Featured in this episode:

Martina Albert is a technician with the National Tree Seed Centre, based in Fredericton, N. B. The NTSC’s library holds more than 13,000 seed collections, with the purpose of protecting them from invasive pests, disease and climate change. Albert works on the Centre’s Indigenous Seed Collection Program, working with First Nations communities to collect and preserve tree seeds for generations to come.

Blaine Peason is the CEO of Seedark, a climate tech venture that is working to modernize the global supply chain of seeds. Its app, Squirrel, connects growers and reforestation experts with seed collectors, while digitally tracking where seeds are coming from. Pearson has more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, focusing on harmonizing the application of technology with environmental protection, and is currently part of the RBC Women in Cleantech Accelerator.

Faisal Moola is an associate professor in the department of geography, environment and geomatics at the University of Guelph. Moola oversees research on the ecology and ethnoecology of cultural keystone species with Indigenous Peoples here in Canada and around the world.

Jim Robb is the general manager of the Friends of the Rouge Watershed. The organization partners with communities and volunteers to protect and restore ecosystems, with a focus on Rouge National Urban Park. Robb helps organize nature walks, community planting events and educational programming to inspire the next generation of ecological stewards.

D’Amour Walker is the assistant project coordinator at Friends of the Rouge Watershed, where she ensures trees, shrubs and plants are in healthy condition as part of the reforestation and ecosystem restoration efforts.

Further reading:

• Saving nature: WWF study highlights the best places for ecological restoration in Canada
• Wanted: tree seeds. National seed centre in Fredericton collecting samples
• Indigenous Seed Collection Program begins cross-country journey in Fredericton
• We need native seeds in order to respond to climate change, but there aren’t enough
• Why Indigenous peoples are raising the alarm on carbon trading at UN climate summit
• Grasslands store tons of carbon — and there’s a movement to protect them
• Biodiversity or bust? Here’s what happened at COP16
• What you need to know about nature-based solutions to climate change

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Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

Featured in this episode:

Dr. Scott Weese is a veterinary internal medicine specialist, chief of infection control and director of the Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College. Weese is a member of the Global Leaders Group on antimicrobial resistance and has helped craft antimicrobial use guidelines for veterinarians in Canada.

Further reading:

• The global threat of antibiotic resistance
• At the UN, world leaders are negotiating the biggest health issue you’ve never heard of
• Three million child deaths linked to drug resistance, study shows
• Do I need that antibiotic?
• Veterinary medicine is key to overcoming antimicrobial resistance
• The link between pets, people and antimicrobial resistance
• Canada introduces new guidelines to tackle antimicrobial resistance

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

Featured in this episode:

• Journalist Susan Freinkel is the author of Plastics: Toxic A Love Story, a book that traces the history of plastics through eight different objects, from the Frisbee to the IV bag, and examines how plastic negatively affects our lives.
• Dr. Ted Schettler is a physician and expert on the health risks of plastics and phthalates. He’s the scientific advisor at Health Care Without Harm, an organization that has dedicated more than 30 years to reducing healthcare’s environmental impact, including the removal of mercury from medical devices.
• An anesthesiologist for more than 20 years, Dr. Lyndia Dernis has seen first-hand the amount of plastic waste operating rooms produce. Currently practicing at St. Mary’s Hospital Centre in Montreal, Dernis has spearheaded the Anesthesia and Environment Committee, which has drastically reduced and recycled the hospital’s plastic waste since being implemented in 2020.
• Rashmi Prakash is the CEO of Aruna Revolution, a Halifax-based startup producing sustainable menstrual products. She’s also an adjunct professor at UBC, where she teaches a course on the impact of biomedical engineering on society, sustainability and environmental stewardship. As a biomedical engineer, Prakash has seen the surplus use of single-use plastic medical devices wrapped in single-use plastics, the layers of which she likens to a Russian doll.
• Aditi Sitolay is a masters student of medical device design and entrepreneurship at Imperial College London. She’s also the founder of Synoro Med, a Vancouver-based startup that specializes in designing sterile, reusable medical devices, including an early-prototype IV bag.

Further reading:

• Solving healthcare’s emissions problem
• Your brain could have a spoon’s worth of microplastics. Here’s what to do about it
• We tested our blood for microplastics. This is what we found
• Microplastics: Are we facing a new health crisis — and what can be done about it?
• Prescription for plastic medical waste: How hospitals, medical suppliers are aiming to be greener

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.