WiRE: The Toronto Network That Went Global From a Post Office Box

Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE)/Femmes en Énergies Renouvelables (FÉR) runs chapters from Canada, to Africa,Asia , Europe, UK, and MENA Region , and partners with the IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency), among many other partners: https://womeninrenewableenergy.ca/wire-partnership. WiRE/FER is heading to COP31 in the coming days as WiRE/FER HAS Observer status.

A Canadian Organisation With Chapters on Four Continents

Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE), known as WiRE and in French as Femmes en Énergies Renouvelables (FER), describes its mission as advancing the role and recognition of women and other underrepresented groups in the energy sector.

It operates from Toronto and runs a chapter model, with regional groups organising their own events and activities. The geographic spread of recent activity makes the scale clear: networking events in Toronto and Halifax, a chapter visit to a direct air capture plant in Kenya, a youth training partnership in Azerbaijan, a new chapter launched in Austria, and chapter leadership in the United Arab Emirates.

That is unusual for a Canadian organisation of this size. Most sector associations remain national. This one has exported a Canadian-built model into markets where its work is arguably more needed, and it does so with no published head office beyond a post office box.

Volunteers as the Operating Model

The organisation runs on volunteers, and its recruitment pitch is unusually honest about the exchange involved.

Rather than appealing purely to the cause, it makes a career argument: that volunteering contributes to something people care about while building leadership and project management skills and expanding a professional network among energy sector experts.  The Founder, President & CEO always says “your network is your networth".

That framing matters because it is accurate. For someone early in an energy career, organising a chapter event puts them in a room with senior people they would never otherwise meet, and gives them something concrete to point to. The organisation gets capacity it could not otherwise afford, and the volunteer gets access and experience. Both sides receive something real, which is why the arrangement lasts. At WiRE/FER we call this a win/win model.

For business owners, the same principle applies to any industry association: the people who volunteer on committees are the ones who end up knowing everybody.

Awards, Spotlights and the Recognition Business

A substantial part of the organisation's work is recognition, and it runs several award programs, including a Women in Electricity Award, a Woman of Distinction Award (joint award with WiRE/APPrO (Association of Power Producers) & OEA (Ontario Energy Association), Woman of Hydro (joint award with WiRE & WaterPower Canada), Woman of Renewable Energy award (joint award with WiRE & Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA), the Equality in Energy Transition Initiative (EETI) (an initiative of Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM), joint awards with WiRE, CEM, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) recognizing the woman of distinction award, emerging leader award and organizational award.Alongside these it publishes a Spotlights series profiling individuals across the sector. What stands out about that series is who appears in it. The profiles include utility chief executives, national association presidents, senior executives at engineering and consulting firms, a nuclear industry global president, and a director general who became the first woman to lead a power utility in Jordan, alongside chapter leaders and early-career professionals.

Including senior men among the profiles is a deliberate choice. An organisation advancing women in a male-dominated sector needs those men engaged rather than defensive, and profiling them makes participation visible rather than obligatory. WiRE’s Founder,  says “I would not be where I am today in my career if it wasn’t for the male sponsors throughout my journey.” She also attributes the success and championship of WiRE to her husband who is WiRE’s Director of Operations.

Programs and Partnerships

The organisation's initiatives include a dual-stream inclusive talent advancement program for energy,  partnerships with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Skills Canada, Academia, Government, and more.  WiRE also features a Trailblazers podcast.  WiRE will be attending its sixth Conference of Parties (COP) and have observer status with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  This year COP31 will take place in Antalya, Turkey with the Australia agenda.  WiRE will be speaking, providing press conferences, speaking engagements, side events and hosting a reception. It also runs an international career hub, student bursaries, sector surveys, published reports and a junior ambassadors program that has drawn national media attention for youth leadership in clean energy and skilled trades.

For Canadian energy businesses, the practical connections are the career hub for recruitment, the chapter events for sector networking, and sponsorship or partnership arrangements for companies wanting visible involvement in workforce diversity. Given persistent skilled labour shortages across the energy and trades sectors, an organisation actively building a pipeline of candidates is a recruitment channel as much as a cause.

A Notable Piece of Housekeeping

One detail on the organisation's website deserves mention because it is good practice other businesses should copy.

WiRE publishes an explicit email communication policy stating that it corresponds only from addresses on its own domain, that it does not request monetary transactions by email other than official sponsorship or partnership agreements, and that anyone receiving a solicitation from another domain should block the sender and report it.

That is a clear, prominent, practical defence against impersonation fraud, which targets organisations of every size and works because recipients have no reason to doubt a plausible-looking email. Publishing the policy costs nothing and gives every recipient a way to check.

Website: womeninrenewableenergy.ca

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