Richmond must actively attract foreign investment, recognize its local green tech companies and encourage entrepreneurship if it wants to be a hub of green technology, says the chair of a new innovation committee.
The city is home to numerous green technology companies, but most of them are unknown to the general public, explained Richmond Chamber of Commerce’s innovation committee chair, Clint Undseth, who is also vice-president of innovation at construction firm Stuart Olson.
Undseth feels a higher profile for these local companies would attract other similar enterprises, which can make Richmond a large, tech centre.
“We have some world-class thinking right here,” Undseth said.
“These are phenomenal companies that many people have never heard of.”
Some of these companies Undseth cited are part of the committee and include Corvus Energy, which provides high power battery systems.
One of its battery systems is used to run the world’s first all-electric ferry in Norway. While Saltworks Technology, on Steveston Highway, manufactures desalination and wastewater treatment plants for the oil, gas and mining industry.
Attracting new companies to Richmond would also arrest a brain-drain, which Undseth is seeing in the city.
“I see a lot of our young people going to university elsewhere and not coming back,” Undseth said, explaining that exodus is detrimental to Richmond’s burgeoning, green tech economy.
“How do we get our children to be educated here and have a thriving career here? That’s something we need to look at.”
The high cost of living is one factor driving young people out, but Undseth feels this region is where most people want to live and with more job opportunities in the tech field, wages will increase.
“This is the best place to live and people want to be here,” Undseth said. “But we have the lowest median household income of all major cities in Canada.”
Aiman El-Ramly is chief operating officer of ZE PowerGroup, a Richmond-based software development company that bills itself as a global leader in enterprise data management.
He sees value in the innovation committee and the importance in recognizing local businesses.
“There are lots of sleeper companies here, employing a lot of people but they sell globally,” El-Ramly said, adding his family-owned company employs 200 people and has a mostly international clientele.
“This is great for a young entrepreneur to see that you can make it internationally, despite not being well-known here.”
El-Ramly also sees the innovation committee as a way to mentor new entrepreneurs and find ideas to attract and expand the local tech industry.
The committee is currently working on a policy paper with goals and deadlines.
While increasing opportunities in green tech in Richmond is the local chamber’s goal, Undseth aims to expand it to the provincial and national level as innovation is lacking in Canada.
He said Canadian universities are behind in connecting their research to business opportunities, especially compared to their American counterparts.
“Stanford netted $1.3 billion in royalties and MIT issued 288 patents [in 2014] but in Canada, $10 million was netted by all Canadian universities,” Undseth said, noting the University of Toronto, one of the country’s leading research schools, issued only eight patents.
“This is just the beginning,” Undseth said about the committee, “this is not just a Richmond thing. I want to see Canada lead the world in clean technology.”
