EARTH CONSCIOUS SURFACING

Ottawa start-up PurePave permeable surfacing provides the lowest carbon footprint and prevents stormwater pollution from flowing into rivers and streams

“PurePave's material composite breakthrough changes everything. When removing sand and fines from a pavement structure to allow water to pass through, cement and asphalt bitumen binding agents are insufficient, particularly in cold climates with extreme freeze-thaw.”

-- Taylor Davis CEO & Founder PurePave

Interview with Taylor Davis

By Suzanne Forcese

WT: Taylor, you have been described as the "quintessential entrepreneur" with a talent for converting unmet need into viable, scalable businesses that have resulted in "a chain reaction of successful ventures that are changing the world and how society lives in it." What has your entrepreneurial journey looked like and how has it intertwined with your environmental consciousness?

Davis: I started an asphalt maintenance company to pay for university when I was 17. While studying Earth Science, Neuroscience and Business at Dalhousie University I was early in ecommerce, selling shirts and supplements at the time.

My family has a cottage in Gananoque on the St Lawrence River. I was curious as a 12-year-old as to why on occasion the beaches would be closed after heavy rain. My Father explained how stormwater pollution works - fast forward 10 years and I went to Los Angeles to surf, but my trip was essentially canceled due to runoff in LA. Heavy rains had been responsible for polluted ocean water – water too dangerous for swimming.

A few weeks later, my small property maintenance company was approached by a developer outside Ottawa who was unable to pave any driveways unless they were permeable, due to sensitive watersheds in the area.

My small asphalt maintenance company was growing as I was hired at Shopify in 2013. I was not expecting to keep my asphalt company, but it allowed us to play with new ideas in a way that I found to be completely fascinating.

While disruption in software was common, the idea of it in civil engineering was often met with laughter and borderline arrogance. I was naive enough to try and after a few small wins become obsessed with seeing it through, dreaming of delivering sustainable stormwater infrastructure at scale to North America. Little did we know that the remarkable binding agents blended with powders and precisely sized aggregates was only the beginning.

I came to understand the relationship permeable surfacing could have with the environment and wanted to explore if it were viable in our climate, considering none of the popular systems in Europe were in Canada. I later learned exactly why those materials were not more prolific in our neck of the woods and was driven to solve the many associated problems.

WT: Please give us an overview of PurePave as a groundbreaking solution?

Davis: PurePave Technologies manufactures winterized permeable surfacing for distributors and certified contractors across North America. Contractors can add Purepave to their product line to facilitate the adoption of green infrastructure solutions for cities, developers and homeowners.

PurePave offers sustainable infrastructure as one of the best real-world solutions with practical impact

And with every square meter of purepave equaling 4 times less CO2 emissions than concrete or asphalt – PurePave offers the lowest carbon footprint of any surfacing system.

PurePave's material composite breakthrough changes everything. When removing sand and fines from a pavement structure to allow water to pass through, cement and asphalt bitumen binding agents are insufficient, particularly in cold climates with extreme freeze-thaw.

We began importing materials from Europe only to discover they too suffered similar failures. We studied the material properties and pavement designs that could theoretically circumvent the many issues associated with failed systems and ended up creating something far better than we expected. Supply chains in North America needed to be arranged next before building version 1 of what became our factory.

WT: A recently published article in the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering August 12, 2025 has stated:

"Stormwater analysis showed that replacing 20% of a 10-hectare impervious surface with PurePave could fully manage runoff from a 100-year, 24-hour storm. The system’s flexibility and fatigue resistance suggest its suitability for high-traffic urban areas, supporting its potential use in sustainable stormwater infrastructure."

What triggered your interest in permeable systems? What was the process that led you from problem to solution?

Davis: Intellectual curiosity and the right dose of contrarianism. So many 'experts' told us it's impossible and not to try, but they were all thinking of traditional materials like concrete, asphalt and bricks. It seemed obvious to us that that's not where the solution would be found.

We looked for one small win after another...starting with more than 500 phone calls with experts, then into a garage, into the lab, into field test pads, and finally onto my own driveway.

After successful winter torture tests and a few years of monitoring, we realized there'd be an enormous market for sustainable stormwater systems in North America if we were successful, and in the meantime, we were able to start offering visually stunning products to the high-end residential market so why not go for it?

WT: Tell us about your partnership with the U of Ottawa.

Davis: We hired Engineering students from Ottawa U as construction workers to start, which was indeed a good move. These kids were brilliant, worked hard, and were passionate about our products and mission.

We gained access to Ottawa U professor of Civil Engineering Prof. Muslim Majeed in the pavement testing lab and along with our students, led by Sanad Nashad, we were able to test our best formulas for freeze-thaw, compressive and flexural strength. This cycle accelerated improvements of our top designs year over year until we had something that could work on parking lots and roads.

WT: How is your product revolutionary in terms of its resilience in harsh Canadian winters? Describe the technology you have created. How does it work?

Davis: For the material composite itself, we painstakingly found the exact blend of precisely sized granite aggregates, recycled materials, powders and resin formulation to allow water to pass while maintaining incredible strength and freeze-thaw resistance. In the lab, when the samples are stressed in a 4-point bend-test after freeze-thaw, you can see on the computer readings. There are 2 sets of resistance: one set of resistance begins immediately when pressure starts, and a second set holds up before failure. What was interesting as well is when pressure is removed, right before the failure mark, the system was able to regain its form, similar to steel.

The base design was also important; it uses road grids for tensile strength and open graded aggregates lock together with 40% air voids. This allows water storage, drainage and for air to escape through the structure's when displaced by expanding water.

Conversely, in an impervious base, water gets in and when it freezes there's nowhere for air to escape so it blows the top off and we have the pothole cycle.

WT: How have you also incorporated the aesthetics of PurePave into the product line?

Davis: We made PurePave beautiful with natural granites and offered it to homeowners to get started. For years we refined the installation process, equipment and the manufacturing line before arriving at a position to help reduce stormwater pollution and floods. Today we can pave parking lots and roads with multi-colored local granite for the same price as black stone.

WT: What are the qualities of PurePave that make it suitable in all situations?

Davis: From first principles, instead of limestone we use granite and instead of brittle cement or relatively weak bitumen, a blend of polyurethanes, powders and recycled materials results in a pavement structure that doesn't lose strength from freeze-thaw the way traditional materials do.

PurePave is also very strong, about 6 times stronger than asphalt after a standard freeze-thaw test. It can support the weight of 40-ton front-end loaders on our thin walkway blend; skid steers can do 360s without stone loss on parking lots and propane trucks can drive up and down long residential driveways annually.

What's most important is what this means for Cities facing stormwater infrastructure and flooding challenges. 

Today PurePave is used as a designer surface on residential homes where snow melt vanishes instead of turning to ice and commercial parking lots to mitigate stormwater infrastructure requirements. However, we currently have several sites cued up for use in municipal roads in major cities. This is what we are most excited for, to see our system used for greatest impact.

WT: What are the advantages of PurePave surfacing over traditional methods?

Davis: Advantages over traditional pavement depend where it's used.

• Residential: high-end surface for aesthetics, winter performance, flood mitigation, anti-slip, crack resistance and lifespan.
• Commercial: 1/4 salt used in winter, stormwater infrastructure savings, maximizing land use, reducing impermeable footprint.
• Municipal: reduce stormwater burden on problematic areas of the city, reduce flood risk, delay capital costs of replacing storm systems in areas that flood. Save cities an estimated $4 million per kilometre where PurePave is used on road shoulders to take the strain off storm systems that are at capacity during heavy rainfall. Reduce stormwater pollution!

WT: What sorts of incentives are offered by regulatory bodies?

Davis: Some Municipalities like Ottawa are starting to offer grants to homeowners to convert their property to net-zero runoff using an effective permeable system. Others mandate permeable paver use but have not historically offered "credit" to developers for doing so - we believe this is because the 'permeable pavers' that have been used are bricks that only infiltrate water on 6-9% of the total surface area. This design still results in runoff and early clogging. By comparison, PurePave infiltrates 18L of water in 19 seconds on a ring test where brick pavers took 31 minutes.

WT: How is PurePave a truly Canadian Company?

Davis: Everything is manufactured in Canada. From the binding agents to recycled components and aggregate processing at our factory in Ottawa. All raw materials come from local suppliers in Ontario and QC.

Our first big break was in 2018 when a Construction Technology Officer from the NRC saw our work on a mini-mall sidewalk and was amazed at what our engineering spec sheet had to say. We met the NRC permeable paving PHD team and set up a side-by side test of permeable concrete and PurePave. When we went back in spring to inspect it, the concrete was essentially gravel and the PurePave was in great shape. We were then introduced to the NRC-IRAP program for funding.

WT: Tell us about your paving projects. Are you ready to scale up across Canada?

Davis: We have paved full scale parking lots with zero stormwater infrastructure, heavy duty loading docks, public spaces, City boulevards, school parking areas, and many very high-end large driveways.

We have spent the last several years upgrading our manufacturing facility. It was consistently the rate limiter on annual sales. However, as of this year we can produce what finally feels like an unlimited amount of our materials. We can serve projects at the Federal and Municipal scale and are currently exporting to the US.

In addition to manufacturing, our system previously had to be installed by screed and batch mixer (like concrete but without a pump truck). However, over the last 3 years we’ve developed a new set of paving and mixing equipment to allow installation at a speed closer to asphalt paving. This was necessary to install parking lots and roads at scale.

WT: You are also President of SmartGreenCities.io Please tell our viewers about this.

Davis: SGC was initially meant for homeowners but became a network of sustainable technology providers who require contractors for distribution - it is currently closed to the public. We will offer our collection of sustainable technologies to Certified PurePave Contractors in the coming years when PurePave has achieved its distribution goals and the technologies are capable of production at scale.

WT: WATERTODAY recently spoke with David Miller, former Toronto Mayer and Managing Director of C40 Cities. How would you envision incorporating your technology into a C40 City by making it a Sponge City?

Davis:Urbanization encourages the construction of grey infrastructure in cities. Excessive use and development of grey infrastructure can lead to water shortages, pollution, and overall degradation of water ecosystem services. Current urban architectural planning also creates many buildings, simultaneously limiting cities' green space, drainage, and rainwater collection ability. Consequently, rainfall cannot meet modern cities' water requirements and causes cities lots of problems regarding water ecology and aquatic environments.

The Sponge City philosophy is to distribute and retain water at its source, slow down water as it flows away from its source, clean water naturally, and adapt to water at the sink when water accumulates.

PurePave’s vision is to bring Sponge Cities to North America.

We invite every engineering firm, environmental consulting agency, architect, municipality and related Federal department to learn how this system can serve their clients and their mandates. We need visionaries from every department on our side in order to bring Sponge Cities to North America. Theres a looming infrastructure issue that can be mitigated starting now.

Imagine all the residential streets-built 100+ years ago in beautiful urban areas, without any stormwater infrastructure, that now have flood issues. Formerly, cities had one choice. Dig up the entire street, kill every nearby tree, install storm systems that discharge into waterways, and reinstate at a cost of $5-6 million per kilometer. Now we are looking at PurePave roads in these residential settings that will save cities millions, keep trees alive and be ready for use in weeks instead of years.

Imagine home builders receiving qualitative and quantitative stormwater credit for PurePave road shoulders and driveways, now able to reduce storm pond size and build more homes. This will maximize land use, reduce home prices and prevent stormwater runoff pollution.

Performance monitoring is key, which is why we integrate digital sensors into the pavement structures to help automate maintenance and ensure reliability of the pavement asset.

WT: As PurePave expands across North America what can you offer contractors who are interested in joining the PurePave movement?

Davis: Certified Installers open a new division of business in the blue ocean of sustainable surfacing and stormwater. Start with resurfacing if you're a small company, become a PurePave PRO if you can afford the setup costs of a mixer and truckload of material, or launch as a Regional Partner in manufacturing and installations at scale if you're a big player with distribution. PurePave launches demand generation in your territory and qualify all leads for installers to grow.

WT: What’s next?

Davis: Accelerating the transition toward sustainable infrastructure at scale in North America.

Market forces are on our side, and we need to work with visionaries and change-makers. PurePave systems will save North American Cities Billions on flood mitigation and the foregone capital costs of replacing at-capacity stormwater systems ahead of schedule. Developers save money on parking lots with reduced stormwater infrastructure requirements. Our Certified Installers can become leaders in green infrastructure in every major City.

SpongeCity.AI is nearly ready, a free tool that allows key groups to design, price and compare commercial / municipal sites with our PurePave systems. It provides preliminary stormwater reports and cost estimates to showcase both potential cost savings and the environmental benefits of using PurePave vs traditional systems on upcoming projects.

PurePave is in the process of licensing its manufacturing facilities to new regional partners. This will reduce the cost of logistics. Regional partners can vertically integrate to own both manufacturing and installations of PurePave using our custom set of equipment to serve their market at volume for an unbeatable permeable surfacing price point.