A History of Road Salt Reduction Initiatives

In 2015, I began my career at Environment and Climate Change Canada as a member of the Aquatic Contaminants Research Division. I studied the destructive effects of PFOA and other contaminants of concern while spending every spare weekend I could camping in Algonquin Park. I developed a deep connection to freshwater that will guide the rest of my life. It was at Environment Canada that I learned about the lag effect of chloride pollution - the road salt applied today remains in the environment long, long after it's applied.

From Environment Canada, I entered the snow removal industry - working as a member of International Landscaping Inc. - a sustainable leader in the landscaping & snow removal industry. It was here that I got exposure to the other side of the issue. The challenges that hard working companies face trying to keep highways, parking lots, walkways and staircases safe throughout the winter. With International, I worked to support their collaborations with academic teams from WWF-Canada, Toronto Metropolitan University and Credit Valley Conservation. Today, I sit on the board of directors of Smart About Salt - sharing many of its goals - especially its commitment to supporting contractors in their struggles with liability and insurance.

The Way Forward

My time working in this space has left me both jaded and excited. It is an unfortunate truth that - without urgent action - our environment will likely continue to degrade due to road salt, and other problems like it. Our classical way of solving problems is unlikely to help us reverse course and fix these issues. Small businesses, the backbone of our economies, do not pollute the environment with malicious intent. They do it to support their families, and the families of the people who work with them. They are faced with innumerable challenges on a day to day basis, and cannot be required to bear the brunt of this issue alone.

In accepting this truth, I feel some excitement. With the status quo not an option, our only solution is to innovate. To take big swings at big ideas. And that's what we are trying to cultivate in ConSalt, and within the team that we have built. By remaining open minded and creative we believe we can approach pollution , remediation and conservation from a novel perspective. We have a few things in the pipeline for 2025, and we can't wait to share them with you, and start to reveal our vision for a future of environmentalism through technological innovation.