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Alberta Cities Score High
Calgary ranked first out of 23 cities surveyed in the Conference Board of Canada’s recent report, “Calgary: A Global Scorecard on Prosperity”. Calgary was the only city to earn a grade A for overall economic prosperity. Edmonton ranked third. The report was commissioned by Calgary Economic Development with the research support of the Conference Board of Canada. |   |
Going Green
Four Alberta companies and Canada’s leading green-focused building engineering company, now making its mark in Alberta, were profiled in the August, 2009 Alberta Venture magazine article “Green Doers’. Here are some of the companies making the switch to an environmentally sustainable economy. Boyd Solar Corp. Boyd Solar Corp. installs solar electric and thermal systems in all kinds of buildings, allowing its customers to live completely off the grid. Buchanan Lumber Buchanan Lumber is Alberta’s first and only zero-waste sawmill. EarthRenew Organics Ltd. EarthRenew has developed a patented, energy-efficient system for cooking manure into an earth-friendly fertilizer product. ZOLD Eco-Sales Agency (formerly Eco-Alberta) ZOLD provides safe, high-quality eco products to retailers and resellers, raising awareness of natural, fair-trade products that can be applied in hotels, salons and spas, industrial and commercial buildings etc. Enermodal Engineering Enermodal Engineering is Canada’s leading green-focused building engineering company. | | |
Hitachi Electron Microscopy Products Development Centre (HEMiC)
Thanks to the support of the governments of Canada and Alberta and the contributions of Hitachi High-Technologies, Alberta will be home to a new nanotechnology research and product development centre. HEMiC located at the National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) will house three new electron microscopes, including the first-ever Hitachi environmental transmission electron microscope Model H-9500 in operation outside of Japan. One of the centre’s first projects will evaluate and test the world’s sharpest electron emitter, developed at NINT for use as an electron source in electron microscopes. This collaboration is expected to speed up commercialization of NINT microscope innovations. | | |
| Transforming Agriculture and Forestry |
Coming Soon... Canada's Largest Privately Owned Biogas Plant
Construction will soon begin on ECB Enviro North America’s first biogas plant. EBC is an Alberta developer and operator of innovative bio-energy installations. By 2011, the facility which is located in Lethbridge County will turn food scraps, lawn clippings and livestock manure into methane gas to fuel the generation of enough electricity to power 3,000 homes. The conversion process will offset 17,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually and produce a rich organic fertilizer for local farmers and gardeners. | | |
Alberta Biomaterials Development Centre
The new Alberta Biomaterials Development Centre will help Alberta’s agriculture and forestry industries develop new ways to make products from plant fiber and other bio-based feedstock. Located at the Alberta Research Council's Vegreville facility and the University of Alberta's Agriculture Discovery Place in Edmonton, the Centre links together research, technology and business to bring new products to market faster. It will offer access to expertise, test facilities, scale-up equipment, validation prototyping, and customer-demonstration support. | | |
Tecterra
Alberta’s newest Ingenuity Centre, Tecterra, is working with real-time geographical information to address global challenges in resource management. Tecterra combines Alberta’s resource based knowledge with world class information technology infrastructure. This expertise is applied to land-use management, recreational use, fire management, transportation and many other areas. Tecterra will act as a hub allowing resource companies to work with innovative technology companies and the research community. Commercialization of new technology is a key priority. | | |
The University of Calgary Receives Funding for Nerve Regeneration Research and a New Arctic Space Imaging Station
The University of Calgary has received $11 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). The funding supports further study of the regeneration of axons. This work is done with the goal of developing new treatment approaches for people affected by neurological injury or disease. CFI funding will also go toward building an arctic space science research station. The Resolute Bay Incoherent Scatter Radar, RISR, will be the third-of-its-kind in the world. RISR will image the ionosphere and study the interface between the Earth’s atmosphere and space. This research will be helpful in devising strategies to mitigate ionosheric effects on communication and navigation systems. It will also help in understanding the effects of space weather on climate change. | | |
| We thank the Alberta Government Library for their support in researching content for this newsletter.
ISSN 1918-5154 | |
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SEPTEMBER 2009
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