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CAN CANADA CLEAN UP IN CLEAN-TECH?
CAN CANADA CLEAN UP
IN CLEAN-TECH?
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The second annual Canadian Cleantech Summit was held recently in Ottawa and along with it came the release of the 2011 Canadian Clean Technology Industry Report.
Supported by the Canadian Clean Technology Coalition and authored by Analytica Advisors, the report provides in-depth insight into the industry, ranking Canada in a global context and grading it in terms of its revenue and employment numbers.
The findings of the report may surprise some. Currently, Canada’s clean technology industry already employs 44,000 (in close to 700 clean tech companies) and remarkably generates half of its sales from exports. Further, Canada is home to a clean tech industry which produces $9 billion in revenues. This figure is impressive when one considers the fact that Canadian spending on clean-tech infrastructure pales in comparison to the big global players in the sector including Japan, Germany, China and Korea. Most impressive is that despite a global financial environment were most industries are stagnating or struggling, the report indicates that Canada’s clean tech industry is showing remarkable growth.
The coalition, which has been in existence for 18 months, compiled the report together with entrepreneurs, investors, information providers, program developers and policy makers out of a necessity to provide an aggregate report on the industry.
“We are a policy based coalition, and the report is there to pre-broker policy recommendations, to put a view forth from the perspective of a very diverse group,” says Céline Bak, partner at Analytica Advisors and co-founder of the Canadian Clean Technology Coalition. Bak explains that because clean tech is a relatively young industry and that it is not really recognized as an industry at the federal level, there was a need for a body or group to help educate decision makers on what clean tech in Canada was about and why supporting it as an industry should be a priority.
“The clean tech sector is predominantly made up of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and SMEs in general are not top of mind when policy decisions are made and programs are developed because they don’t engage with government and the reason for that is they don’t have the time. Through the coalition, we bridge that gap, through this taxonomy we’re here to present the industries potential as a whole and to do it in a way that makes sense to government.”
By building a policy consensus across SMEs, large technology adopters and financiers, the Coalition’s and the report’s value comes when it can make this clear case to all levels of government.
The report also has other uses she adds including as both a competitive and promotional tool here in Canada and abroad.
“CEO’s in the sector can use this report as a benchmark for their growth, and to compare their performance and investments in R&D and commercialization as well as a means to attract investment from abroad.”
In terms of the report itself, the Canadian Cleantech industry was broken down into nine sectors: Biofuels and Bioenergy, Energy Efficiency, Energy Infrastructure, Industrial Processes, Power Generation, Recycling and Recovery, Remediation and Soil Treatment and Water and Wastewater. These sectors were divided across three segments: Upstream, Downstream and Water.
“Upstream is about the production of energy, downstream is about the use of energy and then water is about the use and treatment of water whether its puri-