
Age: 29
Occupation: Founder and CEO, Guardyan Conservation Corp.
As a young, female, 2SLGBTQIA+ leader working in the male-dominated energy sector, Jana McDonald is used to confronting challenges. “The more intimidation I experience, the more certainty I have that my company is a force to be reckoned with,” she says.
McDonald is the CEO and founder of Guardyan Conservation Corp., a full-spectrum emissions-reduction project developer. Guardyan works with businesses to identify and develop untapped revenue streams through reducing emissions. Early in her career, McDonald recognized that, for heavy emitters to make meaningful changes, there needed to be significant associated revenue — money talks, after all, and going green requires, well, some “green.” McDonald and her team of environmental strategists help companies reduce their emissions, get third-party verification of the reductions — resulting in carbon credits — and ultimately monetize those credits.
One carbon credit equates to one tonne of CO2 reduced from the atmosphere. Voluntary carbon credits, where companies do more than just offset their required carbon tax requirements, range dramatically in price, but typically sell for between $5 and $20. Through Guardyan’s Greenhouse Gas Avoidance Methodology, one Alberta-based heavy oil producer earned 271 million voluntary carbon credits in 2023, which could potentially be the largest emission-reduction project to ever hit the global market.
As a member of the organization Young Women in Energy, McDonald mentors up-and-coming female engineers and was honoured this year with a Young Women in Energy Award, recognizing women in Alberta’s energy sector in the areas of leadership, innovation and performance. She is also a co-founder of the WhyNot International Aid Foundation, a non-profit that, since 2022, has delivered more than $2.5 million in donations to recipients that include the Blood Tribe in Southern Alberta and refugees from Ukraine and Syria.
Despite these achievements, don’t expect to find McDonald resting on her laurels. “I’m nowhere near done what I came into this industry to do,” she says.
Thank yous
“My Everest team, Josh Fitch, Andie Daggett, Jamie Fisher, Fay and Felipe Gonzalez, Joanne Piche, Randal, Dan and Jay McDonald; my incubators, Mark Czechowsky, Taylor Bianchini and Shane Smith; and my Guardyans, without you, this would all still be just a dream.”
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