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PeterReid

Cleaning Dirt for the Climate

Construction digs up vast amounts of contaminated soil. GRT Resource Regeneration found a low-carbon way to transform it for new uses.

By: Andrew Findlay

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Crowd at concert : Silhouette people crowd happy and cheering with led foam stick light in front of bright colorful stage lights

Bright Idea: This Natural Glow Stick Doesn’t Pollute

Lux Bio invented a bioluminescent alternative to the toxic plastic wands that litter landfills and oceans.

By: Pippa Norman

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SangLeProduce

Boxing Up a Solution to Food Waste

Peko was launched by students to save groceries from the landfill. They’re helping to cut food bills and climate emissions.

By: Jen St. Denis

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What WE Offer.jpg

How to Foster Local Food Businesses? Create a Stir

This Kamloops non-profit is feeding the dreams of local chefs passionate about community food systems.

By: Marissa Tiel

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Timber-Tiles-Bathroom-Complete-Installation

Would You Choose Wood Tiles over Ceramic Ones? This Startup Bets Yes

Timber Tiles on Vancouver Island offers a climate-friendly alternative to an ancient craft that today relies on fossil fuels.

By: Andrew Findlay

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‘4VI really helped us open our eyes,’ said Kevin Bradshaw, shown leading kayakers for his Hello Nature Adventure Tours off of Vancouver Island. ‘They looked at every aspect of the business and how it can give back on some level.’ Photo by Andi Wardrop.

Vancouver Island Made a Big Change in How It Defines Tourism Success

For social enterprise 4VI, it’s about visitors and their dollars leaving the place in better shape than they found it.

By: Ryan Stuart

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freshly harvested hops on hands

How a BC Biologist Is Changing the Craft Beer Scene

Ji Yang is working to create a climate-resilient beer brewed with locally grown hops.

By: Samantha Holomay

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Blue crab background on market

Crab Shells Have a Wonder Ingredient. So This Company Got Cracking

From husks that would go to waste, Tidal Vision extracts a polymer with many green uses.

By: Pippa Norman

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CambridgeCreekWetlands

The Thriving Business of Rewilding

How wizards of wetlands restoration are bringing biodiversity back to West Coast landscapes.

By: Isaac Phan Nay

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Visitors mingle with Titan’s fleet of electric Class 8 freight haulers at the company’s Portland headquarters. Electrification is advancing fastest in passenger cars, but far heavier trucks contribute a lot more greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution, vehicle for vehicle. The dirtiest are semis, buses and garbage trucks. Photo supplied.

Unveiling the West Coast’s Electric Big Truck Future

The heaviest diesel semis are the dirtiest. Titan Freight Systems chose the electric lane and says it’s paying off.

By: Peter Fairley

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A pile of discarded used infectious medical masks on a white background.Infectious waste is prevented by the covid-19 virus, a pandemic.The concept of improper disposal is dangerous.Top view.Copyspace

Medical Masks Save Lives but Harm Nature. This Maker Stepped Up

BC’s Vitacore figured out how to recycle difficult plastics like the respirators it manufactures by the millions.

By: Katie Hyslop

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Tasha Nathanson with one of her fish leather boots. ‘Artisanal is wonderful because each time you make your product it’s a bit different. Commercial is the opposite — it needs to be of consistent quality, the same every time.’ Photo by Kathleen Hinkel.

Fish Leather Is Incredibly Strong and Beautiful. Can Makers ‘Scale Up’?

Meet artisans in Alaska and BC who are sustaining, and advancing, an ancient art.

By: Brendan Jones

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TayybehFood

Refugees Needed Jobs and Belonging. Tayybeh Cooked Up a Solution

The Vancouver caterer keeps growing, all the while changing lives of Syrians fleeing war.

By: Samantha Holomay

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Ragfinery- Branding

A Treasure Trove for Upcycled Clothing

Visit ‘an amazing place’ that swaps consumerism for creative joy while keeping textiles out of landfills.

By: Pippa Norman

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A forest of Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, grows in the cold eastern Pacific waters that flow along the California coast. Kelp forests support a surprising and diverse array of marine biodiversity.

Adventures in West Coast Kelp Farming

Meet hardy harvesters in Alaska and BC working to make a regenerative seaweed industry flourish.

By: Tim Lydon

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Dawson Creek’s Loop Resource diverts food waste from a network of 500 grocery stores to about 4,000 small farms across Canada to support the diets of local livestock.

A Better Way to Nourish Livestock

Loop Resource gathers what grocers are ready to toss out, providing a more ecological source of animal feed.

By: Pippa Norman

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How to Build a Local Farming Food Hub

The Comox Valley Organic Co-operative connects growers to customers small and large.

By: Larry Pynn

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Eel grass

Eelgrass Is Amazing. Here’s Who’s Saving It

Coastal livelihoods as well as our climate depend on the undersea fronds. Even a small buoy can play protector.

By: Pippa Norman

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The visitor’s centre at VanDusen Botanical Garden, completed in 2011. Globally, ‘BC is still probably the hotbed of design and knowledge’ for mass timber, says Tobias Fast of Fast + Epp, whose firm handled structural engineering for the project designed by architects Perkins&Will. StructureCraft supplied the wood elements. Photo by Nic Lehoux.

Building the Future with Wood

Meet people reinventing construction by pushing ‘mass timber’ bigger and higher. It’s good for the planet too.

By: Christopher Cheung

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