The annual Clean50 award recognizes leaders from across Canada who have done the most to advance climate action and develop climate solutions. The latest lists acknowledge the recent accomplishments of 50 senior leaders, 20 emerging Leaders, and reveals five lifetime achievement awards, selected from over 1,000 nominations collected nation-wide over the past few months. Included in the prestigious list is a member of Environment Journal’s Advisory Board, Faith Edem.
Following the announcement of the list, 75 incoming individual honourees, members of 25 project teams and 35+ existing Clean50 members engage in a full day of intense discussions, designed to identify actionable solutions to the climate emergency that Canada and Canadians can implement, followed by an awards ceremony.
Awardees are forward-looking leaders representing the most effective and progressive organizations taking on climate change from every sector, balancing mitigation with adaptation.
Awardees this cycle range from Canada’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, and former Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, long Canada’s greenest Mayor, now part of the leadership team at innovative builder Nexii to active-wear manufacturer Mondetta CEO Ash Modha and the most senior executives from several of Canada’s largest electricity distribution companies.
Faith Edem, a climate policy advisor with Environment and Climate Change Canada, was recognized as one of the Clean50 Emerging Leaders for 2024(35 years of age or younger). Environment Journal is proud to have Edem on its Advisory Board.
Martin Bureau, Vice-President of Innovation and Head of the PFAS Centre for Excellence at ALTRA | SANEXEN, has won the 2024 Clean50 Award, in the Clean Technology category. SANEXEN is a perennial sponsor of Environment Journal’s Brownie Awards, an annual celebration of leadership in brownfield redevelopment.
Other awardees are entrepreneurial, bleeding-edge clean tech CEOs and researchers decarbonizing everything from cement to fabric and plastics, venture capitalists, renewable energy developers, property developers and leaders in the circular economy.
Plastics played an important role, with different winners embracing the circular economy by capturing and repurposing shoreline plastic waste, making plastic out of seaweed and other garbage
“The range of ingenuity demonstrated by these 75 people is just extraordinary”, said Clean50 Award Executive Director Gavin Pitchford. “Canada needs to eliminate 730 MT of carbon pollution from our annual output. Over the past year, Canada’s 2024 Clean50 have made a significant start on that target – with much more to come. If we have any hope of hitting our committed targets, it is people like these Canadians will need to thank.”
Pitchford added that “For the first time in 13 cycles we don’t have any big 5 bankers on our list. Until they stop greenwashing and make a serious effort to decarbonize their investment and lending portfolios, we’re going to stop recognizing any of the good things that some do.”
The full list of winners is available here: https://www.clean50.com
Featured image credit: Getty Images
