With insurance claims rising for wildfires, floods and hurricanes, Definity sees an opportunity to help prevent them.
Kitchener-Waterloo Financial Corporation Definitions joined forces with the Toronto Innovation Center MaRS Discovery Area about a new start-up program on climate change adaptation and sustainability.
This Adaptek Accelerator The project's goal is to help early-stage cleantech founders test their climate adaptation and sustainability solutions through a prototype, strengthen their business models, and connect with potential customers, partners, and investors. The program was officially announced last month, but made its public debut today at the MaRS Climate Impact conference.
Applications for the two-year program, supported by Definity, are scheduled to open in January. The accelerator will support eight to ten companies.
“We need to make a lot more of these investments.”
Brendan Seale, Definity
“We believe this is a critical step in expanding Canada's adaptive innovation economy and creating a pipeline of promising solutions that can be implemented,” Paul McDonald, executive vice president of personal insurance and digital channels at Definity, told attendees at the CleanTech Conference in Toronto this morning.
MaRS Senior Climate and Cities Manager Ana Gonzalez Guerrero oversees the Adaptech accelerator. In an interview with BetaKit, Guerrero said the organization decided to create the program after noticing a gap in support for Canadian startups developing technologies to help communities prevent, prepare for and recover from the impacts of climate change.
The Adaptech Accelerator appears to be the second Canadian program of its kind, following the launch of Foresight Canada, headquartered in Vancouver. Earth Technologies: Adaptation earlier this year.
The initiative comes at a time when the United States is retreating from climate technology investments and political attitudes toward ESG have deteriorated, clouding investor interest in the area. But the shift hasn't dampened Definity's interest.
Guerrero noted that climate change adaptation and resilience technologies are considered “a little less politicized” than climate change mitigation solutions.
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Definity is the parent company of property and casualty insurance companies Economical and Sonnet. McDonald argued that the insurance industry—and society as a whole—must invest more in preventing extreme weather events because simply charging more and more unlimited fees to protect against them would lead to them becoming “uninsured.”
Brendan Seale, associate vice-president and head of environmental, social and governance (ESG) at Definity, told BetaKit he has a “huge interest” in supporting climate change adaptation and resilience across Canada as it increasingly experiences insured losses due to these events. Insured loss due to climate change impacts exceeded $8 billion in Canada last year.
Seale noted that while investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation to this new world are important, the former has garnered the most investment to date.
“Political machinations and forces may change, but I think these are short-term blips and the long-term trajectory for us is clear … we need to make a lot more of these investments,” Seale said.
Image courtesy of MaRS Discovery District.
