CTC #26 - The climate community rallies behind laid off tech workers

Plus: Aviation invests in carbon removal, a new climate damage fund from COP27, and climate tech makes up some of Canada's fastest growing companies

Nov 24, 2022

Hey there,

Welcome to another issue of Climate Tech Canada. There’s no denying it - it’s been a tough year in tech, with layoffs continuing this month (not to mention the chaos that is FTX and Twitter). In the face of this doom and gloom though, the climate community has been rallying to find new homes for all this newly available tech talent. I wanted to share some of the great resources that are out there for folks looking to make the switch, whether you’ve been laid off or are just looking for your next gig:

Climate Draft has a ton of amazing resources and just launched a new hub dedicated to laid off tech workers. The hub brings together postings from climate companies that are hiring right now, learning resources to equip folks who aren’t as familiar with the industry or climate solutions, and online communities to join. If you or someone you know has been laid off, this is the one to send them!

Terra.do job fairs are happening throughout November and December, with sessions dedicated to green buildings, transport, energy, and more. Terra.do is also offering 30% off their flagship course for anyone who’s been recently laid off.

Climatebase is running Climate Career Sessions throughout December that aim to connect tech talent with top climate companies. They also have one of the best job boards out there.

Know of some other resources that more people should know about? Shoot me a message!

Funding and growth

Carbon Engineering (Squamish, BC) secured $6.75M from Air Canada and an undisclosed amount of funding from Airbus to support the development of its direct air capture (DAC) carbon removal technology. Check out how Carbon Engineering is producing sustainable aviation fuel from captured carbon below.

CarbiCrete (Montreal, QC) secured $6.7M in funding to fuel product development, bizdev and marketing efforts. CarbiCrete is helping decarbonize the concrete industry by producing pre-cast concrete that replaces carbon-intensive cement with industrial by-products, curing it with CO2. The result is carbon negative concrete with sequestered carbon and lower emissions.

Alvéole (Montreal, QC) closed $8.1M in Series A funding to expand its urban bee data platform and expand to new markets. Alvéole helps organizations bring bees to urban buildings through bee hives, pollinator habitats and bee-friendly gardens, while allowing users to monitor the impacts of their bees.

Metaspectral (Vancouver, BC) secured $4.7M in seed funding to scale up its advanced computer vision technology. Metaspectral’s imaging can remotely identify the composition, condition, and other properties of materials that are invisible to conventional cameras, making monitoring of pipelines, recycling and other industries more accurate.

RainStick (Kelowna, BC) raised $3M, adding to the $1.8M from SDTC secured earlier this year. RainStick offers a circular shower solution for homes that reduces both water and energy use.

Edgehog Advanced Technologies (Montreal, QC) received a $750K investment from Natural Resources Canada to help fund the development of its nanotextured, anti-reflection glass technology for solar panels.

BluWave-ai (Ottawa, ON) received $1.7M from the federal government’s FedDev Ontario agency. The funding will support the development of BluWave’s EV fleet management software.

Opus One Solutions (Toronto, ON), a developer of grid software, received $500K from Natural Resources Canada. The funding will help develop the company’s DERMS solution which helps utilities manage distributed energy resources (DERs) like residential solar.

Milestones & Growth

Flashfood hit a major milestone, diverting over 40M pounds of food from landfills through its partnership with Loblaws! The progress so far equals over 34,000 tons of CO2 equivalent and saved consumers $110 million.

Flashfood was also named to Deloitte’s list of top-growing Clean Technology companies, along with Sollum Technologies, Biktrix and others. RideCo and GoBolt made the overall Fast 50 list and several climate tech companies made the “Companies-to-watch” list.

Open Ocean Robotics was named one of 2022’s 50 Most Innovative maritime startups for its uncrewed vessels and data collection that helps improve maritime monitoring and shipping route efficiency.

SWTCH Energy and Electric Circuit are making EV charging easier with a new roaming agreement that allows drivers to use either company’s app to find, access and manage charging. Users get access to ~3000k new charging stations across North America.

Biothermica, a technology company focused on eliminating methane emissions, launched a new methane abatement facility at one of the largest coal mines in the US. The abatement technology will remove about 300,000 tons of CO2e per year.

Brookfield Asset Management is investing $700M US to form a new recycling business, Circular Services. It’s a big bet on circularity and the value of recycled materials

In the news

COP27 wrapped up last week with mixed results. And while expectations for this round were low going into it, developing countries secured a big win with a new “loss and damage” fund for developing countries impacted by climate change. Canada’s announcements in the final week included:

Joining the Joint Declaration from Energy Importers and Exporters, which essentially reaffirmed past commitments while calling on the fossil fuel industry to do more to reduce emissions, particularly for methane.
Launching the Global Carbon Pricing Challenge to expand the use of pollution pricing around the world. The goal of the challenge is to have 60% of emissions covered by pollution pricing by 2030

During the conference, Environment Minister Guilbeault also said that Canada will decide between an emissions cap and modified carbon pricing for the oil and gas sector in the spring, and aims to have the regulations in place before the end of the year.

Elsewhere, the federal government announced a variety of new funding and programs for climate solutions:

A new, $250M grant to help homeowners switch to heat pumps.
Up to $800M across 60 projects for clean fuels. This is the first group of projects selected by the Clean Fuels Fund, with a second group currently under review.
$58M into R&D efforts at universities across the county. 24 projects were selected and touch on studying the climate impacts of land use, CO2 removal technology, urban methane emissions, and more.
$1.04M for UBC to help local businesses adopt circular economy practices. The funding will also go towards building up a repository of best practices.

The Competition Bureau is investigating the natural gas industry’s climate claims after complaints from the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment that an advertising campaign by producers presenting their product as “clean” and “sustainable” is misleading.

The U.S. military is exploring funding critical mineral projects in Canada in a bid to cut America’s reliance on China for the metals used in sensitive fields like defence and the expanding EV market.

Not only is Canada a source of minerals, but our battery supply chain is rapidly becoming on of the best in the world, ranked #2 by Bloomberg (up from #5 last year), and second only to China.

What’s going on

📅 Emerging Issues: Cleantech Conference hosted by the Manitoba Environmental Industries Association is being held on November 30th in Winnipeg, MB. The conference will showcase new climate tech solutions.

💡 The Women4Climate Toronto Mentorship Program, hosted by C40 Cities, is accepting applications. The program connects emerging women leaders with committed mentors from the public and private sector to become expert influencers and mobilizers. The deadline for applications is December 6th.

💡 Soil Health and Nutrient Management challenge, hosted by Foresight Canada. Applications are open until Jan 12, 2023. Seeking solutions that improve fertilizer use, improve soil structure, and reduce erosion.

💡 Angels for Climate Solutions closes soon, aiming to increase the flow of capital into B.C.-based startups by pairing angels with startups. Startup submissions close Nov 28th, angel submissions close December 16th.

💡 Emissions Reduction Alberta launched the Industrial Transformation Challenge, putting up $50M for technology that will help reach net-zero emissions. Applications close January 19th.

🆕 MaRS launched its new Net Zero program, aimed at removing barriers to public procurement of climate technologies and connecting government buyers with Canadian providers of climate solutions.