Dr. Lesley Anne James
Professor, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Memorial University.

Josh Green
CEO, Mysa.

Ashley Noseworthy
CEO and Founder, Edgewise Environmental.

Potential and excitement in the clean tech industry: Clean tech represents a significant economic opportunity globally and there is much activity already in the clean tech space in the province. Currently, there is activity focused on renewable energy, marine transportation, energy efficiency, waste management technology, and more. The Blue and Green economies are being fueled through organizations such as Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship, Genesis, econext, TechNL, EnergyNL, Energy Research & Innovation Newfoundland & Labrador. Continuing to develop this ecosystem will be key to NL’s ability to capitalize on the global opportunity.

Entrepreneurial mindset: Clean tech is entrepreneurial by nature – it involves seeing an opportunity where we can improve on the current system, fill a gap or need, and figuring out how to fill that gap. It is important to have an entrepreneurial mindset, to be able to recognize opportunities, to come up with creative solutions to capitalize on those opportunities, and to have the resilience to push through and make ideas reality. Inter-sector collaboration is necessary: Inter-sectoral collaboration between academia, industry, and government is critical and may require a different approach than has been traditional. The knowledge, momentum and opportunity is all there, but collaboration is necessary to bring it all together.

Continued investment is needed in both small and large tech: To capitalize on the current opportunity investment is needed at the local and global level in small and large tech opportunities.

Role of municipalities: It was suggested that municipalities can play a big role if clean tech is made accessible to them. By implementing at a small scale they can create the foundation for implantation across the province and reach broader audience.