Biography
Nicole Rycroft is the founder and Executive Director of Canopy, a Vancouver-based nonprofit dedicated to protecting the world’s forests, species, and climate while advancing Indigenous communities’ rights. Born in Australia, she is a former physiotherapist and elite-level athlete, still an ardent surfer and enthusiast of life.
Since 2003, Nicole has been an Ashoka Fellow, part of a global community of social entrepreneurs and changemakers. She is an alumna of the UBS Global Visionaries Program, a recipient of a Canadian Environment Award Gold Medal, and a recipient of the Meritorious Service Cross of Canada, among many other honors. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree from the University of Sydney.
In 1999, Nicole founded Canopy to address a critical environmental issue: every year, billions of trees are cut down—often in ancient, biodiverse, and endangered forests—to make products and packaging that frequently end up in landfills. “We have better solutions than cutting down thousand-year-old trees to make pizza boxes and T-shirts,” she said.
“Take-make-waste supply chains are relics of the 19th and 20th centuries,” Nicole said. “If we are to address the climate and biodiversity crises, we need to change the way business is done.”
She began by urging Canadian companies to adopt policies to protect ancient forests, targeting book publishers and persuading high-profile authors to print their books on recycled paper. Her efforts expanded to magazine and newspaper publishers, eventually growing Canopy’s programs to engage over 900 brand partners and successfully forging partnerships that have protected 39 million hectares of forests in Canada and Indonesia.
One of Canopy’s most successful campaigns to date is CanopyStyle, launched in 2013 to raise awareness about the harmful impacts of viscose fabric supply chains on forests and to promote forest-friendly alternatives. The Pack4Good campaign works to make packaging more sustainable. Together, these initiatives now include over 500 partners with combined revenues exceeding $902 billion, including major brands like H&M, Zara, Uniqlo, Flipkart, and the fashion group LVMH.
Breakthrough Program
Nicole was selected for the Climate Breakthrough Award program in 2020.
The world craves a sustainable alternative to wood-based products, but low-carbon fiber production suffers from a lack of investment. Nicole wants to create an investment vehicle that can enable and accelerate the construction of mills for pulp, paper, packaging and clothing that utilize non-wood, eco-friendly raw materials (or “Next Gen solutions).
This initiative is not just about investment; it’s about pioneering a new generation of solutions that can alleviate unsustainable pressures on the world’s forests. The goal is to create a critical mass of sustainable alternatives to forest-based materials that companies working with Canopy and others can incorporate into their supply chains.
“In doing so, we will have transformed several take-make-waste production systems into low-carbon and circular production, protected critical forests, and supported conservation-based economies for Indigenous and community leaders who call these forests home. We will also have proven that investing in low-carbon and circular infrastructure is a sound investment, de-risking capital being mobilized towards other solutions.