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.
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…
Deciding to convert a formerly commercial site into a multi-residential project isn’t exactly groundbreaking in Toronto, but Sun Life Financial ’s approach was. Starting with a site with significant contamination, the company first engaged with stakeholders to determine…
Founded by respected Canadian leaders from business, think tanks, labour, Indigenous Peoples, youth, and NGO communities, Smart Prosperity harnesses new thinking to map out and accelerate Canada’s transition to a stronger, cleaner economy in the next decade. Smart…
RCI connects and empowers 67 member organizations to set GHG reduction targets. To build the sustainability capacity in an organization, the RCI offers tools to track and report on GHGs, develop policies, engage employees, learn from experts and…
In an inconspicuous corrugated metal building situated next to one of the first biofuels refineries in the country, is a 300 kg/hr pilot facility that includes a gasification facility, gas conditioning, cleaning and methanol synthesis system. In this…
Constructed in 1991, the Canada Games and Aquatic Centre (CGAC) was faced with aging infrastructure issues. The original mechanical and electrical systems had reach the end of their anticipated life cycle, and were operating inefficiently. With a commitment…
This describes a vision of an oasis between two industrial buildings that grew out of needing to showcase water and provide an outdoor space for employees and neighbours to enjoy. It was a mission and the end result…
Citizens of Ottawa are now “sharing the road” – literally. The new downtown bike lane is encouraging residents to ditch their cars and ride carbon free. The City of Ottawa implemented the first downtown segregated bicycle lanes in…
Summary CivicAction’s Race to Reduce has mobilized the commercial office sector to reduce energy use and carbon emissions in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), while saving millions of dollars in costs. One of the largest regional…
Transportation accounts for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in the Province of British Columbia (B.C.), at 36% of total emissions. Electric vehicles represent an important opportunity for emissions reduction, especially given that over 90% of B.C.’s…
General Motors of Canada Limited’s CAMI Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, became “Landfill-Free” in 2014 – sending zero waste to landfill from its daily operations! CAMI attained, and continues to maintain, this milestone achievement through the hard work,…
Sustainability measures save 350,000 bottles of wine – Cheers to that! Global Vintners retained Enviro-Stewards to identify measures to increase margin and reduce footprints in return for a portion of net savings if and when they occur. The…
Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) owns more than 180 properties, representing $9B in office, retail, industrial and residential assets across Canada. When its approximately 20 asset and property management partners are added into the mix, HOOPP influences…
Minto continues to build on its rich history of innovation in new home and community design with five Net Zero Energy Homes (NZEH) currently underway in its Arcadia community in Ottawa, Ontario. With an ultimate goal of Net…
Summary Sustainable Canada Dialogues, a collaboration among more than 60+ researchers from 10 provinces representing climate change expertise across a wide range of disciplines, from engineering to sociology, biology to business, resulted in the scholarly consensus “Acting on…
Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world, with nearly 1 trillion pounds of cigarette waste flooding the globe annually, leaching toxins into the groundwater, lakes and oceans. TerraCycle’s mandate is to recycle the “non-recyclable” and…
WHO WE ARE The Embedding Project is a public-benefit research project launched by the Network for Business Sustainability and hosted at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University. Relying on strong social science research methods, we…
