James Seabrook graduated from UBC Okanagan’s engineering program in 2011 and didn’t leave the region. He walked into a shop in Kelowna, got a job and started building his own business.

Today, Vitalis Equipment Technology Inc. employs more than 70 people and counts half its engineering team as UBCO graduates. It’s poised for global growth, by extension sharing related economic benefits across the Okanagan Valley.

They build something many people never see—large-scale heat pumps that can heat or cool warehouses, hospitals or even university campuses using carbon dioxide instead of synthetic gases.

The Kelowna-based manufacturer has already installed the largest CO₂ air-source heat pump in North America, at the university where its founder studied.

That installation, at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna, is more than a milestone. It’s the proof point that positions a BC interior manufacturer to compete in a sustainable heating and cooling market that analysts expect to grow rapidly.

“It’s the foundational project of a whole new product line that isn’t in the market yet,” says Seabrook. “But we’ll have years of operating experience with it when the market emerges.”

Heating and cooling buildings is among the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. CO₂-based heat pumps eliminate that problem, and North America is only beginning to adopt a technology commonplace in Europe, driven in part by new regulation.

Washington State is mandating natural refrigerants, and Canada is moving in that direction.

Vitalis, operating from Kelowna with European backing and a flagship reference site at UBC Okanagan, is positioned at the front of the curve.

From UBC Okanagan to a North American first

UBC Okanagan was the logical first project because the infrastructure was already there. The university had been investing in low-carbon campus systems for two decades, including a low-temperature district energy loop that connects newer buildings through an underground network of pipes.

When Vitalis arrived with its heat pump, decarbonization didn’t require retrofitting hundreds of rooms individually. It happened in one step.

The UBC Okanagan project was designed, fabricated and installed entirely in Kelowna. From the engineering drawings to the proprietary control software running hundreds of thousands of lines of code, every element was produced locally, generating direct economic activity for Vitalis and a network of suppliers, machine shops and freight companies across the valley.

“In its first eight to nine months of operation, the system reduced UBC Okanagan’s carbon emissions by about 350 tonnes. In a colder year, the system’s full annual potential reaches more than 800 tonnes,” says Parham Eslami-Nejad, Vitalis’s program manager. “That means this project has accelerated UBC Okanagan’s 2030 climate targets by four years.”

It’s a result with implications well beyond one campus. Organizations across Canada face decarbonization pressures. The Vitalis system proves the approach is viable at scale in a Kelowna climate that can swing from 40 C to –20 C in the same year.

Built locally, backed globally

Building a system at this scale required Vitalis to find local supply chain depth, a common challenge for small manufacturers.

Part of the answer was a partnership with KKVB, a European investment group with 15 to 20 portfolio companies that have been operating in the CO₂ refrigeration space for decades. Vitalis became the North American manufacturing arm of the group, gaining access to proven technology, experienced engineers and technicians, and a supply chain that makes it competitive on projects that could’ve been out of reach.

The other part of the answer is being built in Kelowna itself. As Vitalis grows, it is helping develop local capacity: the suppliers, fabricators and freight networks that a regional manufacturing economy depends on. The company’s expansion is, in effect, an investment in the Okanagan industrial base.

That trajectory aligns with both provincial and federal economic priorities. British Columbia’s Look West strategy, launched in 2025, prioritizes clean technology, advanced manufacturing and skilled-trades growth across the province.

At the federal level, the Climate Competitiveness Strategy announced in the 2026 Spring Economic Update commits to creating the conditions for Canada to lead globally in clean technology and clean energy. Vitalis is a working example of what both strategies describe: a Western Canadian clean-tech manufacturer producing locally, exporting expertise and creating skilled jobs in a region the country is asking to grow.

From campus to the Carolinas: the moving market

The UBC Okanagan installation is not a standalone achievement. It’s a reference point in an expanding portfolio. Andrew Gosling, another UBC Okanagan graduate and Vitalis’s senior project engineer, recently completed a project in North Carolina that cools half a million square feet of pharmaceutical storage.

Vitalis projects three to five times growth from its current size within five years, looking to capture 15 to 20 per cent of the market as North American adoption accelerates. Regulatory pressure, customer demand for verifiable decarbonization and a shrinking pool of acceptable refrigerants are all stacking up in their favour.

Why staying in the Okanagan is paying off

Of Vitalis’s roughly 15 engineers, half are UBC Okanagan graduates. The company runs a rotating co-op program and has created an award for graduating engineers. For Seabrook, this isn’t incidental, it’s part of what makes the Okanagan model work.

Universities produce talent. A strong, local manufacturing sector helps retain that talent. Vitalis outsources work across Kelowna’s industrial base and offers careers that don’t require relocation.

“I hope grads are excited to see that there are opportunities where they are, at a physical presence like Vitalis,” Gosling says. “That’s exciting as a new graduate, especially in a place like the Okanagan.”

For Vitalis, UBC Okanagan was the early adopter that made everything else possible—the reference case that proves the technology works at scale, on budget and on time. For the Okanagan, it’s evidence that a university and a manufacturer, rooted in the same community, can build something with consequences well beyond the campus fence.

“We talk about it, but UBC is actually doing it,” Seabrook says. “And they started down that path 20 years ago.”

Learn how UBC research, partnerships and graduates are pushing British Columbia’s economy forward.