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Solve for X: Innovations to Change the World

Solve for X: Innovations to Change the World

De: MaRS Discovery District
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Solve for X uncovers what’s next. Join journalist Manjula Selvarajah as she dives into the latest tech innovations shaping our world. How are satellites revolutionizing the fight against climate change? Could music be the medicine we need? What will it take for Canada to lead the global tech scene and achieve a zero-emission future? Discover the answers to these questions and more in the next season of Solve for X.2022 Ciencia Ciencias Geológicas Economía Gestión y Liderazgo Liderazgo
Episodios
  • Cold comfort: How to keep cool without destroying the planet

    Cold comfort: How to keep cool without destroying the planet
    Jul 17 2025
    David MacMillan is a manager in the City of Toronto’s Environment, Climate and Forestry division. He and his team are focused on planning for low-carbon development and energy systems, which includes implementing the Toronto Green Standard, which aims for net-zero new buildings by 2028, and renewable energy programs such as SolarTO and Wastewater Energy. Cameron Leitch is the director of solutions and innovations at Enwave Energy Corporation, which oversees the largest deep lake water cooling (DLWC) project in the world. Pulling near-freezing water from the depths of Lake Ontario, this massive infrastructure system provides alternative cooling to more than 100 buildings in downtown Toronto, including arenas, condos, offices, data centres and hospitals — a clean energy initiative that has been recognized by the United Nations. Evelyn Allen is the co-founder of Evercloak, a Waterloo-based company that has developed graphene oxide membranes that helps to dehumidify air before it reaches AC and HVAC units, significantly reducing the energy and refrigerants needed to cool a space. The company is currently part of the Mission from MaRS: Better Buildings Adoption Accelerator program. Daniel A. Barber is a professor of architecture and the environment at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Barber’s research and work focuses on how changing temperatures have altered our built environment, and how architects can help adapt to the climate crisis. At architecture symposium Biennale Venice, his interactive installation, “Terms and Conditions,” allowed participants to experience the stifling effects of the waste heat that air conditioning units produce. Further reading: Air conditioning poses a climate conundrumToronto company using lake water to cool buildings expands systemToronto is home to the world’s largest lake-powered cooling system. Here’s how it works.Air conditioners fuel the climate crisis. Can nature help?How to build an AC that will get the world through hotter summersA rebuke to Modernism: the Venice Architecture Biennale imagines new ways of building to cope with climate changeSubscribe to Solve for X: Innovations to Change the World here.. Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.
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    27 m
  • Heat warning: Are we ready for a hotter climate?

    Heat warning: Are we ready for a hotter climate?
    Jun 24 2025

    Eleni Myrivili is the United Nation’s first-ever global chief heat officer. An anthropologist by training, Myrivili understands how heat waves discriminate against older, less-wealthy and under-served demographics. Before being named to her UN post in 2022, Myrivili was Athens’ heat officer, where she coordinated the capital’s response to heat waves and helped renovate an ancient Roman aqueduct to bring water into the city.

    Further reading:

    • What will it take to save our cities from a scorching future
    • Earth’s 10 hottest years on record are the last 10
    • Extreme heat is deadlier than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined
    • Heat inequality ‘causing thousands of unreported deaths in poor countries’
    • The heat crisis is a housing crisis
    • Ancient civilizations countered extreme heat. Here’s what cities borrow from history
    • Toronto's getting hotter. Experts say a chief heat officer could help the city adapt
    • Architects turning to India’s lattice-building designs to keep buildings cool without air conditioning
    • How India’s lattice buildings cool without air conditioning
    • Athen’s answer to a water supply crunch: an ancient aqueduct

    Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

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    34 m
  • Regrowth strategy: To adapt to a changing climate, restoring nature is critical. But do we have the seeds we need?

    Regrowth strategy: To adapt to a changing climate, restoring nature is critical. But do we have the seeds we need?
    May 29 2025

    Featured in this episode:

    Martina Albert is a technician with the National Tree Seed Centre, based in Fredericton, N. B. The NTSC’s library holds more than 13,000 seed collections, with the purpose of protecting them from invasive pests, disease and climate change. Albert works on the Centre’s Indigenous Seed Collection Program, working with First Nations communities to collect and preserve tree seeds for generations to come.

    Blaine Peason is the CEO of Seedark, a climate tech venture that is working to modernize the global supply chain of seeds. Its app, Squirrel, connects growers and reforestation experts with seed collectors, while digitally tracking where seeds are coming from. Pearson has more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, focusing on harmonizing the application of technology with environmental protection, and is currently part of the RBC Women in Cleantech Accelerator.

    Faisal Moola is an associate professor in the department of geography, environment and geomatics at the University of Guelph. Moola oversees research on the ecology and ethnoecology of cultural keystone species with Indigenous Peoples here in Canada and around the world.

    Jim Robb is the general manager of the Friends of the Rouge Watershed. The organization partners with communities and volunteers to protect and restore ecosystems, with a focus on Rouge National Urban Park. Robb helps organize nature walks, community planting events and educational programming to inspire the next generation of ecological stewards.

    D’Amour Walker is the assistant project coordinator at Friends of the Rouge Watershed, where she ensures trees, shrubs and plants are in healthy condition as part of the reforestation and ecosystem restoration efforts.

    Further reading:

    • Saving nature: WWF study highlights the best places for ecological restoration in Canada
    • Wanted: tree seeds. National seed centre in Fredericton collecting samples
    • Indigenous Seed Collection Program begins cross-country journey in Fredericton
    • We need native seeds in order to respond to climate change, but there aren’t enough
    • Why Indigenous peoples are raising the alarm on carbon trading at UN climate summit
    • Grasslands store tons of carbon — and there’s a movement to protect them
    • Biodiversity or bust? Here’s what happened at COP16
    • What you need to know about nature-based solutions to climate change

    Subscribe to Solve for X: Innovations to Change the World here.

    Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

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    34 m
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