ReCover and Executive Director Emma Norton Honoured with 2026 Clean50 Awards

The ReCover Initiative and Co-Founder and Executive Director Emma Norton have both been recognized with national honours from Canada’s Clean50 awards.
ReCover was named a 2026 Clean50 Top Project, and Emma Norton was selected as a 2026 Clean50 Emerging Leader.
These awards celebrate ReCover’s leadership in accelerating scalable, equitable deep retrofits across Atlantic Canada—and Emma’s role in building one of Canada’s first retrofit accelerators from the ground up.
Since launching in 2020, ReCover has mobilized over $19 million, created 19+ green jobs, supported retrofit planning for more than 1.5 million square feet of building space, and laid the foundation for deep retrofit implementation across the region, with estimated annual carbon emissions reductions from planned retrofits now exceeding 18,000 tonnes of CO₂e.
These honours come just over a year after ReCover was awarded federal funding through Natural Resources Canada’s Deep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative (DRAI), made possible through the leadership of our steering committee: Building to Zero Exchange, HCi3 (Halifax’s LC3 organization), and the Union of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq. We also acknowledge our equity-deserving strategic partner One North End, and our delivery partners: Habit Studio, RFS Energy, Navigate Energy, NSCC Energy Research Lab, and SEEFAR Analytics.
Emma’s recognition reflects her leadership in co-developing retrofit programs with Mi’kmaq and African Nova Scotian partners, convening cross-sector stakeholders, and embedding climate justice and affordability at the heart of Atlantic Canada’s retrofit revolution.

L-R: Jonathan Laski (PWC) Emma Norton (ReCover), and Gavin Pitchford (Clean50)

Emma Norton receiving the award from Gavin Pitchford.

L-R: Nigel Owen (ReCover), Stanford Phillips (Union of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq (UNSM)), Sarah Chiasson (Halifax Climate Investment, Innovation and Impact (HCi3)), Devin MacAskill (UNSM), Emma Norton (ReCover), Lorrie Rand (ReCover), Gavin Pitchford (Clean50)