Accelerator supports companies in advancing sustainable innovation

Bioenterprise Canada helps Canadian start-ups and companies in the agri-food sector with sustainable innovation efforts. The Guelph-based national accelerator known as Canada’s Food & Agri-Tech Engine recently unveiled its new sustainability initiative designed to support Canada’s drive to be a leader in food sustainability and security. 

At the same time, Aramark, Bayer, BASF, MNP and Norton Rose Fulbright were announced as Bioenterprise’s new sustainable innovation sponsors. 

Why it matters: The federal government has set climate goals, including net-zero emissions by 2050, so innovative solutions and new technologies will play key roles in achieving those goals. 

“We all want a better, more sustainable future and during this time of pivotal global change, we have a real opportunity to shape how we want to live, work and eat through sustainable innovation – and innovation is influencing all aspects of our sector from soil health and animal welfare to bio-based products and waste reduction strategies,” says Bioenterprise Canada CEO Dave Smardon. 

To help the agri-food sector contribute to Canada’s sustainability goals, Bioenterprise offers individualized business acceleration and commercialization services to food and agri-tech companies. 

The organization also delivers programming that supports sustainable products and cleantech solutions, uses its growing national innovation network to encourage collaboration between industry experts, accelerators and research institutions, and takes a role in educational events and public discussions around climate action. 

According to Bioenterprise, these activities build on the progress that Canada’s agri-food sector has already made in reducing the carbon intensity of food production, noting that Canadian agriculture generated 50 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 for every dollar generated compared to 1997. 

Ontario-based start-up Vivid Machines Inc., which is developing vision system technology to automate predicting and managing apple yield and quality, is one company benefitting from Bioenterprise’s focus on support for sustainable innovation. 

Co-founder Jenny Lemieux says her company’s goal is a technology that will help make fruit farming more economically and environmentally sustainable. That means addressing food loss, labour requirements and pricing so growers can improve marketable fruit volumes and lessen the environmental footprint of growing fruit. 

“Cold storage has the biggest impact on greenhouse gas emissions in fruit farming, so if we can provide early, accurate visibility into fruit volumes, can contracts with retailers become more accurate so that less time in cold storage is needed?” she asks. 

“Or if growers can more precisely understand the needs of their trees, can they reduce the amounts of inputs and irrigation needed?”

Through Bioenterprise, her company has been able to access resources and funding to further define its sustainability strategies and support research and commercialization activities to help bring their innovation to market. 

BioNorth Solutions of Thunder Bay got its start in 2014, developing products using all-natural microbes from northern Ontario to clean up gas, diesel and various hydraulic, engine and mixed oils spills in soil and gravel. 

Since 2019, the company has worked to develop its PGP – plant growth promoting – line of products that contain bacteria to enhance plant growth. Initial product testing in conjunction with Collège Boréal looks promising, says company president Amber Kivisto, and support through Bioenterprise is enabling crop trials with barley and wheat at the Lakehead University Agriculture Research Station in Thunder Bay. 

“Our PGP product is finalized and now we just need more data to enable sales. We couldn’t do wheat and barley on our own, and this will enable us to get the data that will let us go to market,” Kivisto says. “Our products are sustainable and our whole goal is to keep everything as sustainable as possible, even in using as little packaging as possible.” 

Through its portfolio of funding programs, Bioenterprise has supported sustainable innovation start-ups. Other recent recipients include Alberta’s GroundUp eco-ventures, which upcycles café and brewery waste into new food products, Toronto software company Wittaya Aqua’s data-driven analytics for the aquaculture industry, and insect producer Gaia Protein.