Vancouver’s clean technology sector receives big funding boost

clean
Geoscience professor David Eaton projects a visualization of microseismic events for his students.

Record-breaking 13 Canadian companies made Global Cleantech 100 List for 2018 and three made the list of “Ones to Watch”

Three local Vancouver companies will benefit from Federal funding to help grow the Canadian clean tech industry, protect the environment and create jobs in British Columbia, according to a press release.

Through Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD), the Government of Canada will invest over $3 million in funding in the Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre, Light House Sustainable Building Centre and Geoscience BC as they develop projects and technologies that advances sustainable environmental objectives.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with WD on the next stage of growth not only for Foresight, but for the Canadian cleantech and advanced manufacturing sectors. We have come a long way in supporting innovative startups, and Foresight Growth will help us do even more to bring real-world solutions and technologies to market,” said Neil Huff, Managing Director of Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre.

Canada’s clean technology industry directly employs over 55,000 people in over 800 firms. In 2015, revenue from the clean technology industry amounted to an estimated $13.27 billion.

“Geoscience BC’s GHGMap project is using innovative, NASA-developed technology attached to drones to map greenhouse gas emissions in northeastern British Columbia. The Western Diversification Program’s involvement in this collaboration brings a great new product closer to market and creates unbiased scientific data so that the resource sector, First Nations, governments and communities can make more informed decisions about natural resource development,” said Carlos Salas, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Geoscience BC.

A record-breaking 13 Canadian companies made the Global Cleantech 100 List for 2018 and three made the list of “Ones to Watch”.

Jonathan Wilkinson, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced the funding on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for WD, at the Globe Forum 2018 during his address at Foresight’s ARCTIC Innovation Challenge Showcase.

These investments, like all those made through the Western Diversification Program, are designed to enhance and strengthen the economy in Western Canada while improving the lives of Canadians.

“The Canadian pilot of a National Industrial Symbiosis Program aims to connect businesses to each other using a proven, structured format to enable the re-purposing of wastes as resources, and to realize a variety of triple bottom line benefits. The first four NISP workshops held as part of the pilot – two each in Metro Vancouver and Edmonton have had 100 participants attend, representing a variety of businesses. Combined, these workshops have examined over 400 distinct resources, and have yielded over 900 potential business-to-business linkages that have the potential to reduce emissions, implement innovation, increase resource efficiency, and retain or create employment,” said Timo Makinen, Lead Practioner, Canadian National Industrial Symbiosis Program Pilot at Light House  Sustainable Building Centre.

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