The Clean50 Top Projects annually recognize those projects completed in the prior two years based on their innovation, their ability to inform, and inspire other Canadians. The Top Project of the year is then selected each year at the Clean50 Summit, from votes cast by both incoming and Alumni members of the Clean50.
Anyone who, faced with a few large energy bills or concerned about their carbon footprint, has found themselves squinting at a crumpled, half-faded manual trying to reprogram their thermostat, can relate on some level to the problem faced…
In 2013, while the Town of Gibsons, BC was in the process of inventorying its existing assets — determining their state and value, and preparing asset management plans to maintain or replace the assets in an effort to…
Addressing sustainability challenges can make unlikely bedfellows. Yet if messy, complex sustainability issues, such as climate change, deforestation, and fisheries management are to be tackled, organizations far more comfortable competing must sometimes learn to collaborate. Simply managing one’s…
In 2015 Plug’n Drive conducted a secret shopper study that uncovered some of the reasons why electric vehicle (EV) sales at the dealers were less than they ought to be be. The results of that study showed that…
In a sense we are just past the dawn of a new Gold Rush. There is (literally) gold in them thar hills of E-waste we produce, along with silver, platinum and palladium, but the technology currently used for…
It’s difficult to visit the well-treed site of Trinity College School in Port Hope Ontario and not consider the environment. One of Canada’s oldest schools, established in 1865, TCS has all the Hogwarts-esque stone and ivy trimmings of…
For more than 15 years, the Ville de Montréal has taken a “Together for a sustainable metropolis” approach, believing that the sustainable development they aspire to can only be achieved when all stakeholders are involved. Basically, the thinking…
For more than 15 years, the Ville de Montréal has taken a “Together for a sustainable metropolis” approach, believing that the sustainable development they aspire to can only be achieved when all stakeholders are involved. Basically, the thinking…
Using that now iconic building block of urban life, the milk crate, Bowery Project engages communities in transforming vacant lots into productive, literally blossoming spaces.Their mobile urban farm model — all the food is grown in the crates,…
Approximately forty percent of the food we produce in Canada is wasted; 18% of this is lost in manufacturing. Food loss + waste is a $6 billion opportunity for Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing sector. The ability of…
The development of the Zero Carbon Building Standard was driven by the desire of the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) to ensure that the Canadian real estate industry could meet its obligations to limit the threat of climate…
Canadian Tire Distribution Centres located primarily in Brampton, Ontario overhauled a facility designed to sort and recycle damaged products from the supply chain and reverse flow processes. The overall objective of the project was to implement streams to…
There can be a lot in a name and the fact that the solar power project model chosen by the City of Nelson, in the Kootenay Region of British Columbia is called a “Community Solar Garden” tells you…
In an ever-urbanizing watershed, the impact of development can be reduced by restoring wildlife habitat and increasing biodiversity, but going natural isn’t going to happen on its own. Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) created the Greening Corporate Grounds (GCG)…
Most green enterprises face the already daunting task of claiming their share of an emerging market, but over at Entomo Farms they’re working to build their market from near-scratch. Simply put, you have to ask a lot of…
It’s difficult to place a value on parents, having lost or been forced to leave everything, being given the opportunity to pick out a bed and perhaps a small desk for their child before he starts at a…
In their own words “Just Vertical is leading the charge on bringing food production back to cities with our indoor vertical farms which grow 3 weeks faster than field agriculture using up to 99% less water and no…
What Mesh Exchange CEO, Co-Founder Jessica Pautsch did with her food recovery platform is take the old maxim “Waste not, want not” straight into the 21st Century. After all, if technology can get that guy at the office…
It takes a certain vision, some would say madness, to decide that, when time is of the essence, the best way forward is to get a number of vastly disparate parties together and provide the forum for them…
In the fall of 2015, the Village Council of Northern Village of Green Lake, Saskatchewan chose a delegation to attend the First Nations Energy Forum, in Saskatoon in order to investigate the potential of developing a renewable energy…
Moving house is always stressful but few of us will ever face the very literal sort of house moving challenge The Solar Design Team at Queen’s University overcame constructing the Queen’s Solar Education Centre (QSEC). In 2013, The…
Resolute Forest Products – Vegetable Greenhouse using Waste Heat & Carbon Turning waste heat and carbon into 45 million cucumbers The Toundra Greenhouse project is a story of economic development meets carbon footprint reduction. It’s the kind of…
Net Zero Affordable Townhomes for Large Families It began when the congregation of Edmonton’s Westmount Presbyterian Church took a long hard look their core values and mission and a briefer look at the long term costs of maintaining…
Vancity Waste Heat Recovery Project by SES Project payback of 22% per annum also cuts gas use by 97% and GhG emmissions by 75% In the beginning, the Vancity Credit Union head office on Terminal Avenue in Vancouver…
Save using Solar – But cut your energy use first! The lesson Southbrook Vineyards and Enviro-Stewards would like to give you is “Don’t waste your energy more efficiently!” When North Americans think of green energy, they typically think…
The way Kent Rathwell, CEO and Founder of Sun Country Organics and past Clean16 Honouree sees it, the key to making sustainability practices the norm is to implement them in a practical manner. People need to see and…
Taking the Washing out of GreenWashing Increasingly words like “earth-friendly” and “green” are pasted onto to just about anything like so many brightly coloured stickers onto fruit. The prefixes “enviro” and “eco” are tossed about like disposable stir…
Experimental / Experiential Solar Charging Station Project spawn knock-offs on 3 continents! The original goal of York University’s Free Solar Charging for Electric Vehicles project, led by Professor José Etcheverry, was to design and build a photovoltaic solar…
If the Toronto Dominion Centre was a city, with 21,000 permanent residents and 50,000 visitors each day, it would be a large one! Six skyscrapers spread over 6 acres. And no one in Canada has ever pursued a…
Initially proposed by the McMaster Sustainability Office and the McMaster Students Union, the idea of a bike share system in Hamilton was pitched to Peter, Project Manager, Sustainable Mobility Programs with the City of Hamilton, for a student…
A true collaboration, Michel DeSpot of the EcoSmart Foundation first approached the City of Kimberley and Teck Resources in 2008 about a partnership to build Western Canada’s first large-scale solar facility on a reclaimed mine site. In the…
Looking to a lower carbon future, the City of Richmond developed long term commitments to cut carbon emissions to 33% of 2007 levels by 2020. Recognizing the promise of district energy, the City invested in a large ground…
The world economy is changing, the climate is changing and our energy systems are changing. Cities are driving those changes and leading the response to them. For the first time at COP21 the United Nations formally recognized the…
Literally half – yes half – of the imports that Ontario and Québec consume flows from ships arriving through the Port of Vancouver and GCT Canada terminals. Loaded to trucks and trains bound for warehouses, manufacturers, and stores,…
One of the 9 corporate-wide sustainability goals set by GM in 2010 was to go beyond GM centric activities, and help educate and drive sustainability initiatives in local communities across Canada. Since 2012, GM Canada has expanded from…
The Four Seasons Hotel, Vancouver is always looking to find new and creative ways to reduce costs and lower energy consumption and carbon emissions. As an operating 5 star hotel, any energy reduction measures undertaken would have to…
Educational materials to help young Canadians actively explore sustainability issues and actions are plentiful – too plentiful in fact. There is so much to choose from, but too much to use effectively. Many valuable resources lie dormant as…
The Lower Mattagami Project was identified as a great opportunity to add 438 MW of clean, renewable energy for Ontario. But first up: the need to forge a partnership and redress past grievances with the Moose Cree First…
Over ninety percent of the 6000 food and beverage (F&B) manufacturing companies across Canada are small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), under tremendous pressure to produce a safe, healthy, affordable products, with minimal impact on the natural environment…
Net Zero Energy (NZE) homes in theory produce the same amount of energy as their occupants use, through building in a combination of both energy generation and conservation. While the idea has been around for a while, production…
