Congratulations to Growcer for winning one of the Governor General’s Innovation Awards for 2026, a decade after Corey Ellis and Alida Burke visited Nunavut and saw first hand how expensive food could be and how hard it could be to get fresh produce there.

Now with 120+ installations in Canada and 1,000+ globally across 30 countries, Growcer exemplifies how Canadian innovation can lead global transformation, says the citation. 

From Indigenous nations asserting food sovereignty to schools, hospitals, and non-profits building community resilience, Growcer is redefining local food, one meal at a time.

Its self-contained, modular systems can produce fresh food anywhere, in any season, making them viable in environments where conventional farming is impossible. Each containerized farm operates as a complete growing ecosystem requiring no agricultural land, minimal water, and no chemical pesticides. 

Using 95% less water than traditional farms, these plug and-play systems grow 150+ types of herbs and leafy greens and together, their network is now able to feed about 500,000 people around the world every single day. 

After that 2015 Nunavut visit, Corey and Alida began to wonder if it might be possible to grow food locally, even in the most extreme environments. That exploration led them into hydroponics, and with help from Telfer and Enactus, they created Growcer as a social enterprise.

As Corey told the Toronto Star: “Sustainability doesn’t have to involve sacrifice. Growcer’s closed-loop hydroponic farms in shipping containers make it possible to grow fresh produce anywhere. And in a country where the growing season lasts barely more than six months, this isn’t just a solution for isolated northern communities – although that is where it started.

“We need to move forward in a positive way, to build resiliency into what we’re doing in all parts of the economy,” said Ellis. “In that complexity and challenge, there’s massive opportunity for people who want to be part of building solutions. By no means are we perfect or have we figured it all out. But we are definitely making steady progress and it’s all about one foot in front of the other, marching toward that end goal.”

Picking lettuce among the polar bears: Growcer helps remote communities grow their own food. Jun. 22, 2022

Growcer: Modular vertical farming solutions. Governor General’s Innovation Awards, 2026