Photo credit: Gabe Rivett-Carnac/EnviroCentre
EnviroCentre is proud to announce that our Retrofit Accelerator Mentorship Program (RAMP) has been recognized as one of this year’s Canada’s Clean50 Top Projects, a national award recognizing Canada’s leading sustainability initiatives. RAMP was selected for its impact, innovation, and potential to inspire and be replicated by others.
Created to help address growing demand for skilled workers in Canada’s retrofit sector, RAMP connects early-career tradespeople with experienced industry professionals, providing mentorship and hands-on experience on real high-performance building projects. Through partnerships with contractors, educational institutions, and industry organizations, the program helps participants build practical skills while creating pathways into the rapidly growing energy retrofit workforce.
“This recognition belongs to the team that brought RAMP to life and continues to work every day to connect new entrants to the trades with meaningful opportunities in high-performance building retrofits,” said Sharon Coward, Executive Director of EnviroCentre. “We’re honoured to be recognized alongside so many inspiring projects from across Canada. The transition to more energy-efficient buildings depends on skilled people, and we’re proud to be helping build the workforce that will make that possible.”
The need for that workforce continues to grow.
Buildings account for a significant share of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, and achieving climate and energy goals will require retrofits at a scale that current workforce capacity cannot support alone.
RAMP was designed to help bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world experience, giving participants the opportunity to apply building science and retrofit knowledge on active job sites.
Since launching, the program has trained 28 mentees, with several participants securing employment opportunities with the contractors they trained alongside. More than half indicated they intend to build careers in the energy retrofit sector, helping strengthen the skilled workforce needed to improve building performance across Canada.
“The results accruing from EnviroCentre’s Retrofit Accelerator Mentorship Program are very worthy of recognition as a Clean50 Top Project,” said Gavin Pitchford, CEO of Delta Management Group and Executive Director of Canada’s Clean50 Awards. “Delta’s criteria in determining Project awards is to carefully consider a combination of actual measurable impact, demonstrated innovation, and a project’s ability to inspire others to imitate it, and RAMP is a terrific example.”
This week, members of the EnviroCentre team joined sustainability leaders, innovators, and project proponents from across the country at the Clean50 Summit 16.0 in Toronto.
The gathering celebrated projects advancing practical solutions to some of Canada’s most pressing environmental and societal challenges.
We’re grateful to our contractors, training partners, mentors, mentees, and staff whose collaboration made RAMP possible. This recognition reflects what can happen when organizations work together to create opportunities, strengthen communities, and prepare the workforce needed for a more sustainable future.
To learn more about RAMP read: Solving the workforce challenges of tomorrow, today
About Canada’s Clean50
Founded by Delta Management Group in 2011, the Canada’s Clean50 Awards annually recognize and connect sustainability leaders and projects from across Canada.
The program honours individuals and organizations whose work is advancing environmental and sustainability outcomes across sectors, while the Top Project Awards recognize outstanding sustainability initiatives completed within the previous two years.