, he says, the energy transition creates an opportunity for a new relationship with customers.

In this interview, van Loon, who will be speaking at our upcoming Operational Excellence in Energy, Chemicals and Resources talks about how the company is responding to a changing world, the role of sustainability in building operational resilience, and his focus in the year ahead.

Diana Davis, IX Network: Parkland’s CEO recently said that there is more opportunity than threat in the energy transition. How is Parkland preparing to take advantage of the energy transition?

Jeremy van Loon, Parkland: I think Bob Espey, our CEO, was reflecting what a lot of other people are saying. There are lots of opportunities around the energy transition. For example, electrification of passenger cars is gaining momentum. There will be behavior changes associated with that as drivers spend more time charging their vehicles as opposed to filling them up with liquid fuels.

That changes the experience for drivers from a 3–5-minute experience to fill up to a 20-25 minute experience while recharging.

For Parkland that establishes an opportunity to create a destination around the charging stations and convenience stores where customers can also recharge with some food or have a place to catch up on phone calls, for instance.

The infrastructure for EV charging is still in its early stages. It will be really important to have a strong customer focus and having a really reliable charging infrastructure to make it a positive experience.

Parkland is preparing for this future. There have been acquisitions of companies like M&M's to enhance what's being offered in those convenience destination locations, and partnerships with companies like Triple O's.

We are starting to build out our fast charging network. Our first focus is the corridor between Vancouver Island and Calgary. There are sections of that drive where there are lots of choices of fuel stations and convenience stores and then there are other sections where you're in the middle of nowhere. It's nice to know that you've got another 100 kilometers or so and then you'll have a good place to rest and charge up.

Diana Davis, IX Network:  You're going to be speaking at our upcoming Operational Excellence conference in Calgary. What are the links between Operational Excellence and sustainability? How do you view that at Parkland?

Jeremy van Loon, Parkland: At Parkland, we have four pillars through which we see our work on sustainability: people, environment, partners, and responsible growth.