Clean tech worth $1.8B to B.C. economy
Sector aims to position itself as leader in global industry estimated at $3 trillion
British Columbia’s so-called cleantechnology industry employs 8,560 people at 273 firms in the province that generated an estimated $1.8 billion in revenue in 2016, according to a survey of companies engaged in green pursuits.
That is a 35 per cent increase in the number of companies and 20-per-cent gain in employment from a similar survey conducted in 2011 in an attempt to benchmark the sector for the B.C. Cleantech CEO Alliance.
“The clean tech sector continues to both experience and drive growth in our province,” said Lorne Burns, a partner with the accounting firm KPMG, which conducted the survey.
Generally, clean tech refers to technologies that reduce the impact of industry on the environment. Specifically for benchmarking, the report defines it as advances in clean-energy production, water treatment and management or energy efficiency.
KPMG and the CEO Alliance released the report Monday as part of the sector’s efforts to position itself as a leader in an increasingly lucrative global industry, estimat- ed at $3 trillion by KPMG, and as its members lobby for increased support from government.
CEO alliance chairman Jonathan Rhone called clean tech “a critical driver of innovation and economic growth for the province and Canada.”
The survey asked executives at 273 firms to submit answers to the survey’s questions, 90 responded, andtwo-thirdsofrespondentsidentified government support through loan guarantees or grants “as a key factor to accelerate the industry in B.C.,” according to the report.
Clean tech isn’t an industry without challenges. According to a 2016 report by the research organization Analytica Advisors, growth in Canada’s overall industry slowed in 2014, which researchers attributed to a lack of debt and project financing for the sector’s smaller startup firms.
“There is an appetite for new government programs for B.C. clean tech companies that are emerging from the research and development phase and are ready to commercialize their innovations,” Burns wrote in the report.