Canada’s Top Sustainability Award releases lists of Emerging Leaders and Lifetime Achievement Awards for 2022

By: Gavin Pitchford, Executive Director, Clean50 / CEO of Award Founder & Steward, Delta Management Group 
Chiefs Patrick Michell of Kanaka Bar and Dana Tizya-Tramm of the Vuntut Gwitchin Government head the combined list
Toronto, September 28, 2021– Five “hall of fame” Clean50 Lifetime Achievement Awards and twenty Clean50 Emerging Leader Awards, part of this year’s Canada’s Clean50 Awards list, and drawn from over 1000 nominations were announced today. Emerging Leader honourees include Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm of the Vuntut Gwitchin Government, sustainable clothing and tree-planting sensation tentree’s co-founder, David Luba of Vancouver, federal policy advisor Kevin Deagle, and seventeen other extraordinarily accomplished professionals and climate activists thirty five or under, pulled from every corner of Canada were recognized for their recent accomplishments.  
The Lifetime Achievement Award list recognized a lifelong focus on the environment for his band by Chief Patrick Michell, whose home was unfortunately recently devastated in the Lytton BC fire  – attributed to climate change.
In addition, long-time Toronto educator turned the force behind the UN’s efforts to educate children about the environment world-wide for many years, Chuck Hopkins, energy efficiency housing experts Gord Cooke of Cambridge ON and Godo Stoyke of Edmonton were joined by serial clean tech entrepreneur Mr. Lynn Mueller of Port Coquitlam BC in the Hall of Fame category.   
“It’s clear from the mountain of nominations we received that Canadians care very much about sustainability, climate action, and the environment,” said the program’s Executive Director Gavin Pitchford. “Each year we have had an increasing number of nominees, but this year we went over the top, and considered a new record of over 1,000 individuals, drawn from every corner of Canada, before determining these 25 individuals to be the most worthy of recognition.  
Previous Clean50 Lifetime Achievement Award winners include past Green Party leader Elizabeth May, David Suzuki and shark-conservation filmmaker Rob Stewart.   Previously recognized Emerging Leaders include the recently elected Green MP Mike Morrice, and Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith.  
While several Emerging Leaders are drawn from “big business”, Pitchford noted that the vast majority are entrepreneurs and activists who have created their own organizations and are having remarkable success in such important areas as soil conservation, some creating the solar technology of tomorrow – and others installing the solar technology of today. One has pioneered the use of reusable take-out / home delivery containers that can be reused almost indefinitely that’s taking Toronto by storm. “The imagination, the determination and the passion of these individuals should give us all hope for the future” he added.  
The full list of Canada’s 2022 Clean50 Emerging Leader and Lifetime Achievement Honourees appears below and details can be found on the Clean50 website: www.clean50.com/   
Media contact: Gavin Pitchford gpitchford@deltamanagement.com  
416-925-2005 / 774-330-6606    https://clean50.com 
Clean50 Emerging Leaders & Lifetime Achievement Award Honourees for 2022 
(Presented alphabetically) 
Emerging Leaders, 2022 
  • Tovah Barocas, President, Earth Rangers, (Woodbridge, ON) 
  • Montana Burgess, Executive Director, West Kootenay EcoSociety, (Nelson, BC) 
  • Kevin Deagle, Policy Advisor to the Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry, (Ottawa, ON) 
  • Kai Fahrion, CO-CEO, Virtuoso Energy, (Calgary, AB) 
  • Ariel Feldman, Director, Sustainability & Environmental Programs, Choice Properties REIT, (Toronto, ON) 
  • Christine Gabardo, Co-founder and Director of Technology, CERT Systems Inc., (Toronto, ON) 
  • Sara Ganowski, Smart Cities Specialist, Alectra Utilities, (Guelph, ON) 
  • Elizabeth Gresh, Executive Director, The Gaia Project, (Fredericton, NB) 
  • Julia Hunter, Executive Director, Food Stash Foundation, (Vancouver, BC) 
  • Bilal Jarmakani, Managing Director, Solar X, (Toronto, ON) 
  • David Luba, Co-founder, tentree, (Vancouver, BC) 
  • John McNally, Senior Researcher, Clean Growth Policy, Smart Prosperity Institute, (Ottawa, ON) 
  • Dr. Ramtin Rasoulinezhad, Director of Hybrid Solutions, AVL MANUFACTURING, (Hamilton, ON) 
  • Sumreen Rattan, Co-founder and COO, Moment Energy, (Surrey, BC) 
  • Amanda San Filippo, COO & VP of Business Development, ioAirFlow, (Winnipeg, Manitoba) 
  • Bo Simango, CEO, cofounder, Aquafort, (St. John’s, NL) 
  • Megan Takeda-Tully, Founder & CEO, Suppli, (Toronto, ON) 
  • Mike Thiessen, Chief Sustainability Officer & Partner, Genus Capital Management, (Vancouver, BC) 
  • Dana Tizya-Tramm, Chief, Vuntut Gwitchin Government, (Old Crow, Yukon) 
  • Tori Waugh, Principal Consultant, Conservation Ag Consulting, (Ottawa, ON) 
Clean50 Lifetime Achievement Awards, 2022 
  • Gordon Cooke, P.Eng, President, Building Knowledge Canada, (Cambridge, ON) 
  • Prof. Charles Hopkins, UNESCO Chair in Reorienting Education towards Sustainability, York University, (Toronto, ON) 
  • Chief Patrick Michell, Chief, Kanaka Bar Indian Band, (Kanaka Bar, BC) 
  • Lynn Mueller, President & Chief Executive Officer, SHARC Energy Systems, (Port Coquitlam, BC) 
  • Godo Stoyke, Ph.D., President, Carbon Busters Inc., (Edmonton, AB) 
Clean50 Backgrounder and logistics  
The Canada’s Clean50 award program and Summit were founded in 2011 by Canada’s leading clean tech and sustainability executive search firm, Delta Management Group, and CEO Gavin Pitchford, in response to a trend the firm noted when performing executive searches on behalf of clients.  
While there was growing acknowledgement that climate change was real, and that broad solutions were needed, most were working exclusively within their own industry silos and not sharing information.  Having identified the issue, Delta created the Clean50 Awards as a way to identify leaders from every sector, and then hosted the Summit as a way to bring those same leaders together.  
Each fall since 2011, the “Canada’s Clean50 list” has marked the accomplishments of 50 sustainability leaders in 16 categories.  Recently, the list has expanded to identify Emerging Leaders, Top Sustainability Projects, and to recognize Canadian business and climate heroes with Lifetime Achievement awards.  98% of each year’s honourees attend the Clean50 Summit in person, and numerous past winners come back to continue to play a role in deliberations, learn new things, and be inspired.   
The 34 remaining members of the Clean50 will be announced September 29th, and the Top Project award winners, as well as the Top Project of the Year will be made public on October 4th, following a vote by Summit participants at the conclusion of the Summit on October 1st.     
Including small teams and Emerging Leaders, The Clean50 Award Alumni list now numbers over 800 of Canada’s climate-change-fighting rock stars, and the Summit has led to numerous cross-sector and intra-silo collaborations.  In addition, the Honourees’ stories have inspired hundreds of Canadians to do more, and in many instances, simply take the inspiration and build upon, and scale what the honourees had already proven could be done. 
Most honourees have agreed to be interviewed, and the Clean50 team are pleased to facilitate this. 
The underlying purpose of the award program was to identify, recognize and – most importantly – connect sustainability leaders from across Canada.  We believe a solution for climate change will take input from every sector of Canadian life, and that cross-sector collaboration will be critical to achieving any measurable success. The Summit was created to accelerate this process.   
All Clean50 Honourees are committed to attend the in-person Clean50 Summit 11.0 in Toronto on October 1, 2021 to tackle climate problems and identify out-of-the-box solutions, as well as find opportunities for future collaboration. With 30 Working sessions during the day, 3 different groups of 12 thought leader participants will propose and discuss transformational responses to 10 different climate change challenges.  Cross-sector collaboration in the implementation of innovative solutions is vital if Canada is achieve net zero carbon emissions in transportation, from buildings and by consumers, fast enough to save humanity. The Clean50 Summit provides both the inspiration and the forum. The work sessions are capped by an awards dinner and a vote for Project of the Year based on submissions made during the day.   
All Summit participants will comply with Ontario’s Covid regulations and will be fully vaccinated, have tested negative with a Covid PCR test in the prior 72 hours, and again passed a rapid test before entering the venue, as will 100% of venue and catering staff.  Every element of the event will be conducted in the most environmentally friendly and safest possible manner.