In 2022, Canadian Business launched its new Innovation Awards, celebrating the most ingenious, inventive and world-changing companies in Canada. Over the years, the awards have recognized Canadian innovators that went on to transform the country: past winners have included fintech giant Wealthsimple, smart thermostat company Ecobee and e-commerce titan Shopify. This year, we focus on the most urgent issue of our time: the threat of climate change. Produced in partnership with CB’s sister publication, Maclean’s, the 2025 awards honour companies trying to solve our climate crisis, whether that means using quantum chemistry and sunlight to purify water (Xatoms), capturing carbon emissions from the atmosphere (Deep Sky) or recycling rare-earth elements (Geomega). In addition to CB recognition, they’ve earned tens of millions of dollars in funding, investment and revenue—proving that saving the planet is always good for business.

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New School Foods

Creating sustainable, plant-based salmon that looks, feels, tastes and flakes like the real thing

Salmon consumption is at an all-time high, but farming the fish can destroy natural habitats and lead to biodiversity loss. Enter New School Foods, founded in 2021 by tech entrepreneur Chris Bryson. After selling his software company to Instacart in 2018, he set his sights on finding a sustainable salmon substitute. He funded six research proposals before hiring two of the scientists to embark on a year-long research and development effort. His team produced food-structuring technology that can produce aligned muscle fibres and connective tissue from plant-based materials, resulting in whole-cut, plant-based salmon that looks, cooks, tastes and flakes like real fish, all without the risks of the mercury, sea lice or antibiotics commonly found in farmed fish. New School’s salmon can be cooked similarly to the regular stuff, and an infusion process delivers amounts of protein and omega-3s at levels comparable to real fish. The flavour comes from ingredients like algae oil. Unlike many plant-based alternatives that come breaded or pre-seasoned, New School’s salmon is left untouched, giving chefs full creative control. The company, which has grown to a team of 25, has raised $18 million in funding and opened a 28,000-square-foot facility in Toronto. The plant, equipped with a commercial assembly line, allows New School to produce the salmon at a larger scale and lays the groundwork for future expansion. Already, the salmon filets have debuted in 10 restaurants, including the Park Hyatt, Il Fornello and Pompette in Toronto. Even IKEA has taken notice, taking part in a US$6-million funding round last year, a promising move as the Swedish giant plans to make 50 per cent of its restaurant meals plant-based by the end of 2025.

ThinkLabs AI

Developing a more resilient power grid 

ThinkLabs AI’s flagship software analyzes energy patterns on the grid and uses AI to optimize the delivery of solar, wind and other energy, kind of like how Google Maps analyzes traffic congestion to tell a driver the quickest route to their destination. The company, founded by Toronto-based Josh Wong, was spun out of GE with a $5-million seed investment.  

Katchi Technologies

Making ocean trawling more sustainable 

Bottom trawling, a technique used for centuries, damages reefs and ocean habitats and contributes to overfishing and bycatch (the unintended capture of other species). Marc d’Entremont, whose family has run a fish-processing plant in Nova Scotia for four generations, hopes to make trawling more efficient and sustainable with his automated rope trawler. A fisher uses an echo sounder to detect activity, then casts the net. Sensors ensure the net sits near, but not on, the seafloor. The goal is to cause less seabed disturbance, reduce fuel consumption and decrease bycatch by up to 80 per cent.

Xatoms

Cleaning polluted water using AI and quantum chemistry

At age 14, Diana Virgovicova went backpacking through India with her mother and was horrified by polluted water she saw there. Back home in Slovakia, Virgovicova contacted university professors to learn about water-treatment research. By age 17, she had used quantum chemistry software to discover a new material that purifies water using sunlight—an accomplishment that earned her a full scholarship to study computer engineering at the University of Toronto in 2020. Three years later, Virgovicova launched Xatoms, with the help of a $100,000 grant from Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian’s fellowship program. The company uses artificial intelligence and quantum chemistry to make photocatalysts (molecules that absorb sunlight) that clean and purify polluted water. With revenue of almost $2 million a year, Xatoms’s projects so far include clean drinking water in Kenya and E. coli removal in South Africa.

Ekona Power

Reducing emissions by producing clean hydrogen and solid carbon from natural gas

After working two decades in the fuel cell industry, British Columbia–based engineer Gary Schubak saw an opportunity. Oil refineries were producing large amounts of hydrogen to refine fuels, but were emitting a great quantity of carbon dioxide at the same time. To capture it from the atmosphere, they were using a costly carbon sequestration process. Schubak and three former university colleagues developed a process that converts natural gas into clean hydrogen and solid carbon—allowing companies to stop using expensive sequestration procedures while significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A $2-million seed investment from Cenovus and Suncor got Ekona off the ground, and a $70-million Series A funding round, backed largely by oil and gas investors, accelerated their mission. The company, now with 40 employees, has a test facility in Burnaby, British Columbia, and is preparing a site at a plant near Grande Prairie, Alberta, where they will demonstrate the technology in real-world conditions. If all goes to plan, commercial-scale deployment could begin by 2028.

GI Quo Vadis 

Turning historic buildings into sustainable community hubs

Built in 1861, St. Joseph Church in Montreal’s Little Burgundy neighbourhood is a historic, gorgeous landmark. But for decades, it didn’t have bathrooms and was expensive to heat. It sat empty for 15 years before Natalie Voland, founder of GI Quo Vadis, stepped in. Voland, whose background is in social work, took over her father’s real estate business in 1998. The company’s focus now is to preserve and restore historic buildings—using less carbon than would be used bulldozing and rebuilding—and turning them into hubs for entrepreneurs, artists and community groups. St. Joseph Church is now retrofitted to be energy-efficient and accessible. Renamed Le Salon 1861, the building houses a boxing studio and kids’ music program on the ground floor and an event space upstairs. A restaurant has tables repurposed from the original church pews. Additional GI Quo Vadis projects include turning a textile manufacturing building into commercial office spaces and a mattress factory into a complex that hosts small businesses, an art gallery, community space and a courtyard restaurant.

Deep Sky

Building a solar-powered carbon-capture facility in Alberta

Canada has set a goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The Quebec-based company Deep Sky is offering one approach to meet the target: removing carbon from the air after it’s been emitted. “We’re an oil and gas company, but in reverse,” says Phil De Luna, Deep Sky’s chief science and commercial officer. Powered by solar energy, the company’s new five-acre facility in Innisfail, Alberta, called Deep Sky Alpha, will begin operations later this year. Fans will suck air through a filter that captures CO₂ molecules, while allowing oxygen and nitrogen to pass through. The CO₂ will then be compressed, cooled, liquefied and trucked to nearby deep saline aquifers, where it will be stored two kilometres underground. (This CO₂ storage method has been used in Alberta since the 1970s.) Deep Sky Alpha is expected to capture close to 3,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year—a fraction of the approximately 700 megatonnes of CO₂ emitted every year in Canada, but a critical proof of concept for the technology’s potential. Beyond its impact on our changing climate, carbon capture could create jobs and bolster local economies if similar facilities are built across the country. Already, Deep Sky Alpha has created nearly 100 jobs around Innisfail and will inject up to $110 million into the community.

Poseidon Ocean Systems 

Developing machines that make fish farming more sustainable 

As global seafood demand rises, farmed fish is expected to make up nearly two-thirds of the world’s supply by 2030. But the fish-farming industry faces mounting challenges—water pollution, disease outbreaks and environmental damage—that threaten both farmed and wild fish populations. Poseidon Ocean Systems, founded in 2015 in Campbell River, British Columbia, by Heather and Matt Clarke, is developing high-tech machinery to make fish farming safer and more sustainable. Poseidon’s technology reduces harmful interactions between farmed and wild fish, mitigating threats like plankton blooms, hypoxia and sea lice. These innovations also improve water quality and create a healthier environment for farmed fish. The company’s battery-powered aeration machine improves water quality and is also climate win: a 2022 trial found it reduced carbon emissions by 60 per cent.

GoBolt

Building a sustainable, electric vehicle–powered supply-chain network

Logistics company GoBolt aims to build the world’s largest sustainable supply-chain network, in part by reducing “last mile” emissions, which are produced while moving a product from a warehouse to a home or store. The company, founded by Toronto-based Mark Ang and Heindrik Bernabe, completed four million deliveries last year from 12 North American warehouses, with 40 per cent of these deliveries made using electric vehicles. Their technology, which includes an app built by their in-house engineering team, provides drivers with updates on their battery charge level, tells them where the nearest charging station is and ensures drivers take the most efficient route for their deliveries. In addition to low-emissions deliveries, goods are shipped in environmentally friendly packaging. When drivers can’t use an electric vehicle, the company makes up for it in other ways—so far, they’ve planted 150,000 trees to ensure GoBolt stays carbon neutral.

Harvest Systems

Capturing and reusing heat waste from cooking 

As much as 90 per cent of the heat produced in commercial gas cooking goes unused. Instead, it is released outdoors where it contributes to carbon emissions. Harvest Systems, based in Hamilton, Ontario, has developed technology that captures energy lost from commercial gas-fired appliances and uses it to heat water and air, reducing a restaurant’s environmental impact and saving it thousands of dollars annually. The company has piloted the technology in three Pizza Pizza locations to date. The outcome: improved oven efficiency of up to 50 per cent, and improved fryer efficiency of up to 85 per cent. Pizza Pizza has committed to installing 340 units, in nearly half of its locations, over the next three years. Harvest Systems is now working with WingsUp! and Recipe Unlimited, whose brands include Swiss Chalet and The Keg. Jim Cotton, Harvest’s CEO, says its goal is for the technology to become an industry standard.

Azure Sustainable Fuels 

Producing renewable fuel from Canadian canola

Forty-five airlines now blend small amounts of sustainable aviation fuels, made from renewable or waste-derived sources, with traditional jet fuel. Canada’s target is a 10 per cent blend by 2030—and Azure wants to be a key supplier. Their facility will be capable of processing 500,000 tonnes of agricultural feedstock—mainly canola and soybean oils—into 570 million litres of biofuel annually.

Nulife GreenTech 

Turning agricultural and food waste into fuel

Saskatoon-based Nulife is tackling two pressing challenges: waste disposal and sustainable fuel production. The company’s technology transforms agricultural residue, food-manufacturing waste and sewage sludge into refinable biocrude oil. Nulife’s process removes 95 per cent of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as “forever chemicals,” and cuts disposal and transportation costs for companies like large dairy processors and waste-disposal giants. Refineries are eager for the resulting biocrude oil, and Nulife hopes to achieve commercial scale by the end of 2025.

Giatec Scientific 

Using AI to create more sustainable concrete

Cement, the ingredient that gives concrete its strength, is made by heating limestone, clay and sand in a rotating kiln to reach extremely high temperatures. This process produces large amounts of CO₂ emissions and is largely responsible for the construction industry’s staggering carbon footprint. In 2024, the federal government announced a $17.5-million investment in a $65.8-million project, led by Giatec Scientific, to develop sensors that use artificial intelligence to optimize concrete mixtures. Giatec’s technology lowers emissions, conserves energy and water, and improves the concrete’s durability. Its sensors also collect real-time data to improve efficiency in the manufacturing process. The company plans to open a smart-concrete demonstration plant in Ottawa, where representatives from construction companies and researchers from universities will be able to drive further innovation in concrete technology. The plant is expected to create 160 jobs.

MTC Mass Timber Company

Building North America’s most advanced mass timber plant, which will produce 50,000 cubic metres of the sustainable construction material each year

Nova Scotia’s MTC Mass Timber Company is developing Atlantic Canada’s first mass timber manufacturing plant. The $215-million facility, which MTC hopes to build with a First Nations partner, will be the world’s most advanced, with highly automated and flexible production capabilities, and it will have an annual production capacity of 50,000 cubic metres. Used in the construction of office towers, apartments and university buildings, mass timber consists of pieces of softwood lumber glued together to create large, load-bearing construction elements like beams and columns, which can be used with, or instead of, steel and concrete. The engineered wood has a laundry list of promises, among them sustainability, renewability, reusability and energy efficiency. The goal is to reduce the amount of embodied carbon: the carbon produced while making the product, from resource extraction to the end of manufacturing. Buildings made with mass timber use about 40 per cent less embodied carbon­ than concrete and 25 per cent less embodied carbon than steel. It’s also strong, fire-resistant, versatile and quick and easy to use during construction. It’s because of these attributes that Canadian building codes are moving in favour of mass timber: in Ontario, buildings can now be built as tall as 18 storeys with the engineered wood and, last year, Vancouver’s city council approved a 25-storey mass timber residential rental building.

Planetary Technologies

Increasing the ocean’s ability to store carbon dioxide

Roughly a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions dissolve into the ocean, but the water has limited capacity to store carbon dioxide. Nova Scotia–based Planetary Technologies is pioneering a process where carefully controlled doses of alkaline substances, such as magnesium hydroxide, are added to water as it flows into the ocean from outfall facilities, like wastewater treatment plants, increasing the ocean’s ability to transform and store carbon.

Viridis Terra

Transforming degraded land using biotechnology 

Viridis Terra uses biotechnologies, such as advanced seeds, fertilizers and genomic tools, to enhance plant regeneration. The Quebec-based company has already transformed ravaged gold and copper mining sites across Canada into greener, healthier environments. In 2024, it launched an agroforestry initiative in the Peruvian Amazon focused on restoring degraded lands by integrating native trees and crops, like cocoa and citrus, supporting both biodiversity and local farming communities.

Enersion

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions produced by air-conditioning systems

In 2016, Iranian-born engineer Hanif Montazeri and his brother Ali co-founded Enersion, realizing a childhood dream of building technology that could make a global impact. Their Toronto-based company is now tackling one of the biggest contributors to climate change: air conditioning. With more than two billion air-conditioning units in use worldwide, cooling systems account for 10 per cent of global electricity consumption and 3.2 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. As heat waves become more frequent and severe, cooling demand is expected to more than triple by 2050, increasing energy use and accelerating climate change. To address this looming crisis, Enersion developed Energy Cubed, a heat pump system that primarily uses solar radiation instead of electricity and depends on water instead of environmentally harmful refrigerants. Unlike conventional air conditioners, the new system operates without compressors, cutting energy use and reducing the need for maintenance. It’s currently best suited for large buildings like hospitals, offices and shopping malls, and Energy Cubed has already been deployed in a Toronto data centre and a greenhouse in Calgary. Enersion is also in talks with a hospital  in British Columbia and Con Edison, New York City’s electricity supplier. With potential energy savings of up to 60 per cent, Enersion’s innovation could help pave the way for a cleaner, more efficient future.

Eavor Technologies

Harnessing the Earth’s natural heat for electricity

When John Redfern co-founded Eavor Technologies in 2018, geothermal energy supplied less than one per cent of global electricity. Now, the International Energy Agency estimates that geothermal energy could provide 15 per cent of global electricity by 2050. Eavor’s technology drills deep into underground reservoirs to create large radiators that harness the Earth’s natural heat and convert it into electricity. The company hopes to drill some of the deepest wellbores ever recorded—as far as 15 kilometres underground—and tap into energy-rich steam pockets registering as high as 450 degrees Celsius. In late 2023, Eavor secured a US$182-million Series B round of funding, backed by Microsoft’s Climate Fund, Austrian petrochemical giant OMV and British Petroleum. It was also the first company to receive investment from Canada’s $15-billion Growth Fund, which took a $90-million stake. Eavor has launched new projects in the United States and Germany, where it is building its first commercial facility.

Related: Here’s What Went Down at the CB Innovation Awards 2024 Luncheon

Airex Energy

Turning wood waste into fossil-fuel alternatives 

Founded in 2014, Airex Energy has developed a technology called CarbonFX, which can transform sawmill residue and leftover wood from logging into carbon-rich alternatives to fossil fuels. Biocoal was the Quebec-based company’s first breakthrough: the sustainable coal runs power stations and heating systems with lower emissions than regular coal. When pulverized, it’s also a key ingredient in sustainable aviation fuel, renewable natural gas, bio-based chemicals and hydrogen production.

Geomega

Extracting and reusing rare-earth elements 

Today’s technology relies on rare-earth elements, a group of 15 chemically similar elements found in headphones, cell phones, CT scanners and much more. But when that technology breaks or becomes obsolete, magnets made from these elements end up in landfills. Geomega extracts elements from magnet scrap in order to reuse them. Its flagship project, a magnet-recycling demonstration plant in Saint-Hubert, Quebec, is backed by $2 million from Next Generation Manufacturing Canada, a federally funded non-profit.