One week countdown with 104 events + Gigacorn hunting for good and for profit
Seven days to go, 104 events on the calendar, anticipation off the charts!
It’s incredible to reflect that the initial goal for Toronto Climate Week was to soft-launch this October with 15-20 events, while gearing up for a five-day festival in 2026.
Now TOCW is just one week away and the events calendar has (drumroll…) 104 events — thanks to momentum, enthusiasm, and commitment that truly surpasses our wildest expectations!
Events are filling up quickly, and many will sell out. All TOCW events have limited capacity, so don’t miss out. Sign up for your first choices today!
And read on for...
A Q&A with Nelson Switzer, climate investor, bestselling author, and speaker at TOCW’s kick-off event True North Rising, on what makes Toronto a hub for climate-tech innovation
The third title in our “Climate Book of the Week” collaboration with TYPE Books
All details on the TOCW Challenge running October 1-31
Featured events, by day
Wednesday, October 1:
True North Rising: TOCW’s Official Kick-off — A full day of bold voices, big ideas, and cross-sector collaboration.
We Create Our Futures — Get your solarpunk on at this opening night party.
BDC Capital: Climate Tech & Sustainability Mixer & Panel Discussion — Insights and networking for builders, investors, and partners in the climate tech space.
Thursday, October 2:
Building What’s Next — A day of bold conversations with industry leaders on accelerating climate action in the built environment.
EY Four Futures (Multiple Times) — Immersive experience blending science and AI visualization to show how action today shapes a sustainable future.
Designing the Future of Reporting Happy Hour — Discuss how report design is evolving over drinks and appetizers.
The Climate Capital Conversation: From Term Sheet to Impact — Panel on what investors and banks look for when backing climate-focused companies.
High Energy, Higher Stakes: Can AI Solve More Than It Consumes? — Panel exploring what AI means for the climate, our resources, and our communities.
Friday, October 3:
COMMUNICATING CLIMATE WITH CONFIDENCE, CANADA! (C what we did there) — How to raise awareness for sustainable products, climate friendly programs, brands, or initiatives.
EY Four Futures (Multiple Times) — Immersive experience blending science and AI visualization to show how action today shapes a sustainable future.
Build with RiskThinking.ai Hackathon Finale — Selected teams will showcase their demo projects live, prototyped using RiskThinking.ai’s Climate Digital Twin (CDT™) technology, with a panel of high-profile judges choosing the winner.
Pitches and Prizes Ceremony: Student Case Competition — Winners announced for this University of Toronto competition that asks: do you have what it takes to shape the future of climate solutions?
PwC Canada’s Climate Week Event – The Gigacorn Hunter Book Launch — Toronto launch of the #1 international bestseller by Nelson Switzer (featured in this week’s Q&A!).
Toronto Climate Comedy 4.0! Stand-up for Climate! — Amazing line-up of some of the best Toronto comics.
Even more events!
Electric Avenue: Home electrification, the future of comfort, savings, and sustainability (Oct 1) — Panel exploring the benefits of going electric (healthier air, lower bills, greater comfort and efficiency), plus unpacking barriers.
Let's talk about our relationship(s) – Environmental Sustainability, Marketing & Advertising (Oct 2) — Happy hour panel exploring the complex relationship between brand messaging, consumer expectations, and the real responsibility of our industry.
Zawadi Farms - hosted by Salesforce (Oct 2) — Get hands on experience prepping planting beds, harvesting food and preparing boxes for food banks.
Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) Canada 2025 (Oct 3) — Empowering youth (ages 15–35) to shape climate dialogue in Canada and represent youth voices at major global climate events.
START NØW: Smart Sustainability Planning for SMBs (Oct 3) — Interactive workshop helping small and medium-sized businesses take practical steps toward sustainability.
Revo-Youth: Career Connect (Oct 3) — Not your typical job fair, this event brings together youth and professionals to co-design the future of the green economy.
To the Rescue: Meals That Matter Official Project Kick-Off (Oct 3) — Practical, hands-on introduction to how food rescue can turn surplus into nourishment.
Edie Supper Club (Oct 3) — A curated dinner series for interesting people building interesting things.
Gigacorn hunting for good and for profit: Q&A with a climate investor
This week we talked to Nelson Switzer, aka The Gigacorn Hunter. A trained environmental engineer turned investor business strategist and investor, Nelson is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Climate Innovation Capital and author of The Gigacorn Hunter: Seven Principles for a Climate Investor — a #1 international bestseller!
gigacorn noun : a climate tech company with the potential to remove a billion tons of carbon from the economy while achieving a market value greater than a billion dollars
1. What inspired you to write The Gigacorn Hunter?
What inspired me to write The Gigacorn Hunter was a very Friedman-esque feeling. I figured the world doesn’t need another pep talk, slogan, or platitudes. It needs a compass for where the profits really are… a guidebook that lays out the new rules of the game for a world facing climate crisis and opportunity, financial, environmental, and social, all at once.
Climate investing, done right, isn’t just virtuous, it is more profitable than the conventional economy. Full stop. And if I can give investors a guide, entrepreneurs a roadmap, deliver outstanding financial and carbon returns, and help chart the next stage of the economy… well, that was reason enough to hammer a keyboard.
2. How do you see Toronto/GTA and Canadian climate tech companies positioned to succeed at this critical juncture?
I’m Toronto-raised, have worked across Canada, the U.S., and Europe, and I’ve reviewed hundreds of Canadian climate-tech ventures (and thousands globally). The short version: the ingredients are here. Toronto has world-class research, serious talent, and an ecosystem that wants these companies to win. Walk a few blocks and you’ll bump into MaRS, CDL, funds like mine at ClimateIC, and financiers like BMO and Scotiabank. Translation: commercialization muscle, company-building discipline, and AI horsepower across energy, mobility, ag, industry, waste, and buildings.
Canada also enjoys real structural advantages. One of the cleanest power systems in the world, new clean-economy tax credits, the $15B Canada Growth Fund using “contracts for difference” to de-risk first-of-a-kind projects, and vast pools of capital. These are the scaffolds scale-ups need.
Where we stumble is scale... founder and financier scale. Our founders too often ask for $5M when their global peers ask for $50M. Many of our institutional investors have yet to mobilize around climate tech. To compete, we need to flip that script. We must stage bigger rounds, pair private capital with these new policy tools, and deploy capital that truly matches the scale of our founders’ ambition.
Bottom line? Many of the technologies the world needs are already here; right here in Toronto. If we dream bigger, fund like we mean it, and build domestic demand, we won’t just keep our best companies, we’ll mint the next wave of climate and market winners from Toronto and Canada for the world.
3. In which sectors are Canadian climate tech startups leading?
Food and agriculture is one important area, as is energy innovation. We’re quite advanced in battery storage technologies, battery management systems, and electric vehicle (EV) charging networks and systems. Canada has some pretty impressive technologies that we’re developing here and exporting to the rest of the world.
Another significant area is materials recovery systems. Canadian innovators have created some incredibly impressive technologies to recycle and repurpose used materials, such as in batteries. These technologies extract critical minerals and magnets from batteries that are no longer useful for their original purpose, such as in EVs or battery management systems for backup storage facilities, so that these segments can continue to grow.
Canada also aggressively excels in energy efficiency in buildings, particularly thermostats that function as energy management systems for residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. Two Canadian leaders are BrainBox AI and Mysa. To explain further, when a critical number of Mysa’s demand response–+enabled thermostats are installed in a given area, a utility may be able to take a peaker plant offline as the demand response program smoothes power consumption. The greenhouse gas emission reductions in this case are outstanding — we’re talking about millions of tons per year. I should mention that my fund is proudly invested in Mysa.
4. What does grassroots climate activism look like to you?
For years, I joked that my version of activism didn’t involve chaining myself to a tree or marching with a picket sign. I wore a suit and tie. My battleground was the boardroom. I spent my time learning how the decisions that shape environmental and economic outcomes get made, what moves markets, and how to use data and reason to shift those levers toward climate action.
To me, grassroots activism is about mobilizing influence. That might be a teenager leading a school campaign, a community pushing for local solar or geothermal, or an employee convincing their company to change course. Not everyone has the same kind of influence, but everyone can learn how to use the voice and tools they do have. At its best, grassroots is about each person, as an individual or group of people, finding their leverage, and when you add those levers together, you can move the system.
5. What are you most looking forward to about Toronto Climate Week?
What excites me most is seeing just how vast and diverse Toronto’s climate ecosystem has become. When I started in this space 25 years ago, it felt like just a few dozen folks trying to push a boulder uphill. Now it’s thousands of people. From entrepreneurs and investors to policymakers and students... all leaning in.
I’m looking forward to meeting new faces, reconnecting with old ones, and finding ways to work together. Because when this many people pull in the same direction, the transition doesn’t just accelerate, it becomes unstoppable.
Nelson will be speaking at True North Rising: TOCW’s Official Kick-off at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society on October 1.
Get a signed copy of The Gigacorn Hunter at PwC Canada’s Climate Week Event – The Gigacorn Hunter Book Launch on October 3.
TYPE Books Climate book of the week #3
Intertwined: Women, Nature, and Climate Justice
by Rebecca Kormos
Intertwined (The New Press, 2024) offers a great entry point into conversations around the intersection of feminism and climate justice. Rebecca Kormos explores the ways women are disproportionately impacted by ecological crises and how climate change heightens and solidifies existing inequities. She also reveals the massive benefits of empowering women in the fight for climate protection. Through a series of interviews, Kormos shares stories of women working for a better world, presenting a multivocal account of where we're at in the fight and where we can go from here.
The Toronto Climate Week Challenge will be launching on October 1! It’s the perfect way to take all of the learning and inspiration from TOCW and make individual choices that will have big impact.
What’s it all about?
The Toronto Climate Week Challenge is simple. Sign up on the TOCW Challenge platform, pick a climate-smart recipe, cook it, and upload a photo to show you’ve completed the challenge. That's it. Everyone who completes the challenge will unlock special offers from our sustainable food partners.
The impact. 10,000 participants will prevent 64 tonnes of CO2 emissions — turning inspiration into measurable action. That’s the equivalent of taking 170 cars off the road for the month of October!
About the recipes. The recipes have been curated from local chefs, cookbook authors, restaurants, and our partner Zestyplan. Each has been specifically designed to be delicious, easy to make, and affordable.
Ready to join? The TOCW Challenge will be open for registration on October 1. Be sure to check our socials and website to enter! The challenge runs through October, so there's plenty of time to participate — you only need to cook one meal (but you can do more if you like!). Plus, you’ll get to see real-time updates on our collective impact.
All set to launch the conversations that will shape the next stages of Canada’s climate action? We can’t wait to see your faces next week! 😊
With gratitude,
The TOCW Team