The Only Canadian Campaign Nominated for a Webby This Year Is About Saving Winter
When most people think about award-winning marketing campaigns, they picture big-budget Super Bowl spots or viral social stunts from well-funded consumer brands. They probably don't picture a carbon capture company from Vancouver teaming up with a national sports federation to remove CO2 from the atmosphere every time someone hits share on a video.
But that's exactly what Save the Ice is. And it just earned a nomination at the 2026 Webby Awards, one of the most competitive digital awards programs in the world, in the Sustainability & Environment category. According to the campaign team, it's the only Canadian campaign on that list.
What Is "Save the Ice"?
Launched in January 2025 at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating event in Calgary, Save the Ice is a climate awareness and education campaign built through a partnership between three Canadian organizations: Svante, a Vancouver-based carbon capture and removal technology company; Deep Sky, a Montreal-based carbon removal project developer; and Speed Skating Canada, the national governing body for the sport.
The campaign's premise is elegant. Watch a video featuring four-time Olympic speed skating medalist Gaétan Boucher talking about how climate change is threatening winter sport, share it on social media, and Svante will remove half a kilogram of CO2 from the atmosphere via Deep Sky's direct air capture technology. Engagement becomes a unit of climate action. Awareness becomes measurable impact.
The connection between the campaign topic and its partners isn't just thematic, it's personal. Svante COO Richard Laliberté is a Speed Skating Canada alumnus. The sport that trained him is now one of the clearest visible casualties of a warming planet. Speed skating, once held outdoors on natural ice, has been forced almost entirely indoors because natural ice conditions have become too unreliable.
"Climate change is not just a global issue. It's deeply personal for athletes and communities whose lives revolve around winter sports," said Ron Weiser, Board Chair of Speed Skating Canada, at the campaign launch. "Together, we can help preserve the ice, the sport we love, and our planet for future generations."
Why This Campaign Works
From a marketing craft perspective, Save the Ice is doing several things well that are genuinely hard to pull off.
The mechanism is the message. A lot of climate campaigns ask audiences to care, or to learn, or to feel something. This one asks them to do something, and the action is directly tied to the outcome. Half a kilogram of CO2 removed per share isn't an abstraction, it's a transaction. That kind of specificity builds trust in a way that vague calls to action rarely do.
The partnership is load-bearing, not decorative. Each organization in this collaboration brings something the others don't have. Svante brings the technology credibility and the funding mechanism. Deep Sky brings the carbon removal infrastructure. Speed Skating Canada brings the audience, the cultural relevance, and the emotional stakes: athletes who have spent their lives on ice speaking directly to what they stand to lose. The campaign wouldn't work with only one or two of these pieces in place.
It uses sport as a cultural bridge. Climate communication has a well-documented relevance problem. The people most likely to engage with it are already engaged, and the people who aren't don't feel the issue connects to their lives. Framing it through the lens of a beloved Canadian sport, one with a tangible and visible problem, is a smart way in for audiences who might otherwise scroll past a standard climate message.
The Webby Context
The Webbys aren't a small pond. This year's 30th annual awards received more than 13,000 entries from over 70 countries, with fewer than 17% of submissions making the nominee list. The organizations with the most nominations this cycle include Google, PBS, Apple, Disney, and Netflix. Being the only Canadian campaign nominated in the Sustainability & Environment category, in that field, is a meaningful signal.
Voting for the Webby People's Voice Award is open now through April 16 at vote.webbyawards.com. Winners will be announced April 21, with the ceremony on May 11 in New York City.
A Company Worth Watching
The Webby nomination isn't the only reason Svante is having a notable week. The company also just announced a partnership with the Meadow Lake Tribal Council to sell Microsoft 626,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits, one of the largest Indigenous-led carbon removal agreements in Canadian history.
For a company best known in the cleantech space, Svante is quietly building a marketing identity that goes well beyond press releases. Save the Ice represents something Canadian marketers don't see often enough: a technology company investing in genuine consumer storytelling, with a clear values alignment between the brand, its partners, and the people it's trying to reach.
Go Vote
If you want to support the only Canadian campaign in contention, voting is open until April 16. Head to vote.webbyawards.com and find Save the Ice in the Sustainability & Environment category.
Save the Ice was created by Svante, Deep Sky, and Speed Skating Canada. Learn more at svanteinc.com/save-the-ice.
