Conematic Heating Systems Inc. - Recipient

Doug Smith is Albertan. He exudes the pioneering spirit, determination and hard work that have become our province’s hallmarks. That’s one reason he’s so proud of Conematic, his Calgary-based firm and the world’s top manufacturer of integrated heating, cooling, and domestic hot water systems. You see, while he and his team have developed a range of exciting, innovative climate-control technologies that have no equals anywhere, they’ve done it by resurrecting a company that was founded in this province more than 70 years ago. The firm languished for a decade until ’99, when Doug saw an opportunity and took hold. It’s been a wild ride made possible, in part, by the 2003 SARS outbreak. He explains, “In 1999, I had a notion to build a heating package and took an old cone, put together some piping, stuck the result in a wooden box and dumped the whole thing in a case with wheels. I was invited to go to China in July 2000 as part of a trade mission and my ‘notion’ ended up being the biggest hit of any Canadian tradeshow in China in 25 years. Of course, it wasn’t built properly and wouldn’t have worked.” He continues, “By March 2003, the company had grown and I was preparing to go to return to China. But SARS hit and I couldn’t go. If I had, we wouldn’t be in business today. The delay allowed us to sit down and figure out what we needed to do. And that step has been directly responsible for the success we’ve enjoyed since.”

What his first trip to China taught Doug was that there was definite interest in his concept. SAIT was at the same seminal tradeshow and offered to work with him to develop and commercialise the product. The first two years of this partnership saw Doug handle “R” and SAIT manage “D.” All is now handled by the Conematic team but there is still a strong association with the school. In fact, more than 35 staff members and students have worked on this cutting-edge technology. Doug knows that none of his team’s rapidly growing success would have been possible without SAIT. They provided both focus and credibility.

Now boasting 26 employees, Conematic’s name is credible all by itself. The company provides climate control (what kind of) systems throughout Western Canada and is involved in early-stage market development in a number of eastern US states, as well as Missouri, Colorado, and Washington State. In fact, their reputation has become so solid that in a recent sustainable housing project funded by the State of Missouri and the US Government, the latter insisted at least one-third of the 12 homes being built use Conematic technology. The kicker? No one from the firm has ever been to Missouri.