This text is part of the special section Philanthropy
In its mission to preserve water, the Gaspé Beaubien Foundation wants to contribute to the development of concrete solutions for municipalities and industries. It does this in particular through AquaAction and its AquaHacking program, which is defined as the first step in an entrepreneurial journey.
The AquaEntrepreneur program, subsidized by the Quebec Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy, will take over from previous programs to bring businesses into the field and build pilot projects in municipalities.
“Municipalities are looking for innovative solutions,” says AquaAction president Soula Chronopoulos. We network with our companies, which provide them with these solutions. »
She cites the example of Clean Nature, a young local company that has developed a solution to reduce the spreading of salt on the streets using artificial intelligence (AI). Thanks to a system invented by three graduates in water sciences, AI optimizes spreading, which, in addition to saving salt, reduces pollution of waterways. The program takes various parameters into account, such as the slope of the ground, to determine the quantity of salt to be spread automatically.
“The Clean Nature team entered the AquaHacking program, won one of our competitions, and then became part of the first cohort of AquaEntrepreneur,” says the president of AquaAction. We worked with these entrepreneurs to develop their technology and establish a network with the City of L’Assomption. Next winter, a pilot project will assess the effectiveness of this process before this solution is extended to other municipalities. »
Export solutions to the United States
In Quebec, a multitude of businesses are launched each year, but the failure rate is high. A reality that the Gaspé Beaubien family wishes to undermine.
“For a company, the first five years are the most difficult,” says Nan-B de Gaspé Beaubien. We are an entrepreneurial family, and we are aware of these issues. With our programs, we can support them during this difficult period and make things change. »
The results are convincing. To date, 28 AquaHacking Challenge companies are still active from coast to coast.
“By 2025, we aim to bring in 75 companies that will deploy real-time technology demonstration projects in the municipal and industrial sector,” says Soula Chronopoulos. Our goal is to inject at least $150 million in revenue into the economy. In addition, we want to export our solutions to the United States. »
For AquaHacking participants, it is also possible to found a non-profit organization. This is the case of Water Rangers, an organization created in 2015 in Val-des-Monts, whose action now extends across Canada.
This NPO has developed a water analysis kit made available to citizens to allow them to easily collect data on the water quality in a local waterway, and to disseminate this information on a platform interactive online. It thus becomes possible to carry out citizen monitoring of the lakes. The organization now has 14 employees.
“We will soon create a partnership with them to use the data they have collected over the past eight years for the benefit of future innovators who will be able to transform this data into solutions”, explains the director of the Gaspé Beaubien Foundation, Dominique Monchamp.
This content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, relating to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.