ECO offers Canadian strategic media advice. We do release distribution by fax, email, online and Google News.
Toronto: 416.972.7404
Sudbury: 1.800.494.4199
distrib@ecostrategy.ca
First Nation and Climate Charity Partnership on Sweetgrass as a Climate Solution chosen as “Project of the Year” by in-person gathering of 144 Clean50 Sustainability Leaders
Toronto, October 17 2024 – A partnership between the Piikani Lands Department and The Resilience Institute, called “Seeding our Future with Sweetgrass,” which brought Indigenous and scientific experts together to develop new knowledge on the ability of Sweetgrass to sequester carbon and to strengthen the biodiversity of prairie grasslands, was declared “The 2025 Top Project of the Year” after a confidential vote by over 140 Clean50 sustainability leaders. The vote came at the conclusion of the 14th annual “Clean50 Summit”.
Following the full list of 2025 Clean50 individual leaders announced last week, the full list of the 2025 Clean50 Top Projects was announced today by Clean50 Executive Director Gavin Pitchford, and follows below. Pitchford called the awardees “remarkable Innovators driving major impacts in every region of Canada”.
The other five Top Project award winners announced today included two efforts to put solar panels in unexpected places: A project by Renuwell and the District of Taber, Alberta takes land destroyed by abandoned oil wells and covers the now un-farmable land with solar panels ranked second, and St. Mary’s University in Nova Scotia replacing end-of-life external concrete cladding on a student residence with structural panels incorporating solar arrays from Toronto manufacturer Mitrex was ranked 4th. Rounding out the top 5 were the founding of the group “Women in Climate Finance” (3rd) and Vancity’s grants to non-profit housing operators to do energy efficiency retrofits (5th).
The twenty other sustainability projects recognized with Top Project awards were wildly diverse, ranging from to replacing standard roofs with green roofs, restoring wetlands, offering active retirees who give up their gas-powered cars access to a pool of electric vehicles, erecting wind turbines in the Yukon to eliminate diesel generators in First Nations communities, providing gorgeous container-based apartments to a Squamish community and the creation of a “Director of Planetary Health” role within the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine – with a wide variety of other energy and environment saving initiatives in between.
Clean50 Top Projects were selected from over 100 nominees, based on their innovation, their ability to inspire other Canadians to imitate, but mostly based on their climate-action impact.
The full list and details of Canada’s 2025 Clean50Top Projects, appears below, and more details as well as the 2025 Clean50 individual honourees, Clean50 Emerging Leaders and Lifetime Achievement Honourees can be found on the Clean50 website: https://www.clean50.com/
Media contact: Gavin Pitchford gpitchford@deltamanagement.com
416-925-2005 / 774-330-6606 https://clean50.com
Clean50 TOP PROJECT AWARDS for 2025
Selection Criteria: Projects are selected based on criteria that prioritizes “five I’s”: Impact, Innovation, Inspiring, Informative, and able to be Imitated. Once nominated, project proponents respond to a detailed form to identify their process and results. Details at https://clean50.com/projects
Most honourees have agreed to be interviewed, and the Clean50 team are pleased to facilitate this.
Presented first, as ranked by 144 Clean50 Summit 14 Participants (top 5 only), and then alphabetically by lead proponent (6 through 25)
Piikani Lands Department & The Resilience Institute | Seeding our Future with Sweetgrass - Adaptation to Climate Impacts through Healthy Ecosystems and Traditional Plants in the Piikani First Nation (2025 Clean50 Top Project-of-the-Year as chosen by Clean50 Summit 14 participants)
RenuWell Energy Solutions & District of Taber |Repurposing Oilfield Liabilities into Solar Energy Assets (2025 Clean50 Top Project-of-the-Year 1st runner up, as chosen by Clean50 Summit 14 participants)
Power Sustainable, CDPQ & Joanna Klimczak | Creation of "Women in Climate Finance" (WCF) (2025 Clean50 Top Project-of-the-Year, 2nd runner up, as chosen by Clean50 Summit 14 participants)
Saint Mary's University & Mitrex | Saint Mary's University 22 Story BIPV Installation - Saint Mary's University Loyola Residence Replaces Concrete Exterior Cladding with Solar Panels (4th place)
Vancity Credit Union | Vancity Nonprofit Housing Retrofit Grants Program (5th place)
Aviva Canada & Upswing Solutions | Accelerating Supply Chain Decarbonization - Aviva Canada’s supplier engagement strategy to tackle supply chain emissions
Blackstone Energy Services & Brock University | Using Data to Drive Decarbonization at Brock University via Brock University Distributed Energy Resource Management System
Camp Kawartha & Straworks | Children's Camp Rotary Health Centre - Healthy for People and Planet - Sustainable Living in Action
CBWES Inc. & TransCoastal Adaptations: Centre for Nature-Based Solutions, Saint Mary’s University, Nova Scotia Department of Public Works | Restoring the Belcher Street Marsh - Managed Dyke Realignment and Tidal Wetland Restoration Project
Community Energy Association | Retrofit Assist Energy Concierge Program: Expert support for home energy and savings
CPA Canada, Clean Tech North & PwC | Green Tech Working Group collaborates to make the case to support clean tech innovation
Enviro-Stewards & Credit Valley Conservation | Smart Blue Roofs on CVC's and Enviro-Stewards' headquarters Drive Energy and Water Savings & provide Affordable Climate Mitigation and Adaptation
ED4S (Education for Sustainability) & Finance Montreal | Quebec Sustainable Workforce Education Initiative
Environment and Climate Change Canada (Government of Canada) | Federal Sustainable Development Strategy 2022-2026
Innocap & Finance Montréal | Investi - The fund invested for sustainable finance - Accelerating innovation in sustainable finance through collaboration
Kite Mobility Inc. & Delmanor | Sustainable Electric Vehicles for Active Retirees - Kite & Delmanor swap shareable EVs for personal gas-powered vehicles, mobilizing active retirees
LOCO BC | The Economic and Climate Benefits of Shopping / Buying Local - An Economic and Carbon Analysis of 5 Common Purchases
NERVA Energy Group | Over 10,000 suites optimized for peak performance - The Largest Multi-Residential Smart Building Conversion in North America!
Northern Energy Capital & CNLP | Empowering Yukon: Indigenous Wind Energy Revolution - Haeckel Hill-Thay T'äw Wind Project
NUQO Modular | Squamish Nation Modular Homes - Esḵéḵxwi7ch tl’a Sp’áḵw’us Place: Culturally Informed Modular Housing for Squamish Nation
QUEST Canada | Net Zero Community Accelerator
Siemens Canada, Humber College & Bishop James Mahoney HS | The Net Zero Classroom: Teaching Students about Microgrids
Teck Resources, Fenner Dunlop & Tyromer | Material Handling Conveyors Go Green - Recycling massive truck tires into material handling conveyor belts
UBC | Climate Venture Studio "entrepreneurship@UBC"
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine | Revitalizing Medical Governance for a Healthier World - The urgent case for a director of planetary health in every faculty of medicine
Clean50 Backgrounder and logistics
The Canada’s Clean50 award program and Summit were founded in 2011 by Canada’s leading ESG, sustainability and clean tech 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 at the time there was growing acknowledgement that climate change was real, and that broad solutions were needed, most organizations 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. Two years later, the list expanded to identify Emerging Leaders and Top Sustainability Projects, and now also recognizes Canadian business and climate heroes with Lifetime Achievement awards. This year, 73 of 75 individual honourees attended the Clean50 Summit in person, and over 35 past winners come back to continue to play a role in deliberations, learn new things, and be inspired.
Including small teams and Emerging Leaders, The Clean50 Award Alumni list now numbers over 1,000 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.
The underlying purpose of the award program was to identify, recognize and – most importantly – connect sustainability leaders from across Canada, in the belief that 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 in 2011 to accelerate this process.
Over 140 delegates, including both incoming Clean50 honourees and award winners and past honourees attended the in-person Clean50 Summit 14.0 in Toronto on October 10th 2024 and spent a 14 hour day tackling climate problems looking for out-of-the-box solutions, as well as looking for opportunities for future collaboration. With 36 Working sessions during the day, 3 different groups of 12 thought leader participants proposed and debated transformational responses to 12 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.
In addition to the work sessions, leading project proponents shared their projects and results, and delegates voted on their choice for the top project of the year. The day was capped by an awards dinner, where delegates were feted with their awards. An announcement of the Project of the Year results won by the organizations referenced above, concluded the Summit.
In addition to this website, we also do fax and email distribution. Call us for a quote on your distribution needs at 416-805-7720 or email us at huffd@ecostrategy.ca.