About Zaffia
Zaffia Laplante is a Member of the Métis Nation of Ontario and the CEO of Hempergy, a clean-tech start up based in Waterloo. She is in year final year of Global Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, and is passionate about capacity building with indigenous peoples.
As an indigenous woman and student-entrepreneur, Zaffia is interested in understanding how indigenous land-based knowledge and the use of biotechnology can be used to mitigate the effects of climate change across Canada's Indigenous communities.
She is currently exploring the field of alternative energy, agriculture biotechnology and geospatial data to better understand how advanced machine learning can be used to help citizens and the planet live more sustainable.
Zaffia is passionate about supporting environmental stewardship, indigenous sovereignty and land reclamation as a pathway for reconciliation and seeks to promote environmentally and culturally sustainable practices nation-wide for current and future generations.
About Hempergy
Hempergy seeks to create natural insulation materials from hemp in order to improve heating and energy efficiency for buildings and homes. We want to use this insulation as a potential tool that can help support the Indigenous housing crisis taking place across rural and urban indigenous communities in Canada. Our goal is to use this low carbon, mould proof, fire resistant and non-toxic material to help restore the safety to homes and revitalize living conditions across Canada.