Innovative partnership approach catalyzing climate resiliency
The rise of extreme weather events has heightened awareness of flood risk. supplied
When areas in Bedford, Nova Scotia, experienced more than 250 millimetres of rain in just days in July 2023, the resulting devastation caused country-wide alarm. Considered one of the highest impact flash floods in Canadian history, the incident served as a stark reminder how extreme weather events increasingly place communities at risk.
Flooding, the most common and costly disaster in Canada, already incurs nearly $800-million in insured losses annually. What’s more, climate models predict that events that occurred once every two decades in Canada could happen every five years by the end of the century, making projections based on historic data inherently inaccurate.
That’s where clear and up-to-date insights on risk factors can make a big difference, says Chris Godsall, CEO of NOAH Intelligence Inc., a data and analytics company focused on generating highly accurate property-specific flood risk assessments.
“It’s a bit like a medical diagnosis. Knowing that high cholesterol is generally associated with negative health outcomes is one thing – being confronted with your own cholesterol levels another,” he says. “We can provide accurate flood risk scorecards for individual properties and offer recommendations for solutions on being more resilient.”
“R-LABS delivers innovation through partnerships with game-changing entrepreneurs and through venture-building. The resulting ecosystem of innovative companies offers more comprehensive and robust solutions than would be possible in a siloed approach.”
“It’s an example of partners who look at a problem together and develop solutions. That’s a great Canadian strength: the power of commercial co-operation to lift something up.”
Using science-based advanced physical simulation and AI, NOAH illustrates the impacts of future weather events at a property level. A simulation model for a drainage system in North York, for example, played out different rainfall scenarios – showing areas of high and extreme flood risk near a sewershed.
“In this model, we did 14 simulations – and 1,140 of the properties were flooded in 11 out of 14 storms,” says Mr. Godsall. “You can have two buildings, walking distance from each other, with one being essentially resilient and the other having very high flood hazard.”
Knowing the odds of a property being impacted by increased rainfall over the next five years “can help everyone, from homeowners and businesses to real estate investment trusts and insurance companies,” he explains, adding that it also enables informed decision-making by “governments that have limited resources available for dealing with infrastructure that wasn’t built for today’s climate.”
Getting to a national framework for resiliency starts with property owners taking action – and NOAH offers a pathway to implementing concrete measures as well as setting up reward systems where municipalities and insurance companies can support risk mitigation, states Mr. Godsall.
“In a world where climate events are getting more and more intense, partnerships and innovation are key,” says George Carras, founder and CEO of real estate venture builder R-LABS.
“There are three facets to innovation: coming up with the new idea, developing the innovation and disseminating the solution,” he explains. “R-LABS is a growing partnership where innovative organizations can bring their unique capabilities and pilot and scale things that have never been done before.”
Already boosting a “great diversity of capabilities, R-LABS delivers innovation through partnerships with game-changing entrepreneurs and through venture-building,” Mr. Carras says. “The resulting ecosystem of innovative companies offers more comprehensive and robust solutions than would be possible in a siloed approach.”
Take, for example, NOAH’s flood risk scorecards and Assembly, another R-LABS partner company that delivers prefabricated wood buildings helping non-profit housing providers and municipalities meet budget constraints, he notes. “Communities that need affordable housing also have to consider sustainability and flood resilience, so each of our companies brings tremendous synergy.”
By helping assess and validate ideas and pilot innovations, R-LABS propagates a business model where the companies solve a problem and make money, says Mr. Carras. “R-LABS equals a return for society plus a return on investment.”
Mr. Godsall sees scale and affordability as key for the path to resiliency – and for delivering solutions that are widely accessible. That’s where R-LABS’ innovation ecosystem serves as a powerful catalyst, he says. “It’s an example of partners who look at a problem together and develop solutions. That’s a great Canadian strength: the power of commercial co-operation to lift something up.”
It also serves to “harness Canada’s innate leadership, skill sets and knowledge to swing for the fences,” says Mr. Godsall, who arrived at NOAH with a track record for founding winning enterprises, such as Santropol Roulant, a Montreal-based non-profit tackling social isolation and food insecurity; Triton Timber, a cleantech company reclaiming submerged logs; and Ziva Dynamics, an award-winning character simulation and animation software firm.
“My experience over the past 30 years brought me to this exciting space, which combines sustainability, hydrological engineering and physics-based simulation,” he says, explaining that he works with Steve Van Haren, the former lead engineer for WSP’s stormwater management practice. “To become a global leader in a specific area, deep expertise needs to be embedded in the founding team. And when it comes to this particular space, we have the best in the world.”
Solutions like NOAH have the potential to make a big impact for Canadian communities and the overall economy, and Mr. Carras says they can also “be scaled up to help other countries, since they address not only local or Canadian issues but global problems.”
R-LABS has been operating since 2018 – and recently stepped up efforts with “our own ideation AI called Athena,” he says. “It allows us to collectively leverage the learnings from the past and the knowledge assets of the 43 ventures we have in the lab. It enables us to do things in one afternoon that in the past may have taken months.”
This boosts the already impressive potential for value creation through innovation, adds Mr. Carras: “R-LABS has the right partners. It’s the right platform in the right place at the right time.”
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