Kathleen Wynne recently announced plans to allocate $74M of Ontario’s $325M Green Investment Fund to fight climate change while driving the development of the economy through creating jobs, products, services, technologies and businesses.
The government partnered with the Ontario Centre of Excellence (OCE) whose mission to commercialize innovation across many industries, including CleanTech, attracts entrepreneurs, startups, academia and investors alike. This new fund will give a fighting chance to innovative startups like OTI Lumionics, a Toronto-based company that has developed technologies to cheaply and effectively manufacture Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDS). Such companies will increasingly play a bigger role in solving environmental issues, locally and globally.
“We need good product designers, help with scaling - and we need to take technological innovation beyond academic environments and into companies,” Michael mentions as he describes some of the things that would be helpful in getting solutions developed by Ontario startups to market and to play a more significant role in cleantech at large.
OTI Lumionics leaned on the OCE in it’s early days through their Market Readiness program. “It was timely support - and we wouldn’t have gotten to where we have without them,” Michael G. Helander, Co-founder of OTI Lumionics told YongeStreet.
Ontario’s ambitious Climate Change Strategy aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2015, and build a new, low-carbon economy.
“By 2050, we envision Ontarians will be using less energy and the energy we do use will be from low-carbon sources. Communities will be climate-resilient, complete and compact. More people will choose electric or other zero-emission vehicles and transit to get swiftly and efficiently where they need to go. Agricultural lands, natural areas and ecosystems will be better protected for the benefit and enjoyment of all, including First Nations and Métis peoples who rely on our shared natural environment for sustainment and spiritual benefit,” said Glen Murray, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change.
Supporting innovative companies could go a long way to help the Province meet its targets, and for the new low-carbon economy to take shape.