James Seabrook at Vitalis, the company he founded in Kelowna, BC.
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.”