As Salish Environmental Group, the parent company of Salish Soils, welcomed an investment of $2.5 million from Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, they also introduced their new — and first — board of directors.
Salish Soils was first created in 2010 in the shíshálh Nation swiya. Since then, the Sechelt-based company has become known for composting and recycling waste that otherwise would have ended up in the region’s landfill — diverting about 50 per cent of those waste streams. The company collects and processes materials including fish waste, food scraps and biosolids residuals within the territories of shíshálh Nation, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw, and the Tla'amin Nation.
On Oct. 24, Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, North America’s first Indigenous-led and owned impact investment firm, announced its investment in Salish Environmental Group Inc.
"Salish Environmental group is successfully executing on a huge vision that will fundamentally change the way that Indigenous people and all communities view how economic reconciliation, contemporary land stewardship and land remediation can be done without extraction and while healing the land,” the investment firm said in the press release. “We are very excited to support the next phase of Salish's growth and impact."
The investment will help Salish Environmental Group reconfigure its retail and commercial depot, develop storage, create a branded bagged product, increase safety and efficiency of the recycling and sales area, and continue to improve the well-being of the community and the planet.
"I am a proud shíshálh Nation member, and I believe my role as an Indigenous entrepreneur is to create real lasting social impact within our community and to build a pathway towards economic reconciliation,” comments Aaron Joe, the CEO, majority owner and co-founder of Salish Environmental Group, said in the press release.
Joe started the company with a vision of creating a secure closed-loop food system, which requires high-quality soil, a component that was missing on the Sunshine Coast.
"We are very intentional about creating win/win partnerships that share our mission to bring positive social and economic outcomes. I aim to transform how we think about waste and I am grateful for Raven's support," Joe said.
The announcement was celebrated at a private event in the shíshálh long house last month. There, Joe was joined by the new directors of his company’s first board. Alongside Joe, the directors are Jacqueline Jennings, Salar Shemirani, and R. Stuart (“Tookie”) Angus.
Jennings is a venture partner with Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, and of Cree Anishinaabe, Red River Métis and settler descent. She is also the director of the Fireweed Fellowship and a visiting professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business.
Shemirani brings recent experience with leadership roles at Terramera, an agricultural technology company. He has an interest in regenerative agriculture and a background in strategy, structuring deals and partnerships, and raising capital.
Angus is the former head of the Global Mining Group, and served as director for various major mining companies. He also is a retired member of the Law Society of British Columbia.
