Shownotes
In this episode we’re joined by Jayde Zhou, Executive Vice President at Vancouver based BlueForce Energy. Transportation accounts for nearly a quarter of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions and gas-powered vehicles aren’t helping. BlueForce Energy is changing the game by converting trucks and commercial vehicles into electric powerhouses, offering innovative energy solutions that reduce emissions and operating costs.
Tune in to hear how BlueForce Energy is making sustainable transportation not just possible, but practical, and proving that one company’s vision can have a real impact on the planet.
Jayde Zhou is a multidisciplinary strategist with over 15 years of experience across the arts, education, non-profit leadership, and international business. Her work focuses on translating complex ideas into coherent strategy, with particular strengths in brand development, design thinking, and cross-cultural communication. In the past Jayde managed gallery operations, curated international exhibitions, and led public art initiatives in partnership with cultural institutions. She has served as Vice President of a private post-secondary institution, where she was responsible for institutional development and creative planning. She also led a branding and advertising consultancy as CEO. At BlueForce, Jayde contributes board-level insight on strategic positioning, brand architecture, and innovation planning. Her cross-sector experience helps the company connect technology with cultural relevance, ensuring that its electrification solutions resonate across industries and communities.
We talk to visionaries and game-changers who are doing things differently; using their businesses to do more good in the world. Join us as we dive into the stories and strategies of companies driven by purpose, not just profit. Each episode uncovers unique strategies, challenges, and the deeply satisfying rewards of using business as a platform for change. We offer listeners practical insights on building businesses that are not only successful but also socially and environmentally conscious. You really can make both profit and a positive impact—come join us to find out how others are doing just that.
Leena Manro is an award-winning writer, director, and co-founder of All Purpose, an award winning B Corp-certified creative agency based in Vancouver. As VP of Strategy and Storytelling, she leads an in-house team that creates powerful, purpose-driven media for corporate clients. With over a decade of experience, Leena has directed hundreds of narrative projects across diverse genres, earning awards for their cinematic quality and storytelling depth.
Leena is driven by a passion to make a meaningful difference in her community, environment and the planet. She’s drawn to collaborating with people and initiatives that strive to make the world a better place.
All Purpose is proud to be B Corp certified. B Corps are companies verified to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. The B Corp Movement transforms our economy to benefit all people, communities and the planet.
Through this podcast, one of our aims is to showcase the impactful work of fellow B Corps, to inspire others to embrace purpose-driven practices that make a difference.
We would love to hear from you! Send us an email: uptosogood@allpurpose.io or follow us on LinkedIn . Let us know what you think of the podcast and if you have any topic or guest suggestions.
We appreciate if you could subscribe to the the podcast (it's free!) by following the link below. And we'd love a rating if you are enjoying the podcast!
Listen to Up to So Good: The Purpose of Business
Up to So Good: The Purpose of Business is produced by All Purpose; a creative design and media agency located in Vancouver Canada. Follow the link to find out more about who we are and what we do.
We're Up To So Good
You can watch our episodes at YouTube
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Up to So Good!
Transcripts
Welcome to Up To So Good, the podcast that unlocks the secrets of creating a purpose-driven business so we can all make this world a better place. Come join the conversation.
Deborah (:Hello, and welcome to Up To So Good, the podcast that explores the purpose of business with our host, Leena Manro. Leena is a way filming media content for some of our corporate clients. So I am Deborah, the podcast producer, and I'm going to introduce the second episode of season three to you.
(:In this episode, we are joined by Jayde Zhou. She's the Executive Vice President at BlueForce Energy, which is a Vancouver-based company that converts gas-powered vehicles into electric ones.
(:Did you know that transportation accounts for nearly a quarter of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions? This is where BlueForce comes in. They convert gas-powered trucks, delivery vehicles, government vehicles into zero-emission EVs. They're not just cutting emissions, they're also saving their operators thousands and thousands of dollars in fuel and maintenance every year. Join us to learn about how BlueForce is helping Canada cut their carbon emissions one truck at a time. We hope you enjoy the show.
Leena Manro (:Hello and welcome to Up To So Good, the podcast that explores the purpose of business. I'm your host, Leena Manro, and today we have a very special guest. Her name is Jayde Zhou and she is the executive director and vice president of BlueForce Energy.
(:Welcome to our podcast, Jayde.
Jayde Zhou (:Thank you.
Leena Manro (:So BlueForce Energy is an interesting company. You essentially convert gas-powered vehicles to electric, is that right?
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. [inaudible 00:01:48] for business. Yes.
Leena Manro (:So tell us, yeah, just tell us a bit more about your business. It started I think around 2020 or?
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah, we established 2020, but we didn't really jump into the market right away. So we take one year doing the marketing research and then another two to three years for our product development. So we start to actively launch to the market 2024, February.
Leena Manro (:Wow. It's very, very recent.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah, it's very new company.
Leena Manro (:And how has it been?
Jayde Zhou (:It's very good. Our first commission is made by YVR, so once we released our product and then we got commission by YVR for converting F-150.
Leena Manro (:So your first commission is YVR?
Jayde Zhou (:Yes.
Leena Manro (:Oh, oh, I see, I see. So you're doing planes, is that, right?
Jayde Zhou (:No, no YVR maintenance tracks.
Leena Manro (:Oh, the maintenance.
Jayde Zhou (:It's like a Ford F-150
Leena Manro (:For the F-150s?
Jayde Zhou (:Yes.
Leena Manro (:Okay, gotcha. But I thought it was like gas-powered vehicles though, cars and such.
Jayde Zhou (:Yes, it's gas-powered vehicles, so we turn this gas-powered vehicle into electric.
Leena Manro (:Okay, got it. But your business model though is also normal gas cars on the road, trying to turn them into?
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. Even like a conversion. It's all core business, but we more like to present ourselves as electrification. So we do design power train and then we have a fleet to electrify their vehicles and then we have not just a fleet, we can also do a heavy equipment or boat and other type of transportation equipment, and then change them from the traditional combustion engine into electric.
Leena Manro (:Okay. So you can pretty much change anything from a traditional combustion engine into electric?
Jayde Zhou (:Yes.
Leena Manro (:It can be a boat, it can be vehicles, it can be maintenance trucks, can be, it can be. Can it be a plane?
Jayde Zhou (:[inaudible 00:03:42] Theoretically, yes
Leena Manro (:Yes. Theoretically. Okay, but not yet. You haven't gone there far yet?
Jayde Zhou (:Not yet.
Leena Manro (:I see. Is that the goal?
Jayde Zhou (:Well, yeah. There is a project I think founded by a federal, there's a pilot project to change a plane to electric, so that should be something we can do.
Leena Manro (:Oh, wow. So everything is being electrified. What started all this? Tell us, how did this start? You said it started around 2020.
Jayde Zhou (:Yes, this idea actually came like 2018. In 2018, yes, from the founder, Mr. Peng, and he's a very successful entrepreneur. He got 30, 40 years automobile industry experiences and over 10 years in new energy. So he first read a news on the newspaper, it says like BC TransLink, they want to change their bus line 100 from gasoline to electric. And then after I think two or three years, Mr. Peng just went to see this bus line and then he finally, it's still the same as an old bus. It's not electric bus at all. So then he start to wonder why this project is so difficult to do a deployment.
(:So then we found there's a gap not just because of technology, it's also because of cost. If it's like a normal bus, you want to purchase a completely new, it may cost like close to half million or millions, something like that. And then that is a big budget. So you have, if you want to change all the buses in Vancouver.
(:And also it's not the end. Even when you finish changing the bus, you have to put a lot of infrastructure, you have get charging, and then you have to get a maintenance and then you have to get a team to support this new vehicle.
Leena Manro (:I see. So he discovered that in his research that it wasn't just the changing of the bus, the entire infrastructure, so charging stations, maintenance, all of that? Okay.
Jayde Zhou (:Exactly. At that time we found the goal. It's very good and then it sounds very simple, but actually in reality it's very, very hard. So it require lots of different parts to work together. So then we to think if there's another way to make it simpler or faster or cheaper. So then start from 2020, we established the company and then we start to doing the research to see what kind of conversion existing in the market, and then what the most difficulty they're facing together.
Leena Manro (:Is there a lot of conversion that already exists in the market?
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah, actually there is. After the research, we found that there's around about 80 or 100 EV conversion companies in North America.
Leena Manro (:In North America?
Jayde Zhou (:In North America.
Leena Manro (:Oh wow. How many are located in Vancouver?
Jayde Zhou (:Well, in Vancouver, probably two or three of them.
Leena Manro (:Only two, three. Oh, okay. So anyone could do that. I could take my gas car and go get it?
Jayde Zhou (:No, so that's the problem. When we did the marketing research, we figured out there is a lot of EV conversion company, but what they do, they do a classical vehicle. The reason they do classical vehicle, first of all, it's easy to follow the regulation standard, because like of the vehicle older than 1990, you don't have to... There's a lot of things you can do with the chassis, so it's much easier to pass inspection. And then also for classic vehicle, they charge quite a lot for doing the conversion. I know if you want to convert your Porsche 911 and then it's-
Leena Manro (:Well, I don't have a Porsche. No, no. I have a very old car. I have a 2001 Acura. I love her. She is awesome. Her name is Car.
Jayde Zhou (:Okay, that sounds good. No, but yeah, if there's a Porsche number one, then you won't convert it. It's roughly about 150,000 to 200,000 for conversion. And then normally the clients would also do interior upgrade. So then, which means you spend about 300,000 or 400,000.
Leena Manro (:What upgrade.
Jayde Zhou (:The upgrade for the interior. So-
Leena Manro (:For the interior upgrade too?
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah, yeah.
Leena Manro (:I see. Oh, but that doesn't have to happen for the electric conversion, does it?
Jayde Zhou (:No.
Leena Manro (:So that's all cosmetic.
Jayde Zhou (:Yes. So that's why, what I mean for the EV conversion shop existing in North Market, they are mostly doing this type of business.
Leena Manro (:Oh, I see. I see.
Jayde Zhou (:So none of them have ability to do a conversion for commercial vehicle? Well, I couldn't say zero, but very, very limited. But for us, of course I do love classical vehicle, but the most... Let's see, if we want to reach the very emission goal, so the most problematic, it's the service vehicle and the commercial vehicles.
Leena Manro (:Oh, I see. Not people.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah, not like individual vehicles.
Leena Manro (:I see, I see. Well, but again, but back to individual vehicles, because most people, the ones who are listening, I think to the podcast, they drive their normal cars and they're probably wondering, is there a possibility I could take my car, I love my car and get it converted versus do I need to sell this, get rid of this, scrap it, junk it, and buy a new car? It seems like the goal would be better to be able to upcycle and recycle the existing vehicle. But is it on average $150,000, the cost?
Jayde Zhou (:Well, that's for way back to that time. During the research, we figure out that's the price, that is the market value. That's what people doing. So we want to drop down the price. If you have a vehicle, let's say your Acura, you won't necessarily to spend that much to do a conversion. Even for F-150, like regular F-150, it's around I think 60 or 70,000. And then if the conversion kit is like 100,000, what would the reason-
Leena Manro (:So it's better just to buy a new one?
Jayde Zhou (:Right, right. So that's why what we did when we doing the development, we try to bring down the price at least half of the original vehicle. That's our goal. So for example, we also recently working with the emergency services, so for some emergency vehicle, like [inaudible 00:10:05] trucks or ambulance or garbage trucks, so those are vehicles, we could bring the price down to 10% or 20%.
Leena Manro (:Oh, wow.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. So which means if a [inaudible 00:10:18] trucks was 2 million, as I remember to [inaudible 00:10:22]
Leena Manro (:To buy a new one?
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. To buy a new one. But if by using all conversion method, so it's just about 200,000, something like that.
Leena Manro (:Oh, okay. I see. Then the numbers do start to make sense.
Jayde Zhou (:Yes. Right. But for F-150, for those smaller vehicle, our official price, it's just about 30,000 to 40,000, for a large number.
Leena Manro (:For an F-150?
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. Fleet. Yes.
Leena Manro (:Yeah. Okay. For a fleet.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah, for fleet of course they made the discount.
Leena Manro (:Oh, I see. Gotcha, gotcha. So then would it be more, I guess your customers are all more commercial then, for the most part?
Jayde Zhou (:Yes, of course. Because EV, it's very popular and very reliable for individual users. So if really like to change your vehicle, it's better to purchase something in the market. But for commercial, there's no large companies to provide EV commercial vehicles yet. So that's why-
Leena Manro (:I see. This becomes one of the only viable ways to get electric vehicles within the commercial space to convert them, because they can't buy the-
Jayde Zhou (:For example, like a Ford, they just have F-150, so the smallest one. They don't have 25, 350, 550. So then there's no option. I saw Citi's and other BC Hydro, those type of company, most of vehicle they're using is 350 and upper. So that's why they don't have option even they would like to go electric, but they have no product to buy.
Leena Manro (:Do you think that's going to change? Do you think that the manufacturers are going to start making those products electric?
Jayde Zhou (:Well, it's a really-
Leena Manro (:[inaudible 00:12:08] time.
Jayde Zhou (:It's a really difficult because for those type of company, when they make a decision, when they make a plan, it's not like one, two years normally like three or five years. So it take a lot of time for them to build a battery facility.
Leena Manro (:But for retail motor, that's already been sort of established? That's why it's so easy for us to go and buy electric vehicles. But at the same time, I think isn't it troubling and problematic that there are so many gas vehicles that say it's cheaper to buy a new electric? I'm talking about the consumer more than the commercial, that it's cheaper to go and buy a new electric vehicle rather than convert your existing, what happens to that existing car?
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah, though-
Leena Manro (:It gets scrapped. That's not good.
Jayde Zhou (:Well, so that's why we still have a services for our end user, just like we do understand it... Well, even the price is not that competitive consider about end user vehicle.
Leena Manro (:Yes.
Jayde Zhou (:But do you... For example, I have a Mini Cooper, and then I do love my vehicle at the time.
Leena Manro (:Oh, I love those. Those are so cute.
Jayde Zhou (:But then the engine got problem at the time, and at that time now I don't have the conversion thing yet, so I have to reset treating this vehicle and get different one because I can, after fixing the engine and everything, the problem will come back again. So I just don't have the experiences deal with it. So I do like to keep the vehicles, but I don't have a way to prolong the vehicles lifetime. But with the conversion and then you can still keep your vehicle and then you can still keep your old memory.
Leena Manro (:Yeah. But you were saying that it's not really an option for the end user right now though, is it?
Jayde Zhou (:Well, we do have end user. So we have basically three product line. One is for classical conversion, and then we offer a small conversion kit for classical vehicle. Of course, you can convert not just the classical vehicle, but also the vehicle you want to convert. But as I said, it's not really... The price is not really competitive. So we do have a standard conversion kits for commercial as F-150, 350, 450. And then also we do a customized fleet conversion and for a large fleet.
Leena Manro (:Oh, I see, I see. Okay. So what were some of the pitfalls or some of the obstacles that you guys have run into as you started to deploy your business?
Jayde Zhou (:Well, I think the most problem we had before, it's about the standard. Because at the beginning, there's no regulation for conversion business. So we get very confused and then when we ask the SCBC, and then we asking transportation department or they also, they have no idea what regulation we should follow. So instead of follow our regulation, now we try to build a regulation ourselves.
Leena Manro (:Oh, you are? You're building the regulation.
Jayde Zhou (:So we try to find standardized all procedure. And with the BCIT, we have a program with BCIT, which we call the certified installer program. So it's like to build a standardized technician who will be qualified to do the conversion. And the next step we want to do is to draw a committee with different parties from industry, and also from the important department. And then to build a regulation for commercial vehicle and as well as a commercial EV. So then one people doing the conversion or one, some departmental company purchase a EV commercial EV, they will have some certain standard to follow. Of course, financially as a startup company, it's a really hard to get fundings and financial support. So it's take a lot of time also.
Leena Manro (:So what do you do? How do you overcome that obstacle?
Jayde Zhou (:Well, now it's just like a private fund by founders, because we do believe the future. So that's why we put a lot of investment ourselves.
Leena Manro (:Wow, that's a lot.
Jayde Zhou (:Yes, yes. Yeah. But it's good. I mean, as you mentioned with the positive thing we want, it's very positive feedback from the market.
Leena Manro (:That's great. So you're finding a strong foothold here in Vancouver and a lot of positive response here.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. And everybody very friendly. So whichever we need help and then we got a lot of help too.
Leena Manro (:Amazing. Great. What about as you've deployed your business, what have been some positive things that surprised you?
Jayde Zhou (:It's very positive feedback from the market.
Leena Manro (:Yeah?
Jayde Zhou (:Well, as I mentioned, we launched into the market 2024 February, and then we got the order from YVR right away, so they're very support this idea because they think, well, they told us like because of for [inaudible 00:17:36] when they purchased a vehicle, they have to change the color. They have put a combination equipment in each vehicle. So the uplifting, it take a lot of time and also costs a lot of money too. So it's not just about the base vehicle. So overall, all solution could not just save what we can obviously know, it's how much we cheaper than the lightning. So all solution could save more than people normally people think.
Leena Manro (:Okay. So it saves cost-wise in a lot of other ways? [inaudible 00:18:10]
Jayde Zhou (:Yes, because for the vehicle, they already did the modification for everything. So they don't want, if they purchase a new one, they have to do it again. And also those, old vehicle have to just recycle or sell to the secondhand market. It's a big waste.
Leena Manro (:Yeah. So what brought you on board? What's your personal sort of connection to all this?
Jayde Zhou (:Well, actually, I was in art and charity business before, I could say charity business.
Leena Manro (:You were in an art and charity?
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. But we are running a gallery and then doing exhibition for artists and then doing a public arts and collaboration and find collaboration opportunity between artists to business, such. But it's difficult to running an art business. So we got the segments to doing a marketing business strategy, and then a relationship for some company, which is not very localized.
(:So then I meet the founder, Mr. Pong, and at the beginning, once he found this company, and as I said, BlueForce had amazing technology, but they don't really know the North American market at the time. So that's what we helped like BlueForce to establish the business model and then to find the right marketing strategy and pricing positioning or that type of things. And then once we worked closely, then we kind of become one company.
Leena Manro (:Gotcha. And have you enjoyed it?
Jayde Zhou (:Oh, yes, very much. I didn't think I would be on a new energy or automobile industry because it's art business. My major is philosophy. And then my doing besides art business, I doing education business also. But it's just quite different. It's completely different world.
Leena Manro (:Yeah. So what's the future?
Jayde Zhou (:Oh, the future. Well, we have different goals, consider about what we want to do in Canada, what we want to do in North America, and what we want to do globally for... Let's see, first in Canada, as I mentioned before, there's no standard for conversion, no regulation for commercial vehicle over one 10,000 points. Which means like most if you... Let's see, if you are emergency services, you want to purchase a vehicle, you can't even find the performance testing and that type of thing. So I think it will be good time to build this industry from very, very beginning.
(:Not just accept whatever the product offered on the market, but we could actively to direct to shape this industry ourselves. And also that's back to I think just after the COVID. And then I know Canada would like to be a leading country for new energy. So that's one of the goal the country want to build. So I think in order to do so, we have to build a foundation. We can't jump to, okay, let's see, build a EV manufacturing right away. So we have to build the whole industry environment, beat that bit. We have to get a complete supply chain. We have to have the different companies to working in this industry together. We have to get technicians, have to get, of course technologies and IP, all that type of things to get them together. And then to lead to the future goal.
(:So what BlueForce would like to do is, as in this big picture, we want to be a foundation to consider about a power train. So that's what the way our core business to do. So would be built a future if, let's see, we are not just working for old vehicle. We can also design the power train solution to start up EV company. We can build some power train solution for some company who using, let's see, boat company for example. So we can redesign their system so then their product could transfer from the traditional product to a new electric product easily. So that's what we want to do. We want to build the whole industry rather than just selling our product in Canada.
Leena Manro (:I see.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. And when we talk about the whole North American, that's a powered by BlueForce collaboration program. We try to establish. So we always realize in the industry, if you want to being successful, you can't working alone. So you have to-
Leena Manro (:Oh, you can't work alone?
Jayde Zhou (:No, no. You have to help you competitor. Well, it's not really they're competing you. They're also helping you to bring the industry booming.
Leena Manro (:So that's your philosophy, the BlueForce philosophy. You have to help your competitor-
Jayde Zhou (:To grow.
Leena Manro (:... so that you bring the industry momentum into the industry and bring it up together.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah, that's what I believe. So after we doing the research, we found all those EV conversion shop have this problem. So we change our positioning from EV conversion company to a supply chain company. So we try to reach different EV conversion companies to asking them if they would like to get a solution from us, if they want to get ready to go conversion kits from us. So if they have some difficult project they can't fulfill. So we would like to help. So we want everybody being successful. And then if this market can accept this idea of a conversion.
Leena Manro (:That helps all of you.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah, then we can be successful together.
Leena Manro (:Why is this the name?
Jayde Zhou (:BlueForce is the, I think keep the sky being blue.
Leena Manro (:Oh, for the sky to be blue. Okay, I understand. Yeah, that's great. You hear a lot of green, green, forest green, this. You guys chose blue. Sounds interesting.
Jayde Zhou (:And just try to trend different colors.
Leena Manro (:Yes.
Jayde Zhou (:Blue is the color of ocean. The color of sky. So I think it's a nice color too.
Leena Manro (:It's a wonderful, wonderful color and a good reminder to all of us to do our part in try and keep the sky blue and the ocean's blue, isn't it?
Jayde Zhou (:Of course. Yeah. Color of the earth if you really look at it.
Leena Manro (:Absolutely. So I understand that you have a number of partnerships as well. Can you tell us a little bit about the partnerships you're working on right now?
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. So after launch to the market 2024, instead of put a lot of energy to build business relationship, we valued our partnership quite a lot. So we built establish like a partnership with the BCIT once we realized there's no standard for conversion.
(:And then we want to build a system for a certified installer, which we call certified installer, which means after the certain training and then technician within a certain background, they can do a conversion.
Leena Manro (:Oh, I see. So you're partnering with BCIT and education institutes to actually create that program. So someone is certified as a certified installer.
Jayde Zhou (:Yes. Not this program is, it's a BCIT and a commerce in college. So three, we'll try to build the course together as a micro cadenso, and then after this course being established so we can licensing to different colleges across the country or even across North American.
Leena Manro (:That's amazing. That's wonderful. Actually, we're a learning organization, so one of the things that we do at all-purpose is help build out courses and we support education and all that's, so it's really, really great to hear.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. Because as I mentioned, if you want to build an industry, there's a lot of aspect you have to consider.
Leena Manro (:Absolutely.
Jayde Zhou (:So people, it's always the most essential parts for industry. So we have to build the talent, we have to build the technician, we have to make human resource for this industry in order to make the industry booming.
Leena Manro (:Absolutely.
Jayde Zhou (:So that's like-
Leena Manro (:To skill up people, train people. Absolutely.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah, exactly. So that's why instead of put a lot of energy into the business first we put a lot of energy on our education side.
Leena Manro (:Oh, that's wonderful. Oh, that's music to my ears. That's wonderful. So globally, you guys have some goals as well?
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah, globally, because different country have a different need regarding a new allergy. And then we have a partner in Africa, [inaudible 00:27:39] so they're doing a new energy project as a charity energy project like Africa.
Leena Manro (:Amazing.
Jayde Zhou (:So their idea is because Africa is undeveloped country, they already missed to build those infrastructure, the basic infrastructure for this area.
Leena Manro (:They don't have it. They've [inaudible 00:27:59]
Jayde Zhou (:Well of course, not as strong as us. So for example, the grid. So they even have difficulty access to a clean water. So instead of to rebuild everything from the beginning. So what we think, we can skip this step and move to the next level to build energy storage. So then they don't have to build a large, large grid, but they can have a different and to support energy use in a certain village and tend to build an EV... Well, we do have EV conversion project with them. We donate two of our conversion kits to Africa. So let them to start this project instead to purchase vehicles. They can start to using an EV, which is cheaper for long term because they don't have to purchase gasoline and then to build solar system. So that's some goal we would like to do with the undeveloped area.
Leena Manro (:Okay. Oh, wow. Well that's very ambitious. Very interesting.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. So that's what I mean. We have different goal from a national wide level and North America and globally.
Leena Manro (:Yes. I see.
Jayde Zhou (:The majority collaborator we have so far has in North America, not in Canada, because there's more EV conversion shop, but-
Leena Manro (:In America?
Jayde Zhou (:[inaudible 00:29:35].
Leena Manro (:I see. So tariffs are affecting you.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. They have to consider about if they're purchasing from us, they have to pay the tariff and then there will be a higher price and then stop their customer to make the purchase. Especially one that's [inaudible 00:29:53] right now. It's not good.
Leena Manro (:[inaudible 00:29:55]
Jayde Zhou (:It's difficult. And also the North American policy somehow have a huge impact on us. If Trump would like to make any change regarding the new energy or their emission or environmental protection-
Leena Manro (:And they are making those right now and they're stripping away a lot of that. [inaudible 00:30:18] in America.
Jayde Zhou (:Well, it's not just about policy, but it's start to change people's ideas.
Leena Manro (:That's true.
Jayde Zhou (:What we believe for decades, we want to protect the environment. Then we start to dot about that.
Leena Manro (:I agree. That's really dangerous, isn't it? The path that potentially we're on.
Jayde Zhou (:Well, we may think maybe the Paris Agreement we signed just for nothing. Maybe the whole world may not go toward to environment protection. There are emission, maybe just some something we will be just through-
Leena Manro (:Whoever's listening to this, please don't change your mind. Let's protect the planet. Let's protect the environment. But you're right though, because the moment that policy starts to change, and right now, I mean we filming this in the middle of summer and I'm not sure exactly when the air date will be. So I don't know, who knows What'll happen in a few months. But now in the middle of summer, there is a push in the States to remove these kinds of protections. But the most dangerous thing isn't as much the policy. You're right. It's the mindset.
Jayde Zhou (:The policy can... Because I know different governments, they always have a part in change. They all-
Leena Manro (:Isn't it shocking though that there's been such a pushback towards environmental protection? Aren't you shocked? When I see this on the news, when I'm reading through, I'm like, what is going on in this world? Why are we even considering rolling back protection? We've been talking about this for so long and it's very clear. It's very clear that climate change is a real thing. And yet there's still so much debate amongst those who don't even have really any insight or degrees or analysis that have opinions that climate change isn't real. I don't want it to be real, but it's real. It's there. It's happening.
Jayde Zhou (:It will put a big questioning to everyone. People will thought about a lot of moral standards and logic, and then some principle we had so far, that it's not just the environmental protection. We will dot many things. Human rights, talk about like LGBTQ, we support for so long and doubt about even the Freedom Act.
Leena Manro (:We can't doubt these things.
Jayde Zhou (:Because that's fundamental. That's what we believe to build the civilization way working for so long and so far. So it's really not just about-
Leena Manro (:It's such a Weird time. It is a really weird time. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I've never anticipated that times would get this where human rights would be in doubt.
Jayde Zhou (:You have the protection. It's linked to human rights, because we have a right to live in a clean environment, like a better world. Right?
Leena Manro (:And when we protect humans and we protect their human rights, it also impacts the world that we live in, the environment that we live in. And it's such a shared responsibility.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah, right. It's difficult, I know. It's like when we drive the whole society toward to some goal, it's difficult to achieve. But for the past century, I mean, we still doing it, even it's hard. And then look how successful we have done so far.
Leena Manro (:We have done, yeah.There's a lot of good things that have happened so far.
Jayde Zhou (:I really don't think it's a good idea to give up just for some economic reason or some power fighting it, political.
Leena Manro (:I don't know why it's come up like this. It's like the last little bit of, I don't know, old power structures are rising up trying to, I don't know, just be loud, take us back into the dark ages. But we have to fight that.
Jayde Zhou (:Yeah. Right.
Leena Manro (:Well, thank you so much for joining us and thanks for all the work that you're doing at BlueForce Energy. And if people want to learn more, I guess they can look at your website.
Jayde Zhou (:Yes, of course.
Leena Manro (:And they can also reach out to you then.
Jayde Zhou (:Yes, please.
Leena Manro (:Okay. All right, well thank you very much for joining us here at Up To So Good.
Jayde Zhou (:Thank you. Thank you.
Leena Manro (:Well, that's all the time we have for today's show. Thank you so much for joining us. And if you've enjoyed the show, please subscribe, hit the button or share an episode. And if you have any feedback, questions or comments or show ideas, you can email us directly at hello@allpurpose.io. Thank you once again for joining us. We'll see you next time.
