econext is seeking input from its membership and practitioners in NL on their environmental assessment (EA) experiences.
If you have recently been involved in EA processes in the province we are hoping you will be willing to fill out a short survey.
Responses from this survey will help inform econext‘s engagement with decision-makers on this important subject.
If you would like to discuss your feedback in greater detail, please contact Kieran Hanley at kieran@econext.ca.
Newfoundland and Labrador has a small population spread across vast areas of land. Its communities and industries are often found in rural and sometimes even remote areas. These circumstances make the provision of waste management services challenging. Processes and technologies that are proven elsewhere often are uneconomic in the NL context due to smaller scales of activity and volumes of waste.
Organics represent roughly a third of the province’s waste. While much of this material is sent to landfills, in many cases that organic waste has value. This project ran from 2022-24 and focused on exploring new uses for industrial organic waste streams, with objectives to: improve environmental outcomes via reduced landfilling; increase productivity for businesses by reducing their wastes; and create new business opportunities in NL where new value from waste can be achieved.
The project aimed to accelerate value from waste innovation in NL through strategic research, firm-level interventions, and sector-level initiatives.
Efforts to develop effective waste-to-value initiatives and enterprises for organics in NL have struggled to gain traction or become sustainable. Given the growing interest among multiple groups in pursuing these opportunities, econext partnered with The Harris Centre to engage in a cross-sectoral dialogue on the opportunities, challenges, strategies and policy implications for advancing the development of organic “waste-to-value” approaches and enterprises in the province. The forum was held on April 22, 2022 and informed in part by the research identified above. Other event partners included the NL Forestry Industry Association (NLFIA), the NL Aquaculture Industry Association (NAIA), the NL Federation of Agriculture (NLFA), the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation (CCFI), and the Association of Seafood Producers.
Informed by the strategic research and forum, through the life of the project econext worked directly with over 20 SMEs and organizations in NL to help them identify value from waste opportunities, refine ideas and concepts, and develop project proposals to attract partners and funding. Some of the projects which econext helped to shape have advanced from concept to implementation, resulting in real waste management challenges being solved through local innovation.
Research was undertaken to identify industrial organic waste research, development, and innovation opportunities in forestry, aquaculture, fisheries, and agriculture on an Atlantic Canadian basis.
Through the life of the project, econext experimented with different approaches to support and stimulate value from waste initiatives in NL. These included:
Forthcoming.
In 2023 econext formed Newfoundland and Labrador’s Clean Energy Innovation Industry Advisory Committee (IAC). The IAC is made up of representatives from utilities, clean energy developers, industry associations, and research institutions.
The purpose of the IAC is to identify and prioritize innovation opportunities based on real world challenges and opportunities facing the province’s clean energy industry.
The results of this work feed into all of econext‘s efforts to advance clean growth research, development, and innovation in NL – from engaging students in the organization of ideathons to matching needs with local research capabilities.
Where there is mutual interest in the pursuit of innovation, econext facilitates partnerships through the development of collaborative projects and initiatives.
econext plays an important role in defining opportunities for green innovation within Newfoundland and Labrador’s industries and communicating that to innovators – or those that are willing to work to develop new solutions.
One important group of innovators in this regard is the startup community.
What environmental challenges are industries facing that require the development of a new technology, process, or service? What new opportunities are emerging that startups can supplement and help drive success for?
Through its close industry relationships, econext helps define challenges and opportunities that – if addressed – can help accelerate clean growth in Newfoundland and Labrador. In turn, it takes this intel and partners with incubators, accelerators, etc. to seed these ideas and make innovators aware of the potential startup applications.
While econext accomplishes the above mostly through direct engagement with stakeholders, it has helped to seed ideas through public forums and open events.
This 2023-24 project, in partnership with the Marine Institute and the Town of Holyrood, was a pilot to explore workforce development within the context of smaller communities and with a focus on the increasing importance of ‘green’ skills and training in traditional areas of strength (in this case: oceans).
The space between the blue and green economies was chosen as a subject matter due to Newfoundland and Labrador’s expertise in the development of technologies and provision of services in this space and the exciting employment opportunities within it. The Town of Holyrood was chosen because of the recent opening of The Launch and the exciting opportunities which this provided.
This project had six distinct components, described below.
10 SMEs and the Marine Institute were engaged in a training needs assessment to identify skills gaps related to environmental (green) aspects of the blue economy. The objective of the assessment was to inform the future development of micro-learning and upskilling programming related to ocean cleantech and the convergence of the blue and green economies in NL. The results of the training needs assessment also informed the development of the Town of Holyrood’s community workforce development plan (see below).
Based on the results of training needs assessment, the Marine Institute developed a series of upskilling courses to address identified skills gaps and priorities. 5 subjects chosen for program development, from the perspective of oceans-based technologies and services, including:
The Launch played host to a series of 10 demonstration and deployment activities throughout the Fall of 2023 showcasing the technologies and services of local SMEs. This included the participation of some of the province’s leading developers of ocean technologies. Interested job-seekers were provided with transportation to and from Holyrood, where they had an opportunity to not only see what jobs in the blue/green economy looked like up close, but also to interact directly with SMEs and their staff. This presented an excellent opportunity for job seekers to meet potential future employers, and for SMEs to meet potential future employees. The exercises also provided early test-cases for various types of demonstration and deployment activities at The Launch which had only officially opened a few months prior. The engagement with job seekers had a particular focus on the participation of new Canadians, and was highly successful in this regard through a partnership with the ANC resulting in an 80% participate rate from under-represented groups.
Following the demonstration and deployment exercises, 7 participating SMEs offered 3-month internships in the Winter of 2024 to job seekers who had attended in the events. econext was pleased to discover that, in some cases, these short internships led to full-time permanent employment opportunities for participants.
Based on the training needs assessment, existing town assets (such as The Launch), local demographics, and economic development priorities, a consultant was hired to work with the Town of Holyrood in the development of a community-focused workforce development plan. The objective of the plan was to maximize the training and professional development opportunities that the Marine Institute’s presence in the town could provide, and explore pathways for the local population to participate in the growing green/blue economy. The plan included extensive engagement within the community via workshops and online surveys.
Recognizing that only so many job seekers could attend the demonstration and deployment exercises in person, a dedicated effort was undertaken to capture these activities on video. Footage acquired was supplemented by site visits to businesses and interviews with key staff to speak to their technologies and/or services and the jobs that are entailed in their development and delivery. The result was the highly successful Tides of Opportunity campaign, which was delivered in partnership with Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, OceansAdvance, the Marine Institute, Memorial University, and Angler Solutions. This campaign allowed for the project’s activities to reach a broader audience of job seekers and also served as powerful communications assets for participating SMEs, The Launch, the Town of Holyrood, and NL’s ocean sector at large. The campaign resulted in over 1.2 million impressions and 460,000 users reached during a 6-week period. The footage obtained through this initiative has been made available to all partners and participants.
econext works to match challenges and opportunities in the private sector at the firm-level with research capabilities that exist within Newfoundland and Labrador’s research institutions.
This is achieved through continuous engagement 1-on-1 within econext‘s membership, but also through dedicated events to introduce individuals to the concept of co-innovation and expose both businesses and researchers alike to green economy challenges and opportunities in Newfoundland and Labrador.
econext‘s Ideathons provide an opportunity for students to gain real-world experience by tackling challenges and opportunities hand-picked by industry leaders that are present in Newfoundland and Labrador’s green economy.
Ideathon prompts are informed by econext members and industry leaders. These challenges/opportunities are presented to students, who then proceed to build teams amongst themselves to in a competition to present the best solution. Throughout the event, students participate in workshops hosted by subject matter experts on relevant aspects of the challenge and industry mentors are onsite or available to answer questions and help students brainstorm. At the end of the event, teams pitch their solutions to a panel of judges who pick the Ideathon winners and award the grand prizes. econext ensures that prompts selected have multi-disciplinary applications, ensuring that students from a variety of backgrounds and programs can participate.
Ideathons present students with an opportunity to apply their education in real world scenarios, meet with industry experts, and engage with event sponsors and potential future employers. From an industry perspective, awareness of specific challenges and/or opportunities is created within a community of individuals who will soon enter the workforce, while providing invidual companies with the opportunity to meet with potential future employees.
Are you interested in partnering with econext on a future Ideathon? Please contact Alex Rumbolt at alex@econext.ca.
The objective of this research was to better understand the potential for hydrogen production associated with Canada’s offshore oil and gas industry and the role that such production can play in supporting the net zero objectives of Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada.
The Net Zero Project is a collaboration within the energy and environmental industries to drive economic growth, diversification, investment, and awareness through the lens of sustainability and the pursuit of net zero in Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore energy sector.
The project has helped to identify the most promising pathways for the industry to achieve net zero, and has developed policy and regulatory roadmaps in three key areas: electrification via offshore wind; carbon capture, utilization, and storage; and carbon offsets.
