Gigi
Innovating for the Planet: How Gigi Alsaadi is Supporting Sustainable Solutions
Gigi Alsaadi isn’t just talking about saving the planet. She’s building the tools and support systems that make it possible, from helping investors and innovators measure their climate impact to co-founding a marketplace for sustainability solutions. In our conversation, she shares her journey, lessons learned, and practical advice for anyone eager to make a meaningful impact in sustainability—showing that with curiosity, skill, and perseverance, change is not just possible, it’s achievable.
Roots of a Calling
If you had to sum up your journey in sustainability in one sentence, what would it be? What sparked your initial passion for it?
“Maybe from helping people to helping the environment, or helping the planet,” Gigi begins. She explains that as a teenager, she always imagined a future in healthcare. “I was really passionate about helping people in a hospital setting. In the end, I still chose to help people, just through what I do in the environmental space.”
She emphasizes that healthcare and sustainability are not mutually exclusive. “It all comes down to empathy. Empathy towards people from different backgrounds, racial or socioeconomic, with different life histories. That empathy is really the common denominator among people who do great work in sustainability.”
For Gigi, her passion grew gradually rather than through a single “aha” moment. She reflects on Aldo Leopold’s Thinking Like a Mountain, recalling his account of watching “the fierce green fire” die in an old wolf’s eyes. That realization of ecological awareness also came to him a decade later. For me, it was on a smaller timescale, but it illustrates that sustainable transitions for societies, economies, and individual people don’t usually happen overnight.
Building Impact
At Prime Coalition and KanataQ, you help investors and businesses make better decisions for sustainability. Can you share more about your work?
At Prime Coalition, a U.S.-based nonprofit, Gigi works with organizations to assess the climate impact of emerging technologies through two of Prime’s programs: the CRANE Tool and technical advisory services. As a fellow for CRANE, a free software platform that assesses the forward-looking GHG impact of climate technologies, she engages with a growing community of 6,000+ CRANE users and supports custom GHG impact assessments for investors, accelerators, and philanthropists.
Prime serves as a catalytic investor, using philanthropic funds to support climate solutions that might otherwise go unfunded. It also operates like a traditional nonprofit by sharing knowledge and tools, and providing technical advising services to strengthen the broader impact investing field. “It’s an incredible organization, pioneering a relatively new field,” Gigi says. “Seeing Prime’s work in supporting the most impactful climate technologies has been immensely rewarding.”
At KanataQ, she co-founded a marketplace for sustainability and ESG software solutions. “There was no centralized place for businesses to find tools like carbon accounting software, so we built one. We now list nearly 400 startups and are developing a market intelligence platform. We accelerate the sustainable transition by helping businesses make better-informed sustainability choices, and that’s empowering.”
Navigating Challenges
Sustainability work is complicated. What’s a challenge you’ve faced, and how did you tackle it?
Gigi acknowledges the systemic challenges of sustainability. “It’s tough when the external environment, including policy, funding, and societal awareness, isn’t fully supportive. In North America, climate conversations can be met with skepticism, and green technologies increasingly lack funding.”
Her approach relies on community and perseverance. “Staying positive requires support. Peers, mentors, and collaborators who share your vision are essential. Even when progress feels slow, collective effort keeps momentum alive.”
Words of Advice
Outside of work, what’s your go-to way to recharge or get inspired?
Walking is Gigi’s meditation. She and her spouse often take long walks, spending hours exploring Toronto’s neighbourhoods and restaurants. She emphasizes that reflection and conversation can feed innovation. “Walking allows me to process my thoughts. By voicing your hopes and concerns with someone else, you see them differently. It’s simple but incredibly restorative and creative.”
Finally, what advice would you give to someone who wants to turn their passion for sustainability into a real-world impact?
Gigi emphasizes balancing passion with pragmatism. “It’s great to be passionate, but also think about which sustainability skills are most needed. Beyond sustainability itself, cultivate communication, technical, and organizational skills that are transferable to non-profit or for-profit settings.”
She notes the value of layered expertise. “Many of my colleagues come from diverse backgrounds: engineering, finance, economics, among other fields, and they’ve layered sustainability on top of their core skills. That combination can be practical and also create a real-world impact.”
Her final advice is clear: curiosity, skill-building, and passion together drive meaningful change. “Go out there, try things, see what works, and keep learning. Small steps can ripple outward into a significant impact.”