SYDNEY, N.S. — A Cape Breton University centre for sustainable industry research and development is now a non-profit, standalone entity.
University president and vice-chancellor David Dingwall said incorporating the Verschuren Centre for Sustainability in Energy and the Environment into the Verschuren Centre Inc. will increase its ability to work on the commercialization of cutting-edge technology and businesses.
Calling it a “mutually beneficial decision,” Dingwall said the centre will now be able to take on large, multi-partner renewable energy and greenhouse gas projects, as well as contract with international partners on European funding and team with private corporations on large federal clean-technology programs.
“This progressive change will allow the Verschuren Centre to rapidly expand its capacity to address key sustainable development goals that drive today’s innovation,” said Dingwall, who will have a seat on the centre’s board of directors.
“The increase in research, innovation and development activity this change will allow is good for the university, it is good for Cape Breton Island and it is good for the province of Nova Scotia.”
Beth Mason, chief executive officer of the Verschuren Centre, said their business model is a “business model for businesses,” and that the centre’s goal is to have a global reach in the growing global bio-economy by helping start-ups access their world-class team of experts in bio-processing, carbon transformation, renewable energy and aquaculture.
“We will bring circularity; we will bring sustainability and we will bring decarbonization to that picture. It’s an ambitious goal for a little centre like this but our reach is massive and it’s massive because we connect. We connect externally, we connect nationally and we connect internationally,” she said.
“What we have is an incredible mix of being able to accelerate new companies with cutting-edge technologies, and being able to connect those with some of our existing partners.”
CBU chancellor Annette Verschuren helped develop the centre in 2009 to accelerate sustainable industry development in Cape Breton.
“But the approach that Beth has taken is she works with existing companies and works with them to find solutions,” said Verschuren, the former president of the Home Depot Canada and the Home Depot Asia who is now chair and CEO of energy storage development company NRStor Inc.
“What I love about what the Verschuren Centre is doing is building upon the resource base of this island, building upon the strength of it,” she said.
“One thing Cape Breton has is an abundance of wind. The highlands has the most wind in all of the world. These are things that we have that we need to capture and we need to create jobs and opportunities.”
For more information about the Verschuren Centre visit www.verschurencentre.ca.
