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Cathy Bogaart

Home renovation free ride - Macleans, April 4, 2011 - 1 views

www2.macleans.ca/...ning-a-home-energy-retrofit-pr

mars tom rand advisors cleantech energy

shared by Cathy Bogaart on 06 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • On the other hand, some say that we should pursue these subsidies because they are better for the environment and green business than nothing at all. Tom Rand, author of Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit and a lead adviser at MaRS Discovery District, an innovation centre that helps fund clean technology firms, notes that buildings account for 40 per cent of our energy use, and making them more efficient is “low-hanging fruit on the carbon tree.” He also sees the program as an effective economic stimulus for the Canadian market for green business.
  • But Rand agrees with all the people who say the only way to solve the environmental problem is to put a price on carbon. “We’ve been talking about that for 15 years and we’re not going to get it any time soon.”
  • Cathy Bogaart on 06 Apr 11
     
    in this Maclean's article on the home renovation tax credits, MaRS cleantech practice lead Tom Rand is quoted as an expert in cleantech and business issues. He says that making buildings more efficient through such government incentives is "low hanging fruit on the carbon tree."
Cathy Bogaart

A cleaner slate for clean tech - Financial Post, April 26, 2011 - 0 views

www.financialpost.com/...story.html

mars events cleantech funding finance

shared by Cathy Bogaart on 26 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Cathy Bogaart on 26 Apr 11
     
    Emerald Ventures' Scott MacDonald talks to the Financial Post about the promise of Canadian cleantech ventures. They'll be highlighting that in the event they're co-hosting at MaRS, "Building Successful Canadian Cleantech Companies" . It's all part of the latest MaRS Capital event series.
Miri Katz

Globe and Mail: Time for action on innovation, not more study - 0 views

license.icopyright.net/...viewFreeUse.act

innovation globe

shared by Miri Katz on 04 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • Time for action on innovation, not more study By BARRIE McKENNA From Monday's Globe and Mail If more recommendations from important 2008 federal report Compete to Win had been implemented, Ottawa might not still be talking about innovation deficiencies
  • If innovation was measured in the output of reports about innovation, Canada would be a world leader.We're not. We are a laggard. The report tracked Canada's progress over the past two years based on 24 different indicators, such as the percentage of GDP spent on research and development, R&D spending by businesses, investment in machinery and equipment, PhDs and high school test scores. Since the council's initial report in 2008, Canada's performance is down in 15 categories, stagnant in three and improved in just six.
  • Here's a passage from L.R. (Red) Wilson's seminal 2008 federal report, Compete to Win: "We rank poorly across almost all aspects of innovation: the creation of knowledge, the diffusion of knowledge, the transformation of knowledge and the use of knowledge through commercialization."
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The R&D focus should be on industry clusters that can leverage the country's natural resource wealth and traditional strengths. Think energy, water, agriculture, forestry, mining and manufacturing that serves vital Canadian needs.
  • In areas most closely linked to innovation, the progress is equally slow. Mr. Wilson, for example, urged Ottawa to look at creating tax incentives to encourage venture capital and speeding up the commercialization of intellectual property developed in universities.
  • The to-do list on the path achieving that objective is long. There's overhauling the Investment Canada and Competition acts, opening up the telecom and broadcast industries to more foreign competition, creating a national securities regulator, reforming copyright laws, eliminating remaining internal trade barriers and lowering personal income tax rates.
  • It may mean that government plays a larger role in some industries while leaving others to their own devices. That, at least, is how other similarly sized economies successfully leverage limited government funds.More study has become an excuse to put off these much tougher, but inevitable, choices.
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