Scaling Up™ 2024
Bigger Impact, Smaller Footprint
Canada's 9th annual industrial bioeconomy business conference
November 25 - 27, 2024
WELCOME
“The world is on the cusp of an industrial revolution fueled by biotechnology and biomanufacturing. Emerging biological technologies are and will continue to transform the foundation of our physical world – everything from clothing, to plastics, to fuels, to concrete. Through biomanufacturing, sustainable biomass across the United States can be converted into new products and provide an alternative to petroleum-based production for chemicals, medicines, fuels, materials, and more.”
- ‘Bold Goals for U.S. Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing’ - The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. National Science Foundation - March 2023
“The direct economic impact of the Bio Revolution could be up to $4 trillion a year over the next ten to 20 years. More than half of this direct impact could be outside human health in domains such as agriculture and food, consumer products and services, and materials and energy production.”
- McKinsey Global Institute “The Bio Revolution: Innovations transforming economies, societies, and our lives,” - May 2020
The Bio Revolution: Innovations transforming economies, societies, and our lives | McKinsey
To prepare for this revolution Canada’s federal government should:
End tax subsidies and direct cash infusions to the oil and gas sector
How much are taxpayers really subsidizing Canada's fossil fuel industry? | CBC News
Implement a federal bioproducts procurement program similar to the American Bio-Preferred Program
Expand the definition of the Canadian Renewable & Conservation Expenses category (which allows start-ups to flow through tax deductions to companies that can actually take advantage of them) to include bioproducts, biomaterials, and bioenergy.
Canadian renewable and conservation expense | Gowling WLG
Establish direct incentives to de-risk investment in what have been referred to as Canada’s ‘biomass development opportunity zones’
Encourage Canada’s financial institutions and pension funds to invest in low carbon emitting products and materials
Launch a national industrial bioeconomy strategy that tells the market that Canada is a place of certainty where companies can reliably do bioeconomy business
With 348 million hectares of forests, over 60 million hectares of agriculture land, with urban centres banning the landfill of organic waste, and a massive deficit in bio-based district energy systems, Canada has a world leading opportunity to capture a material $200 billion/year portion of the industrial bioeconomy revolution. The alternate means exporting jobs and importing bio-based products rather than exporting to a world hungry for low carbon materials.
Scaling Up 2024 will discuss all these issues and provide examples of success from other jurisdictions. Make sure to attend and be part of shaping the solution.