Cheryl McGrath

Area VP & Country General Manager, Optiv Canada

The art of balancing innovation and risk management in the world of IoT

As organizations continue to digitally transform, Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as cell phones, tablets, watches, refrigerators, medical devices, vehicles and many more, are becoming critical components to enable companies to act quickly on information to increase competitive advantages and operational efficiencies. 

The addition of these devices to IT environments allows for improved data utilization to better manage technology, increase output and reduce costs and downtime. However, the effort to utilize these new data sources significantly alters an organization’s threat landscape, opening up vulnerabilities that previously couldn’t be exploited. In many instances, network security is unable to detect IoT connections or provide visibility into the extent of an organization’s expanded threat landscape.

Organizational goals are often focused on accelerating time to market. As such, much of the attention and celebration goes to the developers and pioneers who create these IoT tools. In the rush to market, many companies’ security programs are not optimized or utilized at all.  

In conversation with Cheryl McGrath, Area VP & Country General Manager at Optiv, Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia, Senior Director of Digital Economy, of Technology & Innovation at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, takes a closer look at some of the key concerns around IoT security. As the discussion demonstrates, the importance of this issue is pressing, as the trail of technological innovation, especially over the last five years, has also served as a pathway for threat actors to target what they should go after next. 

The term IoT is increasingly being used, and yet, the risks of its real use and application aren’t necessarily well understood. How can this discrepancy be explained?

Companies are looking to unlock data from the next asset class to consume and monetize   —   and that’s IoT.  

The physical interface to digital systems is changing along with everything else. Developers have unlocked tools and gadgets for a wide range of applications   —   machines that don’t run off of regular user laptops or standard servers. Keyboards and mice are being replaced with voice commands and VR.  And that is just the beginning. The development of this is still in its infancy and is guaranteed to create vast issues for security teams during this evolution.  

For critical infrastructure, let’s face it   —   IoT devices control most of the physical world. Everything from the gas in the pumps to our cars, medical devices, the temperature in food processing plants and nuclear facilities. Devices that operate without standard operating procedures are everywhere. 

You can’t secure what you can’t see and most organizations don’t have complete visibility to all of the devices on their networks. If threat actors exploit these IoT vulnerabilities, it can be disastrous. Look at Log4j.

The physical interface to digital systems is changing along with everything else.

How will security be knitted into these new environments? 

These devices are becoming integrated into many new forms of data. For example, consider modern distribution centers, where product is moved from one side of a factory to another via conveyer belt. Once these facilities had just a few sensors used for measurements for the whole facility. Now, more than a hundred sensors are used   —   per foot. We’re livestreaming terabytes of data regarding destination, package shape and weight and much more, but not securing the system any differently. Some security teams are still assuming that one external firewall will secure the facility. Contrast this with the cathedrals of defense implemented on the IT side. The rate of data creation is outstripping our ability to use and secure it.

As we look ahead to the next three years, what should people and businesses be considering with regard to IoT?

There are “three wants” that need to be considered.

Uptime: Many facilities care more about the ability to operate than they do about security. We are replacing aged digital infrastructure with modem cloud networks. A shift of this scale requires people to change their mentality and that can sometimes be a big ask. We also know that people are often wary of new business practices, so that needs to be thought through and immediately actioned.

Digital tools: Think of something as ubiquitous as temperature controls. Many automation systems are trained and honed to regulate small bands of temperature constraints. This plays out in many environments in varying degrees of criticality, ranging from data centers to food storage. All of these facilities have their own digital record, which will need to be extracted, centralized and made tamper-proof.

Security: In many organizations, these new data paths and devices have not been fully monitored or assessed against company risk thresholds. It took us 15 years to secure the modern ATM. These new IoT devices can be larger and closer to more valuable data (yes, more valuable than an ATM full of cash). With information this valuable and technology this new and vulnerable, security and risk mitigation have to be at the forefront of all organizations.

What can companies do to mitigate IoT risks?  

To be proactive, businesses can: 

1. Tap into their production networks to identify all IoT-connected devices and identify the most vulnerable assets.  Then assess devices for vulnerabilities and mitigate outstanding security issues.

2. Understand security in relation to new IoT devices that an organization is looking to purchase and how they may affect their network.  Companies may want to hire a trusted security provider with IoT labs to test devices before they’re implemented on company networks. This is done in order to ensure third party devices aren’t erroneously capturing private data via back door portals and to test integrations with their other technologies end-to-end.

3. Adopt a policy-driven, risk framework based on the organization’s business needs. These policies should include a baseline platform for the development of automated vulnerability management and incident response solutions for IoT.

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It is imperative that Canada develops a national strategy for IoT, in consultation with business, industry, policymakers, and academics. Canada cannot afford to stay behind in this sector, given the pervasiveness of the technology and the economic stakes.

The Internet of Things is the latest evolution of the “web”. In 1969 ARPAnet was born when a message was exchanged between the computers of two research teams at Stanford and at UCLA. In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, as a network of HTML pages accessible through the HTTP protocol. These technologies launched a race, among existing bricks-and-mortar companies, to establish a “presence” on the Internet to advertise their products to a broader audience of potential clients. The mid-90s saw an explosion of eCommerce websites, eBay and Amazon being just two notable examples, selling products and services online without a real-world store. The launch of Facebook in 2004 brought about Web2.0, offering every individual on the planet the opportunity to connect with each other. The Internet of Things, first mentioned in 1999 to promote RFID technology,  is the natural evolution of this increasingly expanded “connectivity” and promises to seamlessly connect the physical world to the Internet, to enable the “sensing” the natural and built environment, the analysis of the collected data at the edge, where it is first collected and on the cloud where it is eventually aggregated, and the optimization of the activities and systems that impact them.

The Opportunity and The Challenge

IDC predicts that the value of the global IoT market will be 1T by 2022. Solid numbers on how much Canada will contribute to this economic activity are not available but unfortunately, there is some evidence that Canada may be lagging behind other countries in taking advantage of this family of technologies. In 2015, there were 363 million visible devices online with some 84 million recorded in China and 78 million in the US. When computing the number of online devices per 100 inhabitants, Canada does not make the list of the top 10 Countries. 

Use Cases for the Canadian Economy

The top five economic sectors in Canada, i.e., Real Estate, Manufacturing, Mining, Construction, and Health, can be substantially amplified by IoT. Modern buildings are equipped with sensors that monitor their indoor environment and building usage; this data can be used to fine-tune the HVAC systems’ parameters to improve comfort and reduce energy consumption and maintenance costs, amplifying the return on real-estate investment. IoT can optimize manufacturing processes through robotic control and automation; the reduction of manual effort and risk can boost productivity and quality. The mining and extraction industries have potentially the most to gain from IoT-enabled innovation: environmental sensing can help to precisely identify mining opportunities, and reduce environmental impacts. Construction projects often suffer from cost overruns that could be avoided if the progress of the work on construction sites was better monitored through cameras and sensors embedded in the machines and materials involved. Finally, health care costs could be reduced, and citizen health could be improved, if the variety of data emitted by the devices worn by consumers was analyzed and considered at the point of care.

Recommendation

It is imperative that Canada develops a national strategy for IoT, in consultation with business, industry, policymakers, and academics. This national strategy should include a framework (and incentives) for public-private partnerships to build the necessary IoT infrastructure and deliver demonstrator projects in all major sectors of the Canadian economy, including the Government itself. Canada cannot afford to stay behind in this sector, given the pervasiveness of the technology and the economic stakes.

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Tracy Fleming

Advanced Solutions, Avaya

The link between company and customer is built on experiences. It might be products and services that bring people to engage with a company in the first place, but it’s the quality of the interaction that retains customers, or loses them. Wherever and whenever that point of contact occurs, there’s a need to deliver an experience that’s welcoming, useful, appropriate, and enjoyable. With more than seven billion people on this planet, however, each with their own needs and desires, it’s simply impossible to curate a single experience that will suit them all. What one customer loves, another will hate.

And that really matters. People are no longer willing to accept friction in their interactions with companies. They know that there’s a better way and they expect it. The data is quite clear that customers are more than willing to walk away from a company after a bad experience. But how can you consistently create a good one for an audience with infinite variety?

The augmented human experience

In today’s era of cloud AI, the golden prize of a truly personalized experience for each customer is finally within reach. The answer is not, however, replacing agents with computers. Instead, we can augment the capabilities of the agents with AI, blending the human and the digital to create a seamlessly personal experience. “The human piece of this isn’t going away,” says Tracy Fleming, Practice Leader for AI at Avaya, a multinational technology company that specializes in cloud communications and workstream collaboration solutions. “Human interaction is still the gold standard. What you’re seeing is AI enabling that human to provide a better experience.”

Artificial intelligence is by no means a new area of exploration within the customer experience field, but as the capabilities of modern AI continue to grow exponentially, the implementation is taking on a whole new character. “The cloud is really the accelerator for the applied use of AI,” says Fleming. “It allows the technology to be applied seamlessly across an entire business model, and so we’re certainly seeing it being deployed in a much broader range of applications. But the core capabilities in this space have been executed in the Avaya world for years.”

Human interaction is still the gold standard. What you’re seeing is AI enabling that human to provide a better experience.

The angel on the shoulder

One of the major new developments is the ever-increasing speed and flexibility with which these AI solutions can be integrated into ongoing interactions. Gone is the time of AI systems facilitating the start of an interaction and then analyzing it afterwards. Whereas it used to be the norm for something like five percent of daily calls to be thoroughly analyzed after hours, now one hundred percent of calls can be analyzed as they’re happening.

AI still plays an integral role in directing the right customer to the right agent, not only for their needs, but also for their personality, demographics, and mood. But then it stays on the line. “What’s been really interesting due to the amount of computing and storage in the cloud today is the way we can provide outcome and input to agents in real time,” says Fleming. “We can have the AI acting as the front door concierge and also sitting on the shoulder of the agent as they’re talking. The AI hears what the customer is saying, finds the relevant data, and then renders it out to the agent on the fly. And it can prompt the agent before the call is over if they forget something, so you never have these incomplete experiences.”

The end result is an experience that is even more human. This is the real arc of the AI transformation, as it allows us to rehumanize our interactions. After decades of digitization and depersonalization, technology is building us a bridge back to genuine human connection.

Let’s see how your company scores on the total experience self-assessment?

There’s nothing artificial about an experience

When implemented properly to build dynamic experiences, artificial intelligence creates an environment where the humanity of both the agent and the customer is able to shine. The Avaya Experience Builders ecosystem leverages all the power of this technology to customize customization itself, so that the experience can be refined down to the essential of the business and then broadened again to fit the rich diversity of its customers. When done right, the most diligent AI experience work renders itself almost invisible.

“When a customer gets off a call thinking that, for 10 minutes, they were the only thing in that person’s world, they may not think to themselves, that was an incredible use of artificial intelligence,” says Fleming. “I would argue that’s the point. I think artificial intelligence is at its best when you don’t know it’s there.”

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As Canada electrifies its economy, solar is ready to rapidly transform underutilized spaces into distributed energy infrastructure.

Globally, solar power provides the lowest cost of energy in history. It is a mature, commercialized technology that is available today – no future breakthroughs or government grants required. Electrification is inevitable. Now is the time to elevate our clean energy standards in Canada. Solar is ready.

For businesses, solar is an opportunity to further monetize existing development assets. Solar is also a visible way to demonstrate corporate social responsibility and connect with clientele who share their sustainable values. Most investments in technology are deflationary. Solar is bankable. With a lifetime far longer than its return on investment, today’s solar drives the net cost of energy down, providing energy rates that are lower now, and for the next 30 years.

Solar power is highly adaptable, easily integrating into developed spaces. Unlike the construction of new centralized power plants, solar is rapidly installed anywhere, at any scale. As a distributed energy resource (DER), solar avoids the expense of long-distance transmission, producing electricity where it is needed. This decentralization of energy not only stabilizes energy costs, it minimizes urban sprawl by maximizing our use of space.

Solar transforms our cities

There is an abundance of urban space that is not being used to its full potential. Rooftops and parking lots are underutilized and can be made productive. Solar transforms them into distributed power plants. By empowering us to rethink how and where we generate electricity, solar is an essential ingredient in the energy mix for a cleaner, electrified future.

Rooftop solar installations built on existing structures have already enabled early adopters to generate up to 100 percent of their electricity and beyond, with many exporting surplus energy to the grid.

Solar canopies that cover parking lots provide benefits that go beyond power generation. They provide shelter from inclement weather, shade in summer, and snow cover in winter. It is infrastructure at human scale that enhances the urban experience.

Achieving Canada’s energy transition

In Canada, renewables generate 70 percent of our electricity. They are already major sources of our energy. Despite advancements in energy efficiency, our energy demand continues to grow, doubling in only 40 years. Distributed solar is one pillar in closing the gap to complete our energy transition, powering the electrification of transportation and heating.

Installing solar into urban spaces enables an agile, bottom-up response to transforming our energy infrastructure. Solar empowers communities and businesses to act now to fight climate change, drive down their long-term energy costs, and supply local economic returns. It is a new form of infrastructure that addresses rising capital costs and operating expenses.

Solar has the power to transform.

Innovative design

At VCT Group, we develop innovative solar products that productively transform space.

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Getting cleantech innovations to market can be challenging. KPM Power’s Battery Management Systems are helping to remove major barriers to electrification.

When Karen Lai established KPM Power in 2017, getting lithium batteries to market was a huge challenge. “Dealing with lithium is a very expensive process and a lot of the government funding was being cut at the time,” says the President & Founder of KPM Power, a Canadian company specializing in customized lithium-ion battery solutions. Wanting to help get cleantech companies and alternative energy products to market, she eventually settled on battery management systems (BMS) as the quickest and most affordable way. BMS is an electronic system of hardware and software that monitors and controls the state and performance of the battery.

Only Canadian company with a UL1973 and UL2580 certified BMS

KPM Power’s Anzen line of BMS has a key feature for allowing customization for various applications and battery types and is approved for chemistries ranging from lithium to nickel zinc. This year it received UL1973 and UL2580 certifications for safety for stationary applications (back-up power, off-grid power, vehicle auxiliary power and light electric rail applications) and moving electric vehicles, respectively. Being the only Canadian company to have both certifications not only eases KPM Power’s own entry to the North American market, but also that of its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers. “It will also open the door to a lot of OEMs out there because it simplifies the certification process and makes it easier for them to get their cleantech to market,” says Lai.

Being a female founded and run company, KPM is eager to support young women and girls in pursuing the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields through hackathons and bursaries. “Right now, girls make up only about 20% of enrolment in STEM programs, so we’re working to help more girls join STEM fields,” says Lai.

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The Solstex^® Solar Façade System enables building owners to generate clean energy, save on electricity costs, and provide community benefits.

We tend to think of traditional solar systems as ground mounted or rooftop mounted projects. However, there’s an argument to be made for integrating them with building facades. “If you’re looking at a high-rise building, for example, you have more opportunity to put solar panels on a façade than you do on the rooftop just due to space constraints,” says Hugh Lowry, Special Projects Engineer at Elemex Architectural Façade Systems, a London, Ontario based company specializing in photovoltaic façade systems.

Solar facades can bring economic, environmental, and community paybacks to a project. They yield cost savings and a return on investment by capturing and turning solar rays into clean energy in the building space. “Along with that, you’re offsetting the possible carbon emissions and providing a benefit to both the environment and the surrounding community,” says Lowry.

While using standard shapes, sizes, and colours is the most economical way to build a solar wall, there may be the odd finicky corner or tricky area that requires something more flexible and customizable. That’s one important consideration when looking into solar facades. Another is the fact that here in the northern hemisphere the south-facing walls are more economical than north-facing walls.

Solstex^® building-integrated photovoltaic façade system offers economical, custom solutions

Elemex’s Solstex^® building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) façade system lets designers and architects incorporate lightweight, large format panels onto a façade and is ideal for new construction and retrofits. The panel surface resembles black glass and integrates well with other surfaces like aluminium plates, sintered ceramic, and natural stone, and works seamlessly with the entire family of Elemex^® façade systems using our Unity^® Attachment Technology.

Solstex^® façade systems are also built to withstand the harshest elements and will soon be available in a new array of coloured panels to include dark grey, light grey, bluish-green, bronze, brass, gold, and orange.  

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Community boosters are worth a lot. Schools, arenas, parks, and libraries in Strathmore share stories of people pulling together to get the project finished. More businesses are discovering that the community is proud to help them grow, too.

Investments in agri-business, manufacturing, and renewable energy are setting records for the largest volume of capital investment in Strathmore’s history. It’s a town focused on the future and growth that welcomes a variety of startups but has retained its rural roots and a commitment to its community.

More businesses are discovering what Strathmore offers

That is just one reason why Borea Construction has been so pleased with its partnership with Strathmore. It is constructing two major solar projects in the area and has received an incredible level of support from the town. “Strathmore is really willing to go farther to help us succeed,” says Chelsea Million, the company’s talent advisor. When explaining what sets Strathmore apart from other places, she cites the successful job fair hosted locally, the quality of local candidates, and the town’s willingness to share resources in order to help meet the firm’s goals.

The town has a long tradition of being innovative and solution-focused. Its Marigold Library System, established in 1981, was a game-changer. The not-for-profit municipal collaboration provides state-of-the-art library services, now serving over 300,000 people across 44 municipalities. It joined forces with Western Irrigation District (WID), which supplies irrigation water to almost 100,000 acres of farmland, to build a new shared headquarters this year. It’s a prime example of Strathmore’s strong collaborative spirit.

Focus on success and innovation

Local businesses are expanding their reach. Origin Malting drew on five generations of farming expertise when they launched their malting plant in 2016. As pioneers of soil conservation and traceability, they brought a focus on sustainability to their operations. Producing the finest malt for craft brewers has brought customers from across North America.

We have great people that work hard here. Some of the finest people you’ll ever meet…they work right here. We’re much like a family I guess.

An unexpected start-up has its origins in a local farm as well. G&S Airport Conveyor, which builds and maintains baggage conveyor systems for airports around the world, started out of a garage on an area farm. Since moving into Strathmore, the company has grown and invested in newer, more advanced technology. Owner Jim Goertz appreciates how business-friendly Strathmore is. He also likes the inviting small-town feel, something that makes it easy to attract and retain employees. It’s a desirable place to work and to live in. “We have great people that work hard here. Some of the finest people you’ll ever meet … they work right here. We’re much like a family I guess.”

Strathmore is well-positioned to keep the momentum going. “Strathmore offers start-ups a great place to grow. Our team offers personalized support you can’t find in large centers” says Mayor Pat Fule. “We’re a friendly, welcoming community that helps each other to succeed.”

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Canadian startups need to think internationally in order to succeed. Learn how the DMZ can help mitigate the risk involved in expanding to new global markets.

Despite Canada’s small market, many Canadian startups are not exploring the potential that global expansion may bring to their company.

While every founder wants their company to access new customer bases and capital, only about 12 percent of small businesses in Canada currently export their goods and services. However, for companies who want to look into expanding, it might be time to start looking global from the get-go.

“The majority of tech startups don’t realize it, but they are in a business that can be global from day one,” says Abdullah Snobar, the Executive Director of the DMZ. “We need to help tech startups and early entrepreneurs see themselves as exporters, even if they don’t have a physical product.”

The DMZ has helped to raise over $1.5 billion in seed funding for startups and has provided mentorship and support, utilizing its worldwide network, to turn Canadian startups into world-class, global tech businesses.

Looking beyond Canadian borders

According to Snobar, for Canadian startups in a small domestic market, considering global expansion is a necessity, not a nice to have. This was the case for Softdrive, a DMZ incubator company, where only 3 percent of their total addressable market was in Canada.

“The US has about 24x the amount of organizations than Canada, making it critical for Softdrive to expand internationally,” says Leonard Ivey, Founder of Softdrive. “If we don’t, we’d be stunting our growth significantly and mitigating our chances of success.”

However, there are a few barriers that make global expansion difficult for Canadian startups. For pet-tech company Charmy Pet, navigating the regulations to comply with federal agencies like the CFIA and U.S. FDA was one of them—but the support of the DMZ and their connections made the process much easier.

“We were fortunate to have the support of the DMZ and their in-house supply chain experts to help us expand,” says Zach Sheng, Co-Founder and CEO of Charmy Pet.

Building a reputation in a new market, while trying to find support, trustworthy global partners, and dealing with cultural differences, can be difficult. “It can take a few years for a startup to build a solid reputation in their local market and transferring that trust to a global market is challenging,” says Mohsen Omrani, Co-Founder and CEO of OPTT. “A good way to bridge local trust to a new market is being associated with reputable organizations, like incubators and VCs, with proven track records.” It helps to have a team like DMZ in your corner where these past experiences can be used as leverage.

How the DMZ’s network can help

But Snobar says one of the biggest barriers to expansion is the founder’s own mindset. “If they don’t want to go global, then they’ll find every excuse not to go. But there’s always risk anywhere you operate,” says Snobar. “If you don’t look to expand into a new market, someone else will.”

For those who do want to expand globally, the DMZ offers founders a deep understanding of different local ecosystems, countries, and economies through their network of global offices and incubators in over 10 countries. For example, if a Canadian startup wanted to expand into India, the DMZ could connect them to other founders and partners in their field who are already involved in the Indian market. This is due to the DMZ being an enabler to global expansion—they can help founders access peers who’ll understand their journey and their struggles.

“There’s never been a more important time than today to think about how to take your business and expand to your full potential,” says Snobar. “The whole team is glad we’re helping in that journey with creating opportunities for founders entering these new markets.”

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Robert DiDiodato

VP of Business Development at anessa

Turning manure into green energy is better than lead into gold. And, with the right software platforms, it’s a lot easier too.

Biogas is the great unsung hero of the green energy revolution. When done right, a biogas plant can turn waste by-products once considered a burden into a high potency energy source that integrates seamlessly with our existing electricity or natural gas infrastructure. Whether it’s agricultural waste, food waste, or even municipal source-separated solid or wastewater, it all becomes fuel for the biogas plant. And, not only is biogas clean and interoperable, it’s also a rich economic opportunity. It’s a triple win.

So why do we hear about it so rarely compared to technologies like wind and solar? Because biogas is relatively new in the North American context and, to be fair, a very complicated and hands on process.  “There is no cookie-cutter solution here,” says Amir Akbari, President and CEO of anessa, a firm based in Canada that provides the industry’s leading Biogas Software platform. “Each project is different from the other project, so you cannot simply duplicate a project that worked before. Each feedstock or waste material has its own characteristics, and those characteristics can change daily, so you need to be able to adapt.”

The time for biogas is now

A process with that many variables can seem intimidatingly opaque to the smaller operators, often farmers and rural municipalities, best positioned to take advantage of the technology. But today’s Canadian farmers are tech-savvy, ambitious, and resourceful. If the tools exist to make a complex task approachable, they will find a way, especially if it lets them transform a regulatory headache into an income stream.

“Provinces in Canada are putting what they call diversion legislation in place, which means that you’re no longer allowed to put those organic materials into landfill sites, because the methane that gets emitted from those landfills is approximately 30 times more harmful than CO2 to the atmosphere” explains anessa VP of Business Development, Robert DiDiodato. “If you can instead convert that organic waste into energy, you turn what could be a legislative hurdle into a financial opportunity. It’s a no-brainer.”

The secret to unlocking each opportunity and taming the complexity of biogas is achieving clarity on the business case by leveraging computational intelligence. The informational storm of variables that determine the feasibility of new biogas projects–and the operational parameters of existing ones–is the natural habitat of AI-enabled software like that offered by anessa.

Feed biomass to the digester, feed data to the software

Modern analytic software can take the endless series of what-ifs that go into the planning and assessment of a biogas project and narrow them down to an easily digestible slate of reports modeling the technical and financial aspects of each project opportunity.  And, once the plant is up and running, the AI can quickly simulate the twisting of all the different knobs, modeling the impact of changes before implementing them. It’s an invaluable planning tool. “A common mistake found in the industry by biogas plant operators is upsetting the bugs in the process either by not feeding the digester properly with the right ratios, or not considering the biological process conditions,” offered Mr. Akbari.  “Our AI equipped technology provides peace of mind for biogas plant operators in their goal to achieve optimal performance without failing the biological processes. The industry has typically settled on stability at the expense of optimization, leaving money on the table.”

What will happen if you change from one feedstock to another? It could be fine, or it could be disastrous to the organic processes inside the biogas plant. Machine learning takes the guesswork away and confidently projects operational results across the entire spectrum of possibilities.

“Our software platform can run millions of scenarios to find the optimal solution in the planning stage of a project, and the optimal conditions at operational biogas facilities,” says Akbari. “The software has machine learning and AI algorithms built into it. It captures data from each plant and models future performance across all variables. This lets the operator make data-driven decisions to optimize for profitability.”

And that’s the heart of it. It is easy to see green energy projects as a greater good in and of themselves. But they take resources to build, they cost money to operate, and they should provide measurable benefit, both environmentally and economically.

“At the end of the day, a biogas plant is a business,” says DiDiodato. “It’s green energy, so it’s warm and fuzzy, but it’s also important to ask how much money you’re going to make, how long it will take to earn back your investment, and what level of carbon savings you can expect. You need to ask if it’s something you can do on your own or if you need neighbouring farms to join in. Those are exactly the kinds of questions our software can answer.”

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Dr. Josipa Petrunic is CEO of The Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium, the non-profit responsible for the development and commercialization of low-carbon transit technologies.

I recently joined the federal government to announce massive investments in public transit: $2.75b over five years to electrify transit fleets with zero-emissions battery and hydrogen fuel cell electric buses. It’s thanks to the leadership of Minister Catherine McKenna, who has championed public transit at the Cabinet table advocating to build back better through green infrastructure projects that directly support the mobility needs of Canadians.       

Just five years ago there were only a few dozen pilot buses on the roads in Canada, now, the industry has deployed nearly 100 zero-emissions buses – with another 250 in short-order.

The funding will not only help achieve the government’s goal of 5,000 ZEBs, it will also be pivotal in eliminating 750,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually and in creating hundreds of thousands of good jobs.     

Even with billions committed, there is, however, still work to do to harness the transformational benefits of transit innovation.

Electrification is complicated, requiring a complete overhaul for transit agencies including new energy storage and charging technology, with some high-powered systems installed directly on routes, as well as local green hydrogen production amongst other complex considerations – all backed by a highly-skilled workforce.

Smart feasibility studies are necessary, and secure tax efficient and evidence-based procurements saving Canadians millions.

The government must support and require smart roll out planning that includes these studies. Planning for zero-emissions buses and their allied energy infrastructure means feasibility studies driven by physics and mathematically-based modelling. Lifecycle physics and economic calculations that tabulate how these zero-emissions buses will perform in local communities, whether they will run out of energy while in-service, how much energy they need onboard at the start of the day, as well as how much energy needs to be pumped into the vehicle throughout the day are all vital calculations required before committing to purchases.

Agencies need to know ahead of time what the electricity or hydrogen bill will look like compared to their current diesel bills and whether their routes need to be redesigned to match any limitations of the technology before they buy.

CUTRIC, the organization I lead, has spent years developing the non-profit Rout∑.i 2.0 tool with transit members to do just that. We’ve used it to run tabulations for cities across North America. This non-profit technical work has helped transit agencies walk into this complexity with eyes wide open.

The pandemic will subside, and cities will return. We will know better in the future how to keep transit riders and drivers safe and healthy so they can help keep the economy humming. Transit will soon come back, but it needs to be better – faster, smarter, cheaper, and greener for all Canadians. Money is the first step, now we need smart planning to get this done.

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