Tuesday, March 25, 2025
The new year has started off with a bang and a blaze of wildfire. Trudeau, Trump, a looming trade war, and a tremendous number of alarming news items have brought us all abruptly out of our holiday hibernation. It’s never been more important to make sure environmental progress continues to move in the right direction — forward for responsible resource management, high quality cleanups and community transformations, and a prosperous clean energy transition — rather than backwards.
While mainstream news media is a source of information for us, as a business publication, we cater to our industry, focusing on the environment sector and the stories and strategies that are relevant to helping environmental consultants, contractors, and the communities they serve.
We do our best to use credible resources and maintain enough awareness to cut through the crap. We also lean on our incredible Advisory Board and our well-informed partners and contacts in the industry. Sure, we take advantage of artificial intelligence from time to time, but we double check sources and put the focus on facts over fiction and fabrication. We take pride in providing information and inspiration, while also holding policy makers and CEOs to account. Transparency and accountability are the antidote to misinformation and greenwashing.
But before we turn the page to 2025, let’s recall a few of your favourite stories from 2024. According to Google Analytics, these are the most viewed articles of last year:
- Market Watch: More sustainable manufacturing in Canada – 12,148 views
This edition of Market Watch covered federal and provincial investments for cleantech and put the spotlight on Burnaby, British Columbia-based Nano One Materials Corp. (Nano One), which is listed on the TSX as NANO. The clean technology company was founded in 2011, featuring a patented, scalable, low carbon intensity industrial process for the low-cost production of high-performance lithium-ion battery cathode materials. The technology can be applied to electric vehicles, energy storage, consumer electronics and next-generation batteries — essentials for a zero-emissions future.
“The energy transition will be one of the biggest opportunities and costly endeavours as we move away from fossil fuels,” said Paul Guedes, director of capital markets at Nano One. “It is critical to ensure we adopt sustainable manufacturing processes that have limited if no environmental waste streams and low carbon footprints. The only way to do this is via innovation and technology.”
- Excess Soils Symposium coverage – 6, 230 views
The 8th Annual Excess Soils Symposium was a sold-out success thanks to our engaged and enthusiastic community of industry leaders, environmental experts, government representatives and various delegates. More than 350 people came together at the Toronto Region Board of Trade Conference Centre. The symposium is the premier provincial forum to share knowledge and expertise on the latest development, perspectives, and regulations pertaining to managing excess soils in construction and cleanup projects across Canada, helping participants optimize their resource recovery and stay in compliance. The agenda included hot topics, regulatory overviews, and industry insights on best practices and innovative solutions. Representing the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Parliamentary Secretary Andrew Dowie took to the symposium stage to provide welcome remarks.
“The Excess Soil Regulation was a pretty seismic change and evokes a lot of discussion. It’s fitting that today’s event was held in Queen’s Quay, which was constructed in part using excess soils,” said Dowie, who discussed the importance of Ontario’s enormous growth and how municipal policies are supporting this growth and the related management of resources. He pointed out that the first half of last year alone almost 500,000 people entering the province and that rate of growth is expected to continue. With this in mind, Dowie explained how the Ontario provincial government is investing in people and communities, “to help keep costs down while building the infrastructure, housing and transportation needed to support this tremendous growth.”
Several symposium panels and technical sessions provided exploration of the key issues, and an opportunity for the audience to participate. This is a look at the digital innovation panel including, from left: Joel Van Popta (Stantec), Russell Schindler (SampleServe), Maggie Little (SoilFLO), and Brant Gill (Montrose Environmental), and Connie Vitello (Environment Journal).
- A Dream Job and a LEEP Toward Net Zero – 4,810 views
Much of the conversation and coverage around the circular economy and emissions reductions puts the focus on government policy decisions and regulations, but there are an increasing number of corporations in the private sector working to get ahead of net zero targets, curb emissions and transition to the plastics circular economy. We engaged Jennifer Woolfsmith, vice president of Sustainability at NOVA Chemicals, to discuss the company’s multi-billion-dollar investment to expand its sustainability initiatives, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and pilot new cleantech.
“Stepping into the role of VP, Sustainability at NOVA is really a dream for me. I started my career here over 20 years ago and since that time have had the opportunity to move through a variety of functions and geographies, learning our business from many different perspectives and mentors along the way,” said Woolfsmith. “This role really connects my financial experience and expertise with that problem solving mentality that I know can help address some of the most significant challenges we all face in creating a low-carbon, zero-plastic-waste future.”
The popularity of these pieces indicate that our readers are interested in sustainable strategies and cleantech investments, that they are prioritizing resource recovery and compliance for construction and cleanup projects, and that they are curious about environmentally advanced design concepts that get us to net zero.
I’m excited to explore more of the same this year, as well as the latest developments in the environment sector for our engaged and growing community.
When it comes to growth, it’s great to see this relatively new Actual Media Inc. resource gaining readership traction. The subscription of the weekly edition increased from 1,700 to 2,900 this year and the subscription of our new quarterly magazine is 3,500 — that’s a combined readership of 6,400 and counting. Plus, our number of active online users from January 2024 to January 2025 was a healthy 120,000.
Let’s keep the conversation going. The EJ team will be working hard to cover the key issues, with a focus on cleantech, remediation, ESG and decarbonization, but please don’t hesitate to reach out and let me know if you have an article idea, a suggestion for one of our events, or an interesting industry development to bring to our attention. I want to hear about the good, the bad and the uber innovative, to help inform and inspire a successful year ahead, one that moves in the right direction.
Happy New Year!
Connie Vitello is editor of Environment Journal. Reach out to connie@actualmedia.ca.
Featured image credit: Getty Images
