top of page

News & Insights


The Lab celebrates its 10th anniversary with launch of ‘All-Star’ Fellowship
The Energy Futures Lab is kicking off a year-long celebration of its 10-year anniversary with the announcement of the tenth cohort of...

The Lab Team
Jan 23, 20253 min read


Powering Progress: Energy Futures Lab Launches Electricity Leadership Council
Electricity experts & community leaders will lead multi-stakeholder solution prototyping to accelerate vision-driven modernization of...

The Lab Team
Sep 25, 20244 min read


As the World Races to Lower Emissions, Budget 2023 Leans into Keeping Canada’s Energy Sector Competitive
Accelerating Investment in Emerging Net-Zero Aligned Energy Industries a Clear Priority Budget 2023 offered a much-needed response to...

Alison Cretney
Mar 30, 20236 min read


Impact: Leveraging digital innovation to power Alberta’s energy future
The Energy Futures Lab’s Grid Sandbox Innovation Platform The evolving grid In 2022 it’s easy to take the flip of a light switch for granted. For the most part, people are accustomed to a dependable grid, meaning the intricate systems that provide access to safe, uninterrupted, and affordable electricity are often obscured. But uninterrupted power isn’t a given; it’s the result of a careful balancing act that can be tipped off kilter by any number of different factors. Tha

The Lab Team
Sep 12, 20228 min read


A closer look at “future-fit”
Planning for the future is complicated. We don’t know for sure what the future will look like. That means — and forgive me for being a little nerdy here — defining “future fitness” is a probabilistic question: we have to assess “fitness” across a range of possible futures. At the same time, the future also isn’t entirely out of our control. Policy choices we make now can influence which futures are more (or less) likely to come to pass. Sound complicated? A new report from

Dale Beugin
Mar 4, 20214 min read


Why Energy Efficiency is An Opportunity Alberta Can’t Afford to Pass Up
As governments and industry around the world work to jump-start their economies and restart their businesses without triggering a second wave of COVID-19 infections, they’re suddenly open to ambitious ideas and policies that were on a slow track before the virus struck. But in straining for the highest fruit on the tree, we need to be careful that we don’t miss one of the easiest pieces to pick: energy efficiency. It will deliver results — and deliver them quickly. Installati

Alison Cretney
Jun 28, 20204 min read


Switching Gears: from EFL 1.0 to EFL 2.0!
Co-creation, experimentation, and social innovation have been the Energy Futures Lab’s (EFL) core foundational elements since its inception in 2015. Now it is time to build on the foundational work of EFL 1.0 and to work together to design EFL 2.0. Led by 59 Fellows from diverse backgrounds and industries in Alberta, we have outlined a vision for Alberta’s energy system, worked in areas of tension within the energy system, and developed a number of exemplar initiatives that

Alison Cretney
Jul 9, 20183 min read


EFL & U of C’s CESAR: Scenarios for Alberta’s Energy Future
On December 5, 2016, approximately 170 people braved the cold to talk about the future of energy in Alberta at the University of Calgary’s downtown campus. Dr. David Layzell, Energy Futures Lab (EFL) Steering Committee Member and Director of the Canadian Energy Systems Analysis Research (CESAR) project, argued that energy system transition is the “grand challenge for our society.” The EFL design team worked with Dr. David Layzell and his research group to help identify big ch

Steve Williams
Jan 9, 20173 min read


An Emerging Portfolio of EFL Initiatives
No one ever said the transition to a new energy economy would be easy. From the very beginning, The Natural Step Canada (TNSC) was under a great deal of pressure to describe the impacts and outcomes of the Energy Futures Lab (EFL). We resisted prescribing a solution. Our Fellowship – more diverse than we could have hoped – has created a shared vision and innovation pathways, generated new ideas, and brought existing initiatives into the lab to amplify and scale. Describing an

Chad Park
Oct 18, 20165 min read
bottom of page
