After winning  his first business plan competition, Peter Goggin is hoping his social venture Green Trade, which trains ex-convicts and recovering addicts for employment, will take advantage of the skills shortage in the Maritimes to help people with a troubled past.

Goggin, an MBA student at the University of New Brunswick, won the social entrepreneurship category at the Pond-Deshpande Centre’s pitch competition in November, and now has his sights set on more  contests. The Pond-Deshpande Centre was established at UNB last year to promote entrepreneurship in universities.

Goggin’s idea was to train people with few career options, such as ex-convicts and recovering addicts, in sustainable retrofitting, which means fixing up existing buildings to improve their efficiency and environmental sustainability. His company Green Trade partnered with the John Howard Society of New Brunswick, which advocates prison reform and helps people who go through the penal system, as well as  UNB’s Activator program, which helps students  develop startups.

According to Statistics Canada, the Maritimes suffered a net out-migration of 1,524 people in 2008-9, the most recent stats available, exacerbating skills shortages in many trades. Goggin hopes Green Trade can help to ease that  shortage.

“It takes people such as those with addictions, convictions, and helps get them job ready,” said Goggin in an interview.

Goggin is handling the business development side of the project himself  and  will soon be  moving from the idea-development phase into business development.

The John Howard Society has covered most of the $400,000 in capital needed to launch Green Trade, although the venture  still needs $150,000 in investment to allow  10 participants to enter the program. Revenue will be created from the retrofitting service itself once participants are trained.

UNB receives multiple applications from groups  that hope to benefit from Activator. This is the first year the university has worked with a social venture, and the John Howard Society was chosen out of a handful of foundations that wanted to take part.

Goggin said his participation in Activator has given him experience “moving away from classroom application and using it in a real-life case”.

At the Pond-Deshpande pitch competition on Nov. 23, entrepreneurs had one minute to present their ideas to a panel of seven judges. While Googin won in the “social” category, the winner in the “technical” division was Keagan Marcus’s Biomatcan, a technology designed to regenerate bone damaged by  osteoporosis and fractures.

“Hopefully it will help my job prospects, and get my face out there,” said Goggin

There are three other major business plan competitions in the Maritimes in the coming months: the BMO Apex Business Plan Competition; the Breakthru Business Plan Competition and the Atlantic Regional Enterprize Competition. (The deadline to enter Breakthru, organized by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation is today.)

Goggin is looking forward to bringing Green Trade to  all three. “I’ve been doing my pitch at a lot of meeting conferences,” he said, “and practice makes perfect.”