Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 7, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - A Yellowknife resident recently took top honours in the best innovations category during a trade show in France.

Accolades were given to Jan Larsson's Airmet Group, which provides renewable resource solutions to the European market.

Created four years ago, Airmet primarily deals in heats pumps and pellet boilers in France.

"We base the products mainly on future innovations," Larsson said.

"We adapt the product to the market we work in because each market has its specific technical details."

Airmet works through larger installation companies with the technical know-how to install the products into private homes.

In addition to France, the company also sells its products in Scandinavia, England and recently entered the Spanish market.

With a background in recreation, management, and product development, Larsson decided to get into renewable resources to make a difference.

"We have to invest ourselves in saving a little bit of the future for our children," he said.

All of Airmet's products are sold in Europe, particularly in countries lacking fossil fuels resources of their own. Canada is 10 years behind when it comes to green technology, Larsson said.

"There is a lack of political awareness and will power in Canada," he said.

"We have the money and the technology exists in Canada."

Larsson explained Canada is the largest producer of pellets in the world, but two-thirds of them are sold outside of the country.

Larsson doesn't import his products into Canada due to the red tape involved.

While the business is based in France, Larsson chose to live in Yellowknife, as his wife, Shirley Firth, who is originally from Aklavik. Larsson's business partners, his 22-year-old Gwich-in daughter and Samuel Moussa, both live and work in France.

Larsson dedicates the time from 4 a.m. to 8 each morning to Airmet, before heading off to his day job at the Aboriginal Sports Circle of the Western Arctic.

He is able to stay in constant contact with his partners thanks to computer technology. Larsson subscribes to Vonage's Internet-based phone service and has a face to face meeting with his daughter every morning thanks to his webcam and Macbook computer.

"I can be in Yellowknife and doing business in another continent in the world," he said. Brian Desjardins, project administrator of Connect the NWT, said business arrangements like Larsson's will become more prevalent as broadband services reach all communities in the NWT.

"People are not having to leave their communities and can open up their business to the world online," Desjardins said.

But doing business across an ocean takes more than a computer and some different hours of operation.

"It demands a lot of planning," Larsson said. "You have to really know your partners if you are living far way."

Every two months Larsson travels to France for two weeks. While the father in him enjoys catching up with his daughter, that part of his life can pose challenges of its own.

"It is very difficult to be dad and boss," he said. "At home, we don't talk about business."

In the future, Airmet plans to introduce the same technology for industrial use.