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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1313659
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 BCBUSINESS 29 TOP: TANYA GOEHRING A V I A T I O N A iring It O ut Harbour Air Seaplanes made history last December by flying the world's first all-electric commercial aircraft. Sure, the trip out of the 350-employee company's Richmond terminal lasted five minutes, but it was the thought that counted. That thought is a fuel-free fleet. Harbour Air's co-founder and CEO, Greg McDougall, who piloted the momentous first excursion, hopes to get certification in the next two years. Aim high, one supposes. –N.C. Terramera has been playing the field lately. Founded by biologist, lawyer and former MLA Karn Manhas in 2010, the company changed the agriculture game with Actigate, a technology that can make plant-based active ingredients more effective than synthetic pesticides and fertilizers by delivering them straight to target cells. Thanks to that innovation, Vancouver-based Terramera made the 2019 Global Cleantech 100 list. As the 135-employee outfit leaves its startup phase and looks ahead to 2030, Manhas says, it's building out the machine learning, artificial intelligence and computational chemistry side of the business. The goal is to transform food production and the economics of agriculture, he explains, but in the meantime, his company has put those capabilities to good use during the pan- demic. Through the B.C.-based Canada's Digital Supercluster, Terramera collaborated with UBC researchers to learn how the virus that causes COVID-19 is mutating, Manhas says. Their efforts yielded insights into applying treatments and vaccines "not only to the virus as it is now but to how it's going to go, so we don't have to go through this again." In November, Terramera announced its proposed Global Centre for Regenerative Agri- culture, a public-private effort to tackle Canada's economic, climate and food security crises by connecting cleantech with agriculture. No biggie, right? The animating idea behind the $730-million project: pulling carbon from the air and mov- ing it underground to improve soil health. "The plan we're developing creates a way for farmers to earn money from a full range of practices that are better for crops, plant health and the environment," Manhas says. "If Canada gets behind this proposal, we can generate millions of new jobs, generate trillions for the economy— that's trillions with a T—and get Canada to net zero." –N.R. C L E A N T E C H Fer tile Ground Harbour Air co-founder and CEO Greg McDougall A rooftop greenhouse at Terramera