Future Proof - The Road to Zero

Join our conversation with Bob Powell, Chief Executive Officer of Brigthmark.

Dedicated to finding sustainable and economically viable  solutions to the waste problem, Brigthmark has developed two principal business lines. The first is a process for transforming plastic waste into base chemical components that can be used to make fuel or new virgin plastics, thereby completely recycling all classes of plastics including the traditional non-recyclable kinds.

The second line of business deals with tackling methane emissions from organic waste, food and animal waste and turning them into renewable natural gas.

Focusing on growing both lines of business throughout North America to reduce the impact of waste on the environment, and looking for other ways to re-imagine waste.

Listen to our conversation with Craig Nicol, CEO of Graphene Materials Group (GMG).

Having developed the ability to create Graphene by extracting carbon from natural gas, GMG has been busy developing ways to utilize this super material to accelerate the development of reduced and zero carbon technologies.

Using the remarkable properties for heat transfer of these materials, GMG is commercializing specialized coatings to be used for air conditioner systems that will dramatically reduce the energy efficiency of these systems.

Also in development is an Aluminum-ion based battery with significant improvements over Li-ion technology in performance and environmental impact that GMG is working to bring to market within a year starting in specialized consumer electronics applications initially.  

Having the potential to revolutionize the battery technology, this will definitely be one company to follow.

Join our conversation with Heather MacKenzie, Executive Director of Solar Alberta. Representing residential, business and the solar industry, this Non-Profit has a mission to educate and facilitate the development of solar energy and industry in the province of Alberta.

Leading in the growth of solar power generation in Canada, we’ll go over what is making that possible, as well as getting a better sense of what the future holds.

We’ll discuss Alberta’s Clean Energy Improvement Program, following on the American PACE model, allowing property owners to obtain affordable loans for rooftop solar install and making solar systems affordable.

A great in depth view of Alberta’s solar boom and what it means for the future of energy in this region.

Join our conversation with Gray Alton, Vice President of Project Development at Terrapin Geothermics in Edmonton AB.

Pioneering conventional geothermal power generation in Alberta, Terrapin is looking to take advantage of the untapped geothermal capacity in northern Alberta to create a baseload and renewable zero carbon energy source. Terrapin is currently working on their Alberta No 1 project to drill down 4km to access a geothermal heat resource to run a large-scale electrical generating facility along with a district heating supply network.

The second line of Terrapin’s business is taking advantage of recovering waste heat from industrial processes and generating electricity to reduce their electrical grid consumption or generate revenue with the sale of the power generated. With an estimated 60% of the energy we create as a society lost as a waste heat, there is a massive opportunity for zero carbon power generation.

Join our conversation with John Bissell and Rich Riley, Co-Chief Executive Officers of Origin Materials.

Using novel chemistry to use wood product waste streams as feedstock, their process creates plastics and other valuable materials that would otherwise be made from fossil fuels.  These materials are able to be generated in a carbon neutral and even carbon negative manner from waste.

Having much demand for their products from a industry looking for zero carbon alternatives, they have created a number of high level partnerships and they are developing their production base as fast as they can to meet the growing demand.

Listen to our interview with Jonathan Frank, Head of Clean Energy at Vancity Community Investment Bank (VCIB).  

A Canadian nationally chartered bank, VCIB is a values driven bank with the goal of utilizing the tools of finance to drive a lower carbon future and seek new and innovative solutions that are often overlooked by mainstream finance. 

Lending to a large range of clean tech focused projects, VCIB is a partner who provides the due diligence needed for project success and is able to make the connection to a wide array of outside expertise. 

Lending to projects that make economic sense, VCIB is able to provide competitive lending terms and help scale-up climate solutions for projects looking for loans in the range of $3M to $50M or partnering with others on larger projects. Focused on a growing segment of the market, VCIB is aiming to be a major player in the financial solutions to the climate crisis. VCIB also provides a range of business lending solutions, commercial real estate lending solutions and deposit products, all with a focus on creating positive social and environmental change.

Join our conversation with Sophia Hamblin Wang, Chief Operating Officer of Mineral Carbonation International.

Utilizing a variety of industrial mineral waste streams, MCI is able to utilize their carbon reactor system to combine them with captured carbon in order to create a variety of products, such as magnesium carbonate, silica, and other low carbon or carbon negative products.

Having been granted a $14M investment by the Australian government, MCI is quickly moving to building a full demonstration plant within 2 years along with plans for additional plant locations and create agreements for carbon value chains for a supply of feed material and supply agreements for their end products.

Working on creating the circular economy of carbon, Sophia gives us her perspective of the growing Carbon Capture and Utilization market that may well be worth over 5.9 trillion in the very near future as well as the ongoing race for carbon neutrality.

Join our conversation with Joseph Pallant, Founder of Blockchain for Climate Foundation.  

As an avid supporter of blockchain technology, Joseph has been leading the development of a blockchain platform to enable issuance and exchange of international carbon credits under the Paris Agreement.  

Utilizing the tools available on Ethereum blockchain ecosystem to issue Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) allows each ton of carbon credit to carry all of the information around the project that created it, how its moved from there, to its eventual "retirement" against a carbon footprint. 

Blockchain for Climate Foundation's "BITMO Platform" is live as a beta version on Ethereum's Rinkeby testnet. As the target market and initial use case for this platform is national governments seeking to issue and exchange Paris-compliant carbon credits, the team is now seeking national government partners to trial, collaborate on, and if desired, eventually champion its use.  

We'll also discuss the current carbon footprint of cryptocurrency, and new innovation being done to create a sustainable pathway both in terms of reducing and offsetting emissions for cryptocurrency mining and development of proof of stake consensus mechanism for developing new crypto coins produced at greatly reduced energy intensity.

Join us for our conversation with Siddha Mahajan of Anova Energy, as we examine the ways Canadian industry can meet their regulatory carbon emissions reductions.

Anova Energy is a leading Canadian commodities brokerage firm, based in Alberta, offering services in procurement management, renewable/green energy credits acquisition & sale, retail energy reviews, energy procurement audits, and energy consumption analysis.

In our conversation we'll look at the current options for companies to reduce, and then offset their carbon footprint.  How do international credits fit in and the advantage of verified or Gold Standard offsets.

Listen to our conversation with Wilson Ma VP, Corporate Development at Li-Cycle.

With Lithium battery demand continuing to rise and the extraction of raw materials creating more pressure on our environment, new and lucrative opportunities are arising to re-use end-of-life batteries and battery manufacturing scrap to create less expensive and less intensive sources.

Li-Cycle can supply Lithium to the industry at a cost advantage compared to the mining industry by recuperating up to 95% of the material from old batteries and battery scrap producing new lithium battery materials.

With plans to list on the NYSE, build a third facility in Phoenix, and expand globally, Li-Cycle is aiming to become the #1 domestic supplier of cobalt and nickel sulphates.  Working with their partners they plan to grow their collection network and recover as many end of life batteries as possible to meet rising demand for batteries now and in the future.