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TitreDateDurée
Fixing Canada's Broken Lab-to-Market Pipeline with Dr. Kyle Briggs03 Sep 202601:03:59

Canada is home to world class researchers and institutions. But that potential doesn’t always translate into commercial impact. Not because the technology fails, but because the lab-to-market handoff breaks down.

For researchers building climate solutions — battery chemistry, carbon removal, advanced materials — it means negotiating licensing terms with your university, securing early capital, and picking up a whole set of business skills academics rarely get exposed to.

Dr. Kyle Briggs has seen this challenge from the inside. He founded Northern Nanopore Instruments, a nanotechnology company that was acquired in 2023 after bootstrapping from idea to acquisition without using dilutive investment.

That experience led to SAIL — the Simple Agreement for Innovation Licensing — a standardized alternative to the ad hoc equity-and-royalty deals Canadian universities cut with startups.

Kyle is now the co-founder of the SAIL Fund, a venture philanthropic fund that supports companies turning publicly funded research into socioeconomic impact. He also writes about Canadian innovation policy at CanInnovate.

We unpack each step of the R&D pipeline and where things break; the often conflicting incentives at play from universities, VCs, and public funding bodies, and what it would take — structurally and politically — to turn Canada's climate R&D strengths into working companies.

In this episode:

  • Where a researcher's idea gets stuck on the way to becoming a company
  • Why U.S.-style tech-transfer licenses backfire in a market without deep risk capital
  • How SAIL's convertible-debt structure realigns incentives for founders, universities, and investors
  • The case for venture philanthropy — and what the UK's already figured out
  • Why targeting a 98% failure rate can be sound policy, not a red flag
  • Why tracking inputs instead of outcomes is holding Canadian innovation policy back
  • What has to change first — and who has to move — to stop losing IP abroad

MORE

Show notes & links: https://climatetechcanada.ca/p/podcast-lab-to-market-kyle-briggs

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter⁠⁠⁠ for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends: https://climatetechcanada.ca/subscribe

Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Feedback or guest ideas: hello @ climatetechcanada.ca

Voluntary to Mandatory: Building ESG's Trust Infrastructure with Charles Assaf, Novisto20 Aug 202600:44:43

The story in corporate sustainability right now is all about retreat: voluntary pledges walked back, advocacy groups shutting down, banks dropping emissions targets. But underneath that noise, mandatory disclosure rules in the EU and around the world are creating obligations no company can undo with a press release.

That means ESG data needs to be as rigorous and auditable as financial reporting, and large companies are taking it seriously - even if they aren’t talking about it as loudly.

We sat down with Charles Assaf, CEO of Novisto, a Montreal-based company that's raised $55M+ to turn scattered sustainability data into a single, audit-ready system of record.

As disclosure regulation tightens globally, that infrastructure is becoming as essential to compliance teams as financial reporting systems are to finance teams.

In our conversation we cover:

  • What's actually happening in the field - beyond the ESG backlash headlines
  • The shift from voluntary pledges to regulation-driven demand
  • What the EU's CSRD actually requires and how Canadian companies get pulled in from the outside
  • Why asset owners and pension funds haven't changed course, even as public pledges disappear
  • What "audit-ready" data really means, and how ESG reporting is maturing the way financial reporting once did
  • Building a global enterprise company from Montreal, and why AI raises the stakes on owning trusted data

MORE

Turning Waste Heat into Energy Abundance with Local Energy06 Aug 202600:55:43

Up to 50% of industrial heat is wasted. For decades, cheap electricity meant nobody bothered capturing it. That's changing as industry looks for more power, better efficiency, and lower emissions.

Local energy networks turn that waste into value, letting neighbouring facilities trade surplus heat instead of losing it. The obstacle isn't proving it works - it's getting industrial neighbours to coordinate.

Léo Lamy-Laliberté and Daniel Bastien are co-founders of Local Energy (www.localenergy.ai), a Mila-backed startup that's accelerating projects and optimizing them for maximum efficiency. They're using machine learning to deliver better returns and unlock even more ambitious projects.

What we cover:

  • Why cheap electricity left industrial waste heat uncaptured for decades
  • The coordination problem: why this is a governance gap, not a technology gap
  • Local Energy's two tools: "Builder" to design a network, "Operator" to run it
  • Modelling 32 million project parameters instead of using spreadsheets
  • How Canada compares to Denmark and Germany, and what policy shift would close the gap
  • The path from a handful of Canadian sites to ten thousand

MORE

  • Subscribe to our weekly newsletter⁠⁠⁠ for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends: ⁠⁠https://climatetechcanada.ca/subscribe⁠⁠
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  • Feedback or guest ideas: hello @ climatetechcanada.ca
An Insider's Look at Industrial Decarbonization with Dennis Wilson, Saint-Gobain North America23 Jul 202600:25:11

Canada's built environment accounts for roughly 40% of national emissions - and building materials, one of the least-discussed corners of climate tech, are where a lot of that carbon actually lives.

In this episode, we look at the buyer side of the equation: how large, industrial customers that are producing building materials today approach low-carbon innovation.

Dennis Wilson is VP of ESG and Managing Director of Circular Economy Solutions at Saint-Gobain North America, one of the world's oldest and largest building materials companies.

Dennis sits on both sides of the innovation equation: he runs Saint-Gobain's internal decarbonization strategy and its external startup partnerships.

In this conversation:

  • How an ESG target turns into deployed capital
  • Why circular solutions are on the top of Dennis' priority list
  • What Saint-Gobain looks for before greenlighting a startup partnership
  • Balancing pilots with the need for solutions at mass-scale
  • What founders get wrong and why "we have a solution" isn't enough
  • Where pilot-to-procurement relationships break down, and what separates the ones that survive

It's an inside look at how industrial players think about integrating new solutions and decarbonizing at scale.

MORE

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  • Feedback or guest ideas: hello @ climatetechcanada.ca
Is Climate Software Dead?09 Jul 202601:01:27

A generation of climate tech was built on assumptions that no longer hold up. AI primitives and cutting-edge models are commoditizing software, creating new questions around the future of climate software.

We sit down with an investor and founder to unpack what the Saaspocalypse means for climate tech.

Geordan Hankinson is a Partner at Renewal Funds, a Vancouver-based impact VC with a track record of climate software exits including Opus One Solutions (acquired by ABB). Mike Hejmej is the CEO of Senpilot, an AI-native platform for electric utilities.

Geordan has backed and exited climate startups under the old software playbook, while Mike is building squarely inside the new one, betting that regulated, high-stakes deployment environments create a moat that a model alone can't replicate.

What we cover:

  • What the "SaaSpocalypse" actually means for climate software
  • Why the old software playbook is hitting a ceiling
  • Stress testing the idea that anyone can build production-ready software in hours or days
  • How utility buyers are actually evaluating build-vs-buy right now
  • Where moats still hold: physical infrastructure, regulated trust, and proprietary context
  • A speculative new playbook for climate software founders building today

MORE


Cover art: Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

What It Takes to Make Carbon Pricing Stick in Canada with Clean Prosperity18 Jun 202600:49:20

Canada's industrial carbon pricing system just went through its biggest redesign since it launched, trading ambition for stability. Depending on who you ask, the deal is either a major unlock - or a major step backwards.

We sat down with Etienne Rainville, VP for Central Canada at Clean Prosperity, a Canadian think tank that's been one of the most consistent voices for market-based climate policy. He's been making the case for carbon contracts for difference and was actively engaged as the Ottawa-Alberta negotiations unfolded.

We unpack what the certainty-price trade-off really means, how it impacts investment decisions - and where climate policy goes from here.

What we cover:

  • Why the industrial carbon market was broken - and what the gap between the $95 headline price and $30 trading price actually means
  • What changed: the new headline price schedule, the price floor, and how carbon contracts for difference work
  • Why the floor alone isn't enough - and what CCfDs do that regulation can't
  • What this means for founders and investors evaluating capital commitments
  • Whether renegotiating the system undermines its long-term credibility
  • How this deal impacts provinces beyond Alberta
  • And where we go from here

MORE

Accelerating Climate Innovation with Philanthropic Capital ft. Galith Levy, Climate Solutions Prize04 Jun 202600:45:32

Climate startups face a commercialization gap: They've proven the science, but are too risky for VCs - and too commercial for a government grant.

It's a gap that philanthropic capital is well-positioned to close.

Galith Levy is the CEO and co-founder of the Climate Solutions Prize, a dedicated philanthropic platform for climate innovation, deploying capital at the moment it matters most. Since 2020, they’ve deployed more than $12M in awards and unlocked over $120M in follow-on investment for winners.

What we cover:

  • Why a prize vs grants, funds, or donor-advised vehicles
  • The unique gap that philanthropic capital can address
  • How CSP structures the prizes to unlock follow-on investment
  • Why climate makes up just <2% of climate philanthropy - and how that can change
  • Family offices and the next-generation of climate capital
  • Communication impact returns - not just financial ones
  • What blended finance actually looks like in practice
  • Building the "Davos for climate"

MORE

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  • Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
  • Feedback or guest ideas: hello @ climatetechcanada.ca
Closing the Heat Pump Adoption Gap with Stephen Lake, Jetson14 May 202600:54:00

We know heat pumps work - they’ve been around for decades - but actually getting them into homes is a challenge. The gap is structural: high upfront costs, a buying process stuck in the 90s, and a supply chain stacking layers of margin between the manufacturer and your home.

We talk with Stephen Lake, founder and CEO of Jetson, a home electrification company focused on making the transition to electric systems more affordable and sustainable. Jetson was started by the same team that built and sold North (formerly Thalmic Labs) to Google. They raised a $50M Series A earlier this year and are operating in Vancouver, Colorado and Massachusetts.

Jetson is giving heat pumps the DTC treatment and vertically integrating the entire experience - from hardware to install -building a system that functions more like mass production than a typical HVAC company.

What we cover:

  • Why home heating is a bigger emissions lever than switching to an EV
  • The structural barriers keeping heat pump adoption low - and Jetson’s thesis for closing the gap
  • Jetson’s strategy for turning one-off installations into a repeatable process
  • How Jetson thinks about entering new markets- The cold-climate and cost myths that are still slowing adoption
  • What a fleet of connected homes means for the customer experience
  • The grid integration play: demand response, time-of-use optimization, and what comes next

MORE

  • Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends.
  • Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
  • Feedback or guest ideas: hello @ climatetechcanada.ca
Turning Toronto Into Canada's Climate Hub30 Apr 202600:35:15

Can Toronto become a global climate hub - and put Canada on the map?

Becky Park-Romanovsky is a global leader in sustainability and climate action, with a track record of launching and scaling climate-focused initiatives across multiple continents. She founded Toronto Climate Week, co-founded Climate North, is a lecturer on Social Entrepreneurship at IE University in Madrid, and previously developed carbon offset projects across the Americas, Africa, Middle East, and Eastern Europe.

TOCW is a decentralized platform - part convener, part infrastructure layer for Canada's climate ecosystem. Their October kickoff was planned as a single day with 20 events. Instead, it drew 100 events, 5,000 attendees, and representation from 30 countries - with zero international outreach. The full week runs June 1–7 with 200+ events across 16 tracks.

We get into:

  • Toronto's potential as a climate hub - where it's strong and who still needs to come to the table
  • Why corporate climate action isn't slowing down even as public commitments disappear
  • The strategy behind radical inclusion - arts, sports, culture
  • Building the infrastructure to turn a week of conversations into measurable outcomes
  • What Canada's climate ecosystem looks like if Toronto gets this right

We're happy to be supporting TOCW in their inaugural year as a media partner.

MORE

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Questions or feedback: hello@climatetechcanada.ca

Turning Retired EV Batteries Into Domestic Energy Storage with Moment Energy16 Apr 202600:40:33

The battery storage market is growing - and the supply chain feeding it runs largely through overseas cell manufacturers. At the same time, the first wave of EV batteries is aging out of vehicles, with nowhere obvious to go.

Moment Energy is building the infrastructure to address both problems at once, repurposing retired EV battery packs for commercial energy storage. Their platform takes battery cells that still hold around 80% of their original capacity and redeploys them as stationary battery energy storage. Unlike competitors sourcing cells from overseas, Moment's feedstock is already here: in EVs across Canada and the US.


Sumreen Rattan is co-founder and COO of Moment Energy. The company closed a US$15M Series A from Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund and Voyager Ventures, secured a $20.3M DOE grant for a Texas gigafactory, and holds supply agreements with Nissan North America and Mercedes-Benz.

What we cover:

  • Moment’s second-life thesis - why a battery with 80% capacity remaining is too valuable to recycle

  • Putting together supply partnerships with Nissan and Mercedes-Benz

  • Data centres as a new customer category

  • The domestic supply chain advantage as FEOC rules reshape North American procurement

  • What's slowing energy storage deployment in Canada

  • Building at gigafactory scale and solving the talent gap

→ Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends

→ Full show notes and resources

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→ Feedback or guest ideas: hello@climatetechcanada.ca

The Economic Case for Carbon Removal with Na'im Merchant02 Apr 202600:41:03

Canada's carbon removal sector punches well above its weight. We're home to leaders in direct air capture, mineral and ocean pathways and international companies are moving projects to Canada. The question is whether Canada will move ambitiously enough to capitalize before the window closes.

Na'im Merchant is the Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada, the country's leading CDR advocacy non-profit. In March 2026, his organization helped anchor the Advance Carbon Removal Coalition - a $100M commitment from the federal government, RBC, BMO, and Shopify to back Canadian projects by 2030.

Carbon Removal Canada is the connective tissue the sector needed: a technology-agnostic, independent organization that coordinates policy, organizes the ecosystem, and builds the demand signals that help projects get financed. Their economic modelling shows CDR starts saving Canada money by 2035, cutting the marginal cost of reaching net zero by over 50% by 2050.

What we cover:

  • Why Na'im left global health for carbon removal
  • What $100M actually unlocks - and why a government buyer matters
  • The economic argument: how CDR saves Canada money on the path to net zero
  • Industrial integration: mining, steel, and forestry as CDR opportunities
  • Trough of disillusionment or normal maturation?
  • The US pullback: genuine competitive opening for Canada, or missed opportunity?
  • What policy and capital levers need to be pulled to realize this gigatonne-scale potential

Links:

→ Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends

→ Full show notes and resources

→ Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

→ Feedback or guest ideas: hello@climatetechcanada.ca

Low-Carbon Fuels Without the Green Premium ft. Secant Fuel12 Mar 202600:49:29

The green fuels transition has a cost problem. Mandates are arriving, corporate targets are being set, but sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel keep stalling on the same issue: price.

Jochem Kamstra is the founder of Secant Fuel, a Canadian startup turning CO2 into syngas, the building block for low-carbon fuels like methanol and sustainable aviation fuel. Secant Fuel uses heat - not electricity - to create its fuels, allowing them to better compete with fossil fuels on price, and a distributed production model that integrates with industry.

That's the threshold that has eluded this space for decades. Hit it, and the addressable market is measured in trillions.

In this episode:

  • Why Secant can hit fossil fuel price points when green hydrogen couldn't
  • The surprising challenge of finding CO2 feedstocks, and it’s scarcer than you’d expect
  • How carbon utilization changes the project economics of carbon capture
  • The case for distributed, smaller-scale production and selling direct
  • Why picking the right markets is key to success - and where Secant Fuel is finding traction
  • What Europe's SAF mandate and Canada's Clean Fuel Regulations mean for the market
  • Why investors now demand cheaper-than-fossil, not just greener-than-fossil
  • What the Hard Climate venture builder model gave Secant that a traditional incubator couldn't

Links:

→ Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends

→ Full show notes and resources

→ Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

→ Feedback or guest ideas: hello@climatetechcanada.ca

Winning The Water Pollution Arms Race with Xatoms26 Feb 202600:36:35

Since 2015, over 200 new contaminants have entered our water systems. Traditional purification technology wasn't built to keep up.

Diana Virgovicova is the founder and CEO of Xatoms, a Canadian company using AI and quantum chemistry to custom-design water purification materials.

Instead of running months of physical lab experiments, Xatoms models molecular behaviour computationally - predicting how atoms interact to design photocatalysts tailored to specific contaminants. The result is a growing library of materials that slot into existing water infrastructure without rebuilding it, with early traction in mining, agriculture, and textiles.

Diana started this research at 14, won an award from the Swedish Royal Family at 17 for discovering her first material, and recently presented alongside Fortune 500 CEOs at Davos.

What we cover:

  • Why investors overlook water - and why that's starting to change
  • How AI and quantum chemistry accelerate materials discovery
  • The case for industrial water purification over non-profit and community models
  • What Diana learned speaking to Fortune 500 CEOs at Davos
  • How Xatoms is commercializing across mining, agriculture, and textiles
  • Building credibility as a first-time founder through media and social visibility

More:

→ Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends

→ Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

→ Feedback or guest ideas: hello@climatetechcanada.ca

What A New Auto Strategy Means for Canada's EV Supply Chain12 Feb 202600:48:40

Canada's auto sector faces a choice: follow the US away from EVs, or bet on the technology the rest of the world is adopting. We look at Canada’s new auto strategy - dropping Chinese EV tariffs, restoring rebates, and introducing Canada's first independent emission standards - and what it means across manufacturing, minerals, and charging.

Our guest is Denise Lee, a transportation policy advisor at Clean Energy Canada, a leading clean energy think tank. Prior to this role, she was a clean technology consultant in the U.K., helping governments and the private sector deploy low-carbon technologies such as electric vehicles, solar, and energy storage systems. She has also worked Tesla, SDTC, and as a researcher studying carbon capture economics.

What we cover:

  • Why Canada shifted from 100% tariffs to a quota system for Chinese EVs
  • How independent tailpipe standards position Canada as the US falls behind
  • Trade diversification with Korea, China, and the EU
  • Supply chain implications for critical minerals, EV parts, and charging infrastructure
  • What exposure to leading manufacturers could teach Canadian automakers - and how it’s worked in the past
  • Why provincial and municipal policy matters as much as federal action

Links:

→ Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest Canadian climate tech funding, policy shifts, and market insights at climatetechcanada.ca

→ Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

→ Feedback or guest ideas: hello@climatetechcanada.ca

How Data Centres Are Reshaping the Grid with Sam Hasty, Active Impact Investments22 Jan 202600:55:51

AI data centres are consuming electricity at unprecedented rates, creating anxiety about grid stability, power bills, and backsliding on climate progress by firing up natural gas generators to meet demand.

But done right, this load growth could actually make electricity cheaper, accelerate grid modernization, and pull forward technologies that weren't economically viable two years ago.

We talk to Sam Hasty, a Partner at early stage climate tech fund Active Impact Investments, about what’s actually happening with data centre energy demand, why load growth could actually lower electricity prices, and what it takes to sell to risk-averse utilities.

More

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Links

Can We Scale Critical Minerals Without Scaling Pollution?08 Jan 202600:43:02

Electrification depends on critical minerals — but mining and processing them remains one of the dirtiest, most constrained parts of the clean energy transition.

While countries like Canada are rich in mineral resources, much of what’s mined still ships overseas as raw concentrate, leaving refining - and control - elsewhere.

We talk to Mohammad Doostmohammadi, CEO of pH7 Technologies, to unpack an overlooked bottleneck in the critical minerals value chain: processing and refining.

His team has developed a closed-loop process that extracts critical metals with near-zero emissions and no wastewater - replacing chemical consumption with electricity.


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Scaling Climate Tech Inside Heavy Industry: Lessons from the Field11 Dec 202500:55:18

What does it actually take to build first-of-a-kind climate projects inside some of the world’s most risk-averse industries?

In this episode, three leaders share how they’re scaling climate hard tech in the real world.

Saad Dara from Mangrove Lithium, on scaling electrochemical lithium refining and standing up their first commercial plant

Sean Lowrie from Arca shares how they’re deploying carbon mineralization at active mines and integrating carbon removal into mining operations

Jonathan Rhone from CO280 on partnering with pulp and papers mills to scale carbon removal and building a pipeline of billion-dollar projects across North America.

Recorded live at Converge 2025, hosted by NorthX.

Three home-grown leaders building the next generation of industry in Canada and around the world.

In this episode, we cover:

  • The real challenges of moving from lab validation to commercial scale
  • How to work with large industrial partners and navigate risk-averse industries
  • Tactical lessons from building pilot plants and hundred-million-dollar projects
  • The economic edge for Canada to transform existing industry

If you’re building in climate tech - or trying to understand how hard-tech companies actually scale - this episode offers three grounded, first-hand perspectives from the people working to transform industry and move the needle on climate change.

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Backing the Builders: NorthX's playbook for scaling climate tech with Sarah Goodman27 Nov 202500:39:33

In this episode, I’m joined by Sarah Goodman, President and CEO of NorthX.

NorthX deploys non-dilutive catalytic capital at the early stages of commercialization, where founders face high risk, limited funding options, and a real need for industry traction. Their model has now supported more than 80 projects and helped unlock nearly half a billion dollars in follow-on investment from commercial partners and investors.

In this episode:

  • The unique challenges faced by early-stage hardtech
  • Why NorthX thinks like a VC fund to deploy non-dilutive funding
  • How catalytic capital unlocked real traction for Arca, Mangrove Lithium, Moment Energy and others
  • What founders need to know about securing their first industry partners
  • Why Canadian climate startups need to think globally from day one
  • The strategic opportunity for Canada to lead on climate tech

The NorthX model is truly unique in Canada, and is making real progress on scaling up climate hardtech. If you're interested in how climate tech actually makes it to market, this one's for you.

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More

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→ Send feedback and episode ideas to hello@climatetechcanada.ca

Is Iron The Future of Long-Duration Energy Storage? with Hayden Smith, FeX Energy06 Nov 202500:51:48

We sit down with Hayden Smith, founder and CEO of FeX Energy, to unpack why energy storage matters to the energy transition and how their new iron-based storage solution could challenge incumbent technologies like lithium-ion.

FeX is developing an Iron Arc reactor that has the potential to hold energy for days or weeks, and release it as clean energy and high-temperature heat that could power industries like mining, provide heating for buildings, or balance load for the grid. By using one of Earth’s most abundant and affordable materials, FeX aims to close the gap between intermittent renewables and reliable, dispatchable power.

In this conversation, we cover:

  • Why energy storage is the “missing link” in the clean-energy transition
  • How FeX’s iron-based system compares to lithium and hydrogen storage
  • The role of long-duration storage in decarbonizing heavy industry and remote sites
  • What Canada needs to do to accelerate storage deployment and grid resilience
  • Hayden’s journey from corporate innovation at Siemens Energy Ventures to climate tech founder

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→ Support the show by leaving a review on Spotify or Apple!

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Food Sovereignty and Vertical Farming with Corey Ellis, Growcer23 Oct 202500:56:03

Corey Ellis is the co-founder and CEO of Growcer, an Ottawa-based company building modular farms & food infrastructure used by communities, schools, and grocers across Canada and around the world.

We talk about the impact our food system is having on the climate and how vertical farming can help solve those problems. We also talk about lessons learned from the vertical farming hype cycle, Growcer’s $30M infrastructure fund, and building a company for the long-term.

About Corey

Corey started Growcer in 2014 with his co-founder Alida Burke after seeing firsthand how northern communities struggle with food security. What began as a social enterprise project in Nunavut grew into a mission-driven company tackling food affordability, waste, and access.

Growcer has deployed over 800 farms worldwide, acquired its US competitor Freight Farms, and launched a $30M Growcer Fund to finance climate infrastructure.

In this conversation, we cover:

  • 7:40 - What’s broken in our food system and why boring problems like distribution and shelf life matter

  • 11:03 - How modular farms cut food waste and fertilizer use - but aren’t a silver bullet

  • 16:51 - How Growcer turned customer criticism into their best R&D engine

  • 19:19 - What real food sovereignty looks like when communities own their infrastructure

  • 24:34 - The “vertical farming” hype cycle and why most players got it wrong

  • 39:37 - Borrowing lessons from real estate to finance climate infrastructure

  • 50:59 - Solving hard problems and building culture from first principles


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→ Send feedback and episode ideas to ⁠⁠hello@climatetechcanada.ca

Rewiring Risk and Return in Climate Tech with Kevin Krausert, Avatar Innovations02 Oct 202500:48:21

Kevin Krausert is the co-founder and CEO of Avatar Innovations, a Canadian venture studio reshaping how energy technologies are developed, funded, and scaled. From Calgary to Houston and beyond, Avatar is working with industry insiders to turn ideas into deployable solutions for the energy transition.

Kevin brings a unique perspective to climate tech. He began his career on the rigs in northern Alberta, became CEO of one of Canada’s largest drilling companies, and later co-founded Avatar to bridge the gap between researchers, corporate engineers, and operators. His goal: create a new model of innovation that can move the needle on emissions while making economic sense.

Talking Points

  • (6:02) How Avatar’s venture studio model differs from traditional VC and why it may be better suited to capital-intensive energy tech
  • (10:58) The evolution of energy innovation - from wildcatters to corporates to today’s startups - and why the old venture model is breaking down
  • (17:32) The role of corporates, governments, and founders in building smarter risk–return structures to accelerate climate solutions (not just throwing public money at the problem)
  • (21:12) Why Canada is positioned as a “middle power” in climate tech
  • (34:24) Tactics for founders and startups to break through the noise selling to corporates

You’ll walk away with a clear-eyed look at where energy innovation is headed, what models might actually work in Canada’s climate tech landscape, and how founders can better navigate this uncertain but opportunity-rich moment.

Show Notes

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Hunting Gigacorns with Nelson Switzer, Climate Innovation Capital18 Sep 202500:43:51

Nelson Switzer is the co-founder of Climate Innovation Capital and author of The Gigacorn Hunter. Nelson’s spent his career at the intersection of capital markets and sustainability, helping corporations, institutional investors, and governments allocate dollars where they can drive the greatest climate impact

Talking points:

  • (5:11) The fifth industrial revolution. Nelson explains why the decarbonization of everything is not just a trend but an economic and existential shift.

  • (9:34) “Dollars in motion transform entire sectors.” Why Nelson believes capital allocation - not philanthropy or reports - has the greatest power to drive decarbonization.

  • (13:31) The carbon qualification model. A tactical framework using scale, speed, and cost to evaluate whether a climate solution can bend the carbon curve.

  • (21:42) Building trust with investors. Advice for founders on how they can build trust with potential investors - even if they don’t have totally complete data.

  • (31:13) Opportunities in today’s market correction. Why Nelson sees discounted valuations, dry powder, and surging demand as the setup for the next successful vintage of climate funds.

  • (37:40) Canada’s commercialization gap. Why Canadian corporates need to stop piloting and start buying if we want to build global-scale climate companies.Stay in the know on Canada’s clean economy.

About Nelson: Before founding Climate Innovation Capital, Nelson led sustainability initiatives inside global giants like Nestlé and advised some of the world’s largest investors on ESG risks and opportunities. His book, The Gigacorn Hunter, lays out a practical playbook for climate investors navigating one of the most urgent - and profitable - frontiers of our time.

Show Notes


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Cultivated Fat and the Future of Food with Emily Farrar, Genuine Taste03 Jul 202500:43:48

We sit down with ⁠Emily Farrar⁠, co-founder at ⁠Genuine Taste⁠, a startup tackling one of the biggest limitations in plant-based food: flavour.

Genuine Taste are developing cultivated animal fats grown from cells in compact bioreactors. Their goal? Deliver the taste, texture, and nutritional profile of real fat - without the emissions or animal suffering.

About Emily: With a background in climate tech consulting and civil engineering, Emily co-founded Genuine Taste alongside a biophysics expert to define the future of food and build a more sustainable alternative to animal agriculture. They’ve already secured early partnerships and are scaling toward commercial pilots.

We talk about:

  • Why fat is key to unlocking adoption in plant-based foods
  • Lessons they’ve taken from the first wave of alt-protein companies
  • How they’re able to produce fats lower costs and 100x smaller footprint than competitors
  • Navigating regulations and their decision to enter the pet food market first
  • Positioning cultivated fats and proteins with consumers
  • How Canada’s biotech ecosystem is giving them an edge


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Decarbonizing Cement with Apoorv Sinha, Carbon Upcycling19 Jun 202500:55:04

Apoorv Sinha is the co-founder and CEO of Carbon Upcycling Technologies, a Calgary-based startup turning industrial waste and captured carbon into low-cement.

Cement is a huge part of modern life but also one of the biggest sources of carbon pollution. Carbon Upcycling helps cement producers lower their emissions by replacing traditional cement with low-carbon alternatives made from industrial or mine waste and reacting it with CO2 to permanently lock away carbon.

Their tech slots right into existing plants and helps cement makers localize their supply chains, making it easier and cheaper to cut emissions while building the infrastructure Canada needs.

About Apoorv

Apoorv is a chemical engineer by trade and has extensive experience in conventional energy.

Since launching Carbon Upcycling in 2014, he’s built partnerships with some of the biggest cement companies in the world, including CRH, Titan, and CEMEX, and just closed a major funding round led by Builders Vision.

Talking Points

  • How waste from mining and steelmaking can replace emissions-heavy cement ingredients
  • Why working with local materials matters for climate, economics, and supply chain security
  • What it takes to scale a startup in Canada’s hard-to-decarbonize sectors
  • The policy and funding tools that could speed up adoption
  • Why Canada's infrastructure push is a huge opportunity for climate tech


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Commercializing Climate Chemistry with RXN Hub05 Jun 202500:59:54

Morgan Lehtinen and Sebastian Alamillo are the co-founders of RXN Hub, a new facility to help ChemTech ventures scale from lab to market.

RXN Hub is tackling one of the biggest and least-addressed challenges in climate tech: how to scale chemical technologies from the lab to commercial scale.

Whether you're working on carbon capture, energy storage, or green industrial processes, there’s often nowhere to go once your research is too big for a university but too early for a full-scale plant.

Morgan and Sebastian have both lived that experience as chemtech founders, and now they’re building the infrastructure they wish they had to make scaling up faster, easier, and more cost effective.

In our conversation, you’ll learn about:

  • Why chemistry is at the core of so many climate solutions
  • What’s driving a renewed interest in chemistry tech
  • Crossing the capital and infrastructure valleys of death
  • How RXN Hub is cutting costs and complexity for first-of-a-kind projects
  • Why international ventures are looking to Canada for their first pilots
  • The value of founder experience in building better infrastructure

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→ ⁠⁠Check out the full show notes & resources for this episode

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→ Send feedback and episode ideas to hello@climatetechcanada.ca

Industrializing Mass Timber Construction with OD Krieg, Intelligent City22 May 202500:49:15

Oliver David (OD) Krieg is the President of Intelligent City, a Vancouver-based company redefining how we build housing using mass timber, advanced manufacturing, and parametric design. Intelligent City is working to solve Canada’s climate and housing crises.

About Intelligent City: Intelligent City manufactures prefabricated building panels out of renewable mass timber. Their platform enables faster, lower-carbon, and higher-quality housing construction that can scale across Canadian cities.

About OD: With a background in architecture, robotics, and computational design, OD was one of the earliest team members at Intelligent City. He’s helped guide the company from early research and prototyping to full-scale manufacturing, including recent projects in Vancouver and Toronto. Their work is pushing the frontier of what’s possible in Canada’s construction and climate sectors.

In our conversation, we discuss:

  • The carbon math behind mass timber and why end-of-life planning matters
  • What’s slowing down construction, from financing models to permitting
  • What it takes to get developers and builders to shift mindsets and start exploring mass timber and prefab
  • The role of Canada’s forest supply chain in enabling sustainable construction
  • OD’s vision for local factories building homes across across the country

You’ll gain firsthand insight into what it takes to bring climate tech into a sector that can be slow to change and adapt, and why prefab construction might finally be ready to scale in Canada.

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→ ⁠⁠Check out the full show notes & resources mentioned in this episode⁠⁠

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Smarter Tools for Scaling Home Retrofits with Arman Mottaghi, Properate08 May 202500:53:36

Canada needs to retrofit millions of homes - fast. But outdated tools, confusing incentives, and a narrow focus on ROI are holding us back.

In this episode, Arman Mottaghi, CEO of Properate, lays out what it will take to bring retrofits to scale. We explore how Properate is rebuilding the software stack for home upgrades, why health and comfort are the real drivers of adoption, and how single-family homes - an overlooked part of our built environment - could become a climate linchpin.

We cover:

- The hidden impact of low-rise residential buildings

- What’s broken in Canada’s retrofit ecosystem

- How Properate is bringing energy assessments into the 21st century

- Why indoor air quality could be the secret weapon to unlock more retrofits

- Navigating ROI without consumer carbon pricing

- Creating feedback loops across governments, homeowner, and contractors

- Bootstrapping a climate tech company without VC funding

This is a conversation about the systems change behind climate tech and what it takes to create momentum in a market.

→ Check out the full show notes and resources on our website


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Turning Rooftop Beehives into Nature Intelligence with Nyla Ahmad, Alvéole24 Apr 202500:43:25

Nyla Ahmad is the COO at Alvéole, a company helping commercial real estate go nature-positive, starting with rooftop beehives. What began as a tool for tenant engagement has evolved into a scalable biodiversity monitoring platform, combining physical infrastructure with environmental data collection.

Nyla brings a background in media and telecom, having held senior leadership roles at Rogers and OWL Kids, before making a career pivot into sustainability. At Alvéole, she’s helping property owners prepare for the next wave of ESG disclosures, turn rooftops into biodiversity sensors, and reconnect people with nature.

Learn more at https://www.alveole.buzz/

In our conversation, we explore:

  • Why biodiversity is the next frontier in ESG—and why it’s so hard to measure
  • How rooftop beehives act as biosensors, collecting eDNA and pesticide data
  • What’s driving commercial real estate interest in nature-based solutions
  • The role of tenant engagement in return-to-office strategies
  • What’s coming in the regulatory landscape (like GRESB and TNFD)
  • How Alvéole is scaling across 70+ cities with 2,200+ hives and 80 million bees
  • Lessons from customers, and why data and education go hand in hand
  • Reflections on a career transition from telecom to climate

You'll gain insight into how real estate owners are starting to measure nature-related risk, how Alvéole blends tech and hands-on experiences to drive action, and why connecting people with nature might be the most overlooked lever in the climate fight.

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⁠→ Check out the full show notes and links on our website

→ Support the show by leaving a review on Spotify or Apple!

→ Send feedback and episode ideas to hello@climatetechcanada.ca

Deploying drones for wildfire defence with Alex Deslauriers, FireSwarm Solutions10 Apr 202500:41:39

Alex Deslauriers is the founder and CEO at FireSwarm Solutions, a startup revolutionizing wildfire suppression. FireSwarm is developing AI-powered swarm algorithms that enable heavy-lift drones to fight wildfires.

Alex brings over 25 years of experience in aerospace engineering and aviation software (including work with the US Navy on F-18 programs) before pivoting to wildfire tech after losing his own property to the Gun Lake fires in 2023. Now, he’s applying his extensive aviation experience and a talented team to tackle this growing climate challenge.

In our conversation, we explore:

  • How FireSwarm’s drone swarms can close a critical nighttime gap in firefighting
  • The economics of drone swarms
  • How drones perform on efficiency, precision and lifetime costs
  • Why wildfires represent a national security issue and Canada’s opportunity to lead
  • The regulatory landscape and FireSwarm's path to deployment with Canadian wildfire agencies
  • Partnerships with First Nations communities and municipalities

You'll learn about how wildfire response works on the ground, how autonomous drones make fire suppression safer and more effective, and the intersection between climate tech and national security.

📬 Subscribe to the Climate Tech Canada newsletter and get weekly updates on Canadian climate tech funding, industry news, and trends directly to your inbox. Sign up at ⁠climatetechcanada.ca⁠

→ ⁠Check out the full show notes & resources mentioned in this episode⁠

→ Support the show with a review on Spotify and Apple!

→ Send feedback and episode ideas to hello@climatetechcanada.ca

The Future of Home Energy with Marc-André Forget, dcbel27 Mar 202500:52:58

Marc-André Forget is the founder and CEO of dcbel, a startup transforming our relationship with energy at home.

dcbel enables homeowners to easily manage their solar, EV charging, and battery storage, integrating them into their intelligent home energy system - Ara.

dcbel recently secured a $55 million funding round led by the Canada Growth Fund, and is now deploying dcbel across North America and Europe.

Marc-André brings over a decade of energy sector expertise to the conversation, and shares his perspective on building dcbel, how our relationship with energy is changing, and the transformation he sees on the horizon.

In our conversation, we explore:

  • How dcbel is creating an "iPhone moment" for home energy management
  • Why homes are becoming the new battleground in energy markets
  • How rising electricity costs and blackouts are changing consumer behaviour
  • The path to customer adoption
  • dcbel’s recent $55 million investment from the Canada Growth Fund
  • Why finding the right investor fit is critical for long-term success
  • Scaling hardware manufacturing
  • Marc-André's predictions for the future of home energy

📬 Subscribe to the Climate Tech Canada newsletter and get weekly updates on Canadian climate tech funding, industry news, and trends directly to your inbox. Sign up at climatetechcanada.ca

→ Check out the full show notes & resources mentioned in this episode

→ Support the show with a review on Spotify and Apple!

→ Send feedback and episode ideas to hello@climatetechcanada.ca


Unlocking The Ocean's Carbon Removal Potential with Mike Kelland, Planetary13 Mar 202500:37:02

Mike Kelland is the co-founder and CEO of Planetary, a carbon removal startup that’s aiming to draw down gigatonnes of carbon from the atmosphere by accelerating the ocean’s natural, carbon absorbing abilities.

While the world urgently needs to reduce the amount of carbon pollution going into the atmosphere, it’s also becoming clear that we need to remove our historic emissions if we want to limit the worst effects of climate change.

Planetary is working to draw down some of the 8 gigatonnes of CO2 we need to remove every year by 2025 to hit our climate goals. Ocean-based carbon removal is relatively new with lots of technical and measurement problems to be solved, but it’s one of the highest potential pathways for gigatonne-scale removal.

I sat down with Mike in person in Ottawa to talk about Planetary’s approach to carbon removal, the challenges of measuring carbon removal in the open ocean, and how they plan to scale physical plants on coastlines around the world.

→ Go here for full show notes and links

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Scaling Carbon Removal in Canada07 Mar 202500:31:31

At this year’s Carbon Removal Day in Ottawa, we caught up with experts working across the life cycle of carbon removal to discuss the state of carbon removal, keys to scaling up, and Canada’s leadership potential.

Our Guests

[0:54] Phil De Luna is the Chief Science & Commercial Officer at Deep Sky, a project developer and owner-operator of carbon removal projects.

[7:12] Carson Fong is a Program Manager at the Business Renewables Centre Canada and the Pembina Institute’s Carbon Dioxide Removal Centre.

[12:20] Jane Kearns - Partner at Evok Innovations, a Canadian venture capital firm investing in the energy and industrial transition.

[18:30] Genny Shaw - Co-founder and CEO at Gaia Refinery, a carbon removal startup that merges direct air capture (DAC) with biomass carbon removal.

→ Go deeper with full show notes and links.

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Next-Gen Nuclear for AI Data Centres with Matt Loszak, Aalo Atomics27 Feb 202500:47:17

Matt Loszak is the co-founder and CEO of Aalo Atomics, a company building factory mass-manufactured nuclear power plants, purpose built for AI data centres.

The explosive growth of AI is driving up data centre energy consumption, and big tech players are looking for reliable, low-carbon energy sources to step up. Aalo’s small, modular reactor systems are purpose built for the needs of data centres and use a mass-manufacturing approach to lower costs and project timelines.

In this conversation, we explore why nuclear power is experiencing a resurgence after decades of limited deployment, the advantages of small modular reactors versus traditional large nuclear plants, how nuclear safety has improved with modern reactor designs and fuel types, Matt’s journey from SaaS to deeptech founder, and much more.

→ Go deeper with full show notes and links

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Turning CO2 into Valuable Chemicals with Christine Gabardo, CERT Systems13 Feb 202500:41:11

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Christine Gabardo, co-founder and CTO of CERT Systems, a climate tech startup working to produce essential chemicals without fossil fuels.

CERT's technology takes CO2 from industrial carbon capture systems and turns it into sustainable, high value chemicals like ethylene using water and electricity.

The CERT team brings decades of experience in electrochemistry, materials science, and engineering, and was the first in the world to demonstrate the conversion of industrial emissions into ethylene as a finalist in the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE.

In our conversation, we unpack how CERT Systems' technology works, how it could be a pathway for producing sustainable aviation fuel, lessons learned from the Carbon XPRIZE, scaling up 10,000x, why people underestimate the market for sustainable ethylene, building effective pilot partnerships, and more.

More info and show notes available here.

If you liked this episode, please leave a review! You can also send feedback and ideas for future episodes to hello@climatetechcanada.ca

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Disrupting Menstrual Care with Sustainable Materials with Rashmi Prakash, Aruna Revolution30 Jan 202500:46:46

Our guest today is Rashmi Prakash, founder of Aruna Revolution. Aruna is a sustainable fibre company making compostable menstrual pads that are better for our bodies and the planet.

We talk about the intersection of climate and human health, how they’re turning agricultural byproducts like stems into sustainable, high performance fibres, and Rashmi’s journey from medical engineer to startup founder.

Talking points:

  • The impact and scale of single-use menstrual products
  • Biodegradable vs compostable materials
  • Balancing technology development with consumer product strategy
  • Scaling up production to 1 tonne
  • Creating sustainable supply chains through direct farmer relationships
  • The transition from engineering to entrepreneurship

Episode Notes

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Finding Hidden Value in Green Buildings with Christopher Naismith, Audette16 Jan 202500:49:11

In today’s episode, we’re diving into the world of commercial building retrofits.

We're joined byChristopher Naismith, founder and CEO ofAudette, a decarbonization platform for commercial real estate asset managers.

Audette enables retrofits at scale by bringing data and software to what has traditionally been a manual, building-by-building process, turning it into a data-driven strategy and with the capital plans to make them a reality.

We cover:

  • Christopher’s path from civil engineer to startup founder
  • Audette’s data-driven approach to building audits
  • The spread of building performance standards across cities
  • Brown to green capital strategies
  • Energy efficiency vs true building decarbonization
  • How carbon taxes and fines are creating new financial incentives for building improvements
  • Why workflows and business models matter as much as technology
  • Audette’s ambitions as a marketplace for building retrofit solutions

Episode notes:

If you liked this episode, please leave a review! You can also send feedback and ideas for future episodes to hello@climatetechcanada.ca.

Want more? Sign up for our newsletter to get news and insights on Canada's growing climate tech industry at⁠climatetechcanada.ca

Thriving in an Uncertain World with Dr. Ron Dembo, RiskThinking.AI17 Dec 202400:50:14

In this episode, we dive into the complex world of climate risk and how it's reshaping global financial markets.
Our guest is Dr. Ron Dembo, founder and CEO ofRiskThinking.AI. RiskThinking.AI leverages their digital twin of the Earth to offer the only probability-based, integrating different climate scenarios, expert insights, and millions of data points to measure and model climate financial risk. See it in action atask.riskthinking.ai.

In our conversation, we cover

  • Why climate risk requires new approaches
  • How understanding climate risk can accelerate the switch to a low-carbon economy
  • The impact of climate risk on credit ratings and long-term stability
  • RiskThinking's collaboration with Canada's financial regulator
  • Why more Canadian businesses should back home-grown innovators

About Dr. Ron Dembo

Dr. Dembo has made significant contributions to mathematical algorithms and finance, and is a leading authority on financial risk management. Dr. Dembo worked on methods for solving large-scale nonlinear equations as a professor at Yale and a visiting scholar at MIT, and was honoured as a Lifetime Fellow of the Fields Institute of Mathematics in 2007. Dr. Dembo previously founded Algorithmics (acquired by Fitch Ratings), an enterprise risk management platform for the world’s top banks, and Zerofootprint, one of the first companies focused on measuring and reducing carbon footprints.

Episode Notes

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Turning Ocean Waste into Next-Gen Materials with Aaron Guan from Neptune Nanotechnologies29 Aug 202400:43:08

Aaron Guan is the founder ofNeptune Nanotechnologies, a bio-nano material startup that is converting crab and other crustacean shells from the seafood industry into nano-material additives. These additives can dramatically increase the strength, water resistance and fire retardancy of paper packaging and other materials so that they can compete in areas where plastics have historically won out - all while being fully biodegradable.
In our conversation, we unpack how nanocrystals function and why they have such incredible potential; Aaron’s vision for a future with fully biodegradable products; and the impact that traditional plastics and additives have on human health and the climate.
We also talk about scaling a hardtech business from lab to commercial scale, overcoming green premiums in a highly commoditized market, and lessons learned from Aaron’s first biomaterials company.

Episode Links

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Building Trust in EV Charging with Benoit Lacroix from ReliON15 Aug 202400:42:18

Benoit Lacroix is the co-founder and CEO atReliON, a Reliability-as-a-Service startup offering an end-to-end experience for charging operators from problem detection to resolution.
In our conversation, we talk about why these charging issues exist in the first place, how they’re integrating a range of data points to better pinpoint charger issues and deploy the right resources for the job, and the impact reliability has on widespread adoption of EVs.
We also talk about what policy supports need to be in place to support electrification, the unique hurdles faced by fleet operators, and lessons Benoit’s bringing to this problem from close to 20 years experience working on electrifying transportation.

Talking Points:

  • [3:40] Why reliability is still a problem in EV charging
  • [7:55] Benoit’s journey from muscle cars to electric heavy duty vehicles
  • [9:48] Building ReliON out of a Venture Studio
  • [12:39] The different end users across the EV ecosystem
  • [16:10] The many different problems chargers can run into
  • [25:24] How do we define reliability?
  • [28:16] The policy landscape and tailwinds
  • [32:00] Listening to front line drivers
  • [35:12] Lessons on company building from Effenco

Episode Links

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On-Demand Transit with Justin Hunt from Blaise Transit01 Aug 202400:44:10

In this episode of The Climate Cycle, we explore the world of public transit and its positive impact on our climate and communities.

Our guest is Justin Hunt, co-founder and CEO at Blaise Transit. Blaise is a sustainable mobility technology provider whose objective is to improve the cost-efficiency, ridership, and coverage of transit services. Blaise’s flagship product is a universal software platform based in artificial intelligence that allows local transit agencies to implement on-demand transit, paratransit or any other reservation-based transit service, using clicks, not code.

Justin has dedicated the past six years to nurturing Blaise Transit from its inception to a global force in the transit industry. Under his leadership, Blaise Transit has grown to a team of over 20 professionals and established partnerships with over 60 communities throughout North America.

In our conversation, Justin shares how his personal experiences using transit growing up led to founding Blaise Transit, how on-demand solutions are improving access (and in some cases safety) for communities, and the role of public transit in tackling climate change.

Episode Links

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Micro-Factories and Hyperlocal Food with Wayne McIntyre from Relocalize18 Jul 202400:44:14

In this episode of The Climate Cycle we talk with Wayne McIntyre, founder and CEO of Relocalize. Relocalize is eliminating middle mile logistics with hyper-local food production, starting with the packaged ice industry.

Transporting food produces about 3 gigatonnes of CO2 each every year. And while electrifying transport will play a huge rule in reducing those emissions, Wayne and the Relocalize team asked “What if instead of electrifying all these links in the chain, we eliminated them entirely?”.

Wayne McIntyre brings over 20 years of experience in strategy, law, and technology. He has led growth transformations, M&A, and building commercial teams in both technology startups and large corporations.

We explore: the inefficiencies and high carbon costs of our current food system, why now is the right time to challenge centralization, the difference between automation and autonomy, and his vision for a hyper-local food system.

Highlights:

  • [4:28] The origins of Relocalize and mining for problems
  • [7:55] The climate problem embedded in middle-mile logistics
  • [12:38] Solving supply chain resiliency while decarbonizing
  • [15:06] Why now is the right time for decentralized production
  • [17:01] Automation vs autonomy and closing unsolved gaps
  • [26:01] How to break down complex systems and identify opportunities
  • [29:56] Why a diverse team is critical for disrupting traditional sectors
  • [34:34] Scaling to deploy hundreds of factories a year
  • [37:14] Why we need patient capital for really disruptive innovation
  • [40:07] How we can get the incentives for big risks right

Episode Links:

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Materials from Mushrooms with Stephanie Lipp, MycoFutures04 Jul 202400:42:15

In this episode of The Climate Cycle we sit down with Stephanie Lipp, co-founder and CEO of MycoFutures.

MycoFutures is creating a new material for the fashion industry (and beyond) using mycelium, the root system of fungi. Their material is a leather alternative that is animal-free, plastic-free and non-toxic.

Animal-based leathers contribute to a range of climate issues, from propping up the beef industry (which is a major contributor to methane emissions and deforestation) to water pollution and human health impacts from the tanning process. Even vegan leathers are often made from polyvinyl chloride or polyurethane, both of which come from fossil fuels.

MycoFutures combines mushroom cultivation, vertical farming technology, and novel tanning methods to create innovative materials that have the look and feel of leather but without the environmental impact.

In our conversation, we cover:

  • [1:50] Starting a mushroom farm in rural Newfoundland
  • [6:15] Problems with animal-based leathers
  • [9:56] Why there's no problem too small in climate
  • [14:19] How they grow mycelium into a durable material
  • [18:29] The potential in strain selection
  • [20:30] Keys to scaling up
  • [23:45] What's resonating with early customers
  • [27:01] Proving the viability of a circular bioeconomy
  • [29:42] Obstacles for early-stage startups that don't match the pattern
  • [35:04] De-risking science-focused ventures

Episode links

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Capturing Carbon in the North with Dr. Vida Gabriel from TerraFixing20 Jun 202400:40:40

In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Vida Gabriel, co-founder and COO of TerraFixing.

TerraFixing has engineered the only Direct Air Carbon Capture (DAC) technology to capture CO2 in cold climates. Because of their unique cold climate technology, they enable northern mines and the underserved indigenous communities nearby to fully decarbonize and achieve energy independence.

Dr. Vida Gabriel, co-founder and COO of TerraFixing, is an entrepreneur tackling climate change and is recognized in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. With a PhD in sustainable chemical reaction engineering and almost a decade of engineering research experience, she is leading innovation to develop the first ever cold-climate direct air carbon capture (DAC) technology – a direct means for Canada to reach our net-zero targets.

In this episode, we cover:

  • [2:00] The origins of TerraFixing and why they're pursuing a physical, adsorption-based method of removing carbon
  • [4:25] Vida's pivot from biodegradable plastics to carbon removal
  • [7:10] The advantages of working in cold climates
  • [11:21] Partnering with Tugliq to unlock renewable energy investments in the North
  • [15:19] Why carbon removal is so deeply intertwined with the energy system
  • [17:47] Unpacking common criticisms of carbon removal and why we need it
  • [26:38] Building a hardtech company out of a university lab & what needs to improve in the ecosystem
  • [32:43] Advice to get started in carbon removal

Episode Links

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Three climate tech sectors we're watching in 202423 May 202400:11:43

In this episode of The Climate Cycle, we're sharing a preview of our upcoming report on the state of VC funding for Canadian climate tech. It breaks down funding by industry, which investors and regions are the most active, and year-over-year changes in deal activity.

We share three areas of climate tech that we’ve been following closely this year and that have been attracting investment dollars.

We dive into chemicals and plastics, alternative proteins, and enabling platforms in sectors like carbon removal and biomanufacturing.

I’d love to hear which sectors you’re watching closely, or if you think we got something wrong. You can also send feedback and ideas for future episodes to hello@climatetechcanada.ca

Episode Links

Cultivating Sustainable Dyes with Roya Aghighi & Sarah Graham from Lite-109 May 202400:50:20

In this episode of The Climate Cycle, we sit down with Roya Aghighi and Sarah Graham, co-founders of Lite-1.

Lite-1 is using biomanufacturing to produce sustainable dyes from microorganisms, replacing the fossil fuel-based dyes and pigments used in many industries.

Dyes are easy to overlook even though they’re right in front of us. But conventional versions are made from fossil fuels, contributing to water pollution, human health risk, and climate change. Lite-1 is aiming to take over these synthetic colourants with their sustainable and circular alternatives.

In our conversation, we explore the world of biodesign and precision fermentation, and why Roya and Sarah believe it’s the future of manufacturing. We also talk about the environmental and social impact of traditional dyes and the shift they’re seeing towards sustainable solutions like Lite-1 from partners in fashion and other industries.

Roya and Sarah also share their experiences building a hardtech company in Canada and how we can build a more supportive ecosystem for hardtech and climate tech.

About Lite-1

Lite-1 is at the forefront of transforming the colour industry, transitioning it from one of the most pollutive sectors to a clean, sustainable, and ethical one. By pioneering the next generation of 100% sustainable colourants grown from microorganisms in a circular system, Lite-1 is revolutionizing the way colours are produced and experienced. Using microbes as the factories of the future, Lite-1 cultivates sustainable dyes and colourants that offer an eco-friendly alternative to the fossil fuel-based dyes currently prevalent across industries. 

With the founders leading the charge in the field of biodesign, Lite-1 introduces a groundbreaking approach to interdisciplinary collaboration and bridges the gap between innovative technologies, systemic change, and societal needs, paving the way for a circular and regenerative economy that is not only environmentally sound but also economically viable. By prioritizing sustainability and profitability in equal measure, Lite-1 is shaping a brighter, more colourful future for industries worldwide.


If you liked this episode, please leave a review! You can also send feedback and ideas for future episodes to ⁠hello@climatetechcanada.ca⁠

In our conversation, we cover:

  • [4:09] Roya & Sarah's journey into biodesign and biomanufacturing
  • [8:58] The problem with conventional dyes
  • [12:23] How biomanufacturing works
  • [14:46] Advancements in bioreactor technology
  • [18:46] Scaling up and adoption with industry
  • [21:06] Integrating with existing supply chains
  • [30:33] Common misconceptions about biodesign
  • [35:21] Challenges building a hardtech company in Canada
  • [43:40] Building out the Lite-1 team & what's next

Episode Links

Lite-1

Roya Aghighi

Sarah Graham

The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf

Grow magazine by Ginko Bioworks

Climate Action at Work with Jack Bruner from Mammoth Climate25 Apr 202400:34:37

In this episode of the Climate Cycle, we talk to Jack Bruner, co-founder at Mammoth Climate. Mammoth empowers companies to achieve their climate goals by mobilizing the workforce.

Mammoth's platform brings climate literacy and specific actions employees can take to reduce emissions into the workday, and helps sustainability teams align these efforts with the company’s specific emissions targets.

We talk about why so many corporate net-zero strategies are failing, how to make the return-on-investment case for sustainability teams, and what it means to build climate culture at work.

Jack also shares his experience leading teams in a fast-growing company, navigating challenging market conditions, and the keys to an effective founding team.

If you liked this episode, please leave a review! You can also send feedback and ideas for future episodes to ⁠hello@climatetechcanada.ca⁠

About Jack & Mammoth Climate

Jack is the co-founder of Mammoth Climate. Mammoth's mission is to empower companies to achieve their climate goals by mobilizing the workforce.

The team at Mammoth believe that the fight against climate change will be won from the bottom up, and bring expertise to the problem area in corporate sustainability and behavioural science.

To date, their work has driven tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon reduction and removal across their clients who range from financial institutions, to tech companies, to universities.

In our conversation, we cover:

  • [1:44] The problem with corporate net-zero plans
  • [4:04] Creating tailored climate actions
  • [6:58] Building climate literacy
  • [8:07] Empowering Green Teams
  • [9:20] Why Scope 3 reductions are becoming table stakes
  • [13:08] Carbon offsets vs reducing emissions
  • [16:20] Mammoth’s growth and what’s changed in the market
  • [20:17] Creating a climate culture & key learnings
  • [25:22] The challenges leading a high growth company
  • [30:01] Keys to an effective founding team

Episode Links

Jack Bruner

Mammoth Climate

Climate Tech Canada

No Competition newsletter by Matt Bertulli

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Automating Carbon Management with Alex Todorovic from Arbor11 Apr 202400:36:02

In this episode of The Climate Cycle, we sit down with ⁠Alex Todorovic⁠, co-founder and CEO of ⁠Arbor⁠, a carbon management platform. We talk about the challenges faced by companies around the world as they decarbonize their operations and Scope 3 emissions, and the regulatory pressures that are creating a sense of urgency in businesses.

Alex shares the origins of Arbor from the early days at the University of Calgary, the team’s first hand experience with wasteful supply chains, and how they’re harnessing network effects to unlock data across industries.


About Alex

Alex Todorovic is co-founder and CEO of Arbor, a carbon management platform. Utilizing his extensive background in both software and business development, Alex has put his sights towards combating climate change, with a focus on creating positive human impact. Alex's passion for protecting the environment comes from his love of the outdoors, never letting a nice day go to waste.


About Arbor

Arbor aims to be the world's most accurate carbon management platform that quickly calculates the carbon impact of products, assets, and supply chains, with a high degree of accuracy. Arbor transforms data into actionable insights, paired with climate data and expert guidance, enabling businesses and organizations to confidently quantify their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.


If you liked this episode, please leave a review! You can also send feedback and ideas for future episodes to ⁠hello@climatetechcanada.ca⁠


In our conversation, we cover:

[1:56] The origins of Arbor

[3:11] Working with Thin Air Labs

[5:02] The team’s drive to have a tangible human impact

[8:21] How the founding team came together

[10:10] Arbor as the single source of truth for emissions

[13:10] Avoiding greenwashing with data quality

[15:36] Working with regulators

[18:18] Using network efforts to unlock data at scale

[19:50] The competitive landscape

[23:38] What growth looks like today

[26:39] Growing the business and future fundraising


Episode Links

Alex Todorovic

Arbor

Thin Air Labs

Global Reporting Initiative

Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions

The Hard Thing About Hard Things


Modernizing Homes for Low-Carbon Comfort with Paul Sehr from Jouleia28 Mar 202400:49:19

Paul Sehr is the co-founder of Jouleia, a new home modernization platform. Paul started Jouleia after modernizing & electrifying his own home - and realizing just how complex it can be.

Jouleia is modernizing homes for the electric age. Over 11 million Canadian homes require energy retrofits, covering everything from installing heat pumps to air sealing to improving insulation. Jouleia is simplifying the home retrofit process with a suite of free resources and their Home Expert Service, which handles the research and planning process of the retrofit while connecting homeowners with contractors and financing options.

Paul is a serial entrepreneur, having previously co-founded & run technology at FinanceIt (acquired, now Canada's largest home improvement lender). He has a technical background, with extensive executive experience in the fintech & home improvement sectors.

In our conversation, we cover:

[1:26] - How Paul got interested in this area by modernizing his own home

[5:02] - The problem Jouleia is solving in the market

[9:24] - Putting together the founding team

[11:13] - Building science and why they look at buildings as a system

[15:20] - Heat pump performance in cold temperatures

[17:33] - How we can accelerate retrofitting the millions of buildings needed for net-zero

[23:45] - Affordability in making these upgrades

[27:23] - How upgrading your home can avoid 35 flights worth of CO2

[28:32] - Lessons he’s applying from his time at FinanceIt

[31:06] - Initial traction with customers

[33:15] - Finding product market fit

[36:15] - Connecting homeowners and contractors in a marketplace

[38:02] - Emerging trends in home electrification

[41:08] - Building in the Toronto tech ecosystem and how its evolved

Welcome to The Climate Cycle13 Mar 202400:01:05

The Climate Cycle brings you in-depth conversations with climate tech founders building the next generation of climate solutions right here in Canada.

From the team at Climate Tech Canada, a weekly newsletter covering the latest in Canada’s climate tech ecosystem. We’re on a mission to highlight the incredible work of Canadian founders and connect the climate tech community.

Join us every other Thursday for new episodes.

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