TORONTO, ON - June 03, 2015 /CNW/ - Canada's top innovators in home energy efficiency were recognized last night at the Scotiabank EcoLiving Awards, winning $75,000 in prize money.

The Scotiabank EcoLiving Awards recognize Canadian businesses, entrepreneurs and students for excellence in the development of home energy efficiency products, services and solutions. The event was hosted by Arlene Dickinson and attended by leaders in the clean energy field.

The 2015 Scotiabank EcoLiving Awards winners are:

• Scotiabank EcoLiving Business Leadership Award ($50,000) - Diana Livshits, Krumpers Solar Solutions Inc., Ottawa
• Scotiabank EcoLiving Innovation Award ($15,000) - Janet and Peter Janiuk, FireflyPower, Toronto
• Scotiabank EcoLiving Student Leadership Award ($10,000) - University of Guelph students Wesley Romak, Melissa Love, Thomas Marshall and Cody Carey, Flywheel Electrical Storage System, Guelph

"We want to congratulate this year's winners of the Scotiabank EcoLiving Awards," said James O'Sullivan, Scotiabank's Executive Vice President, Global Wealth Management. "This is a truly talented group of entrepreneurs that have used their ingenuity to create solutions that could help change the field of energy conservation. Each is playing an important role in helping Canadians make greener choices in their homes, helping the environment while also saving money by reducing their energy bills."

The Scotiabank EcoLiving Awards are part of the Bank's customer-focused environmental initiative, Scotiabank EcoLiving. Introduced in 2010, Scotiabank EcoLiving is designed to help enable Canadians to save energy by reducing their household energy consumption, which results in cost savings and positive environmental impact.

Information about the 2015 Scotiabank EcoLiving Awards winning submissions:

The 2015 Scotiabank EcoLiving Business Leadership Award, valued at $50,000, was awarded to Diana Livshits for her submission:

• Krumpers Solar Blinds, made in Canada for the Canadian climate, are climate control blinds which regulate the temperature of homes year round to save on heating and cooling.

The 2015 Scotiabank EcoLiving Innovation Award, valued at $15,000, was awarded to Janet and Peter Janiuk for their submission:

• FireflyPower offers homeowners efficient, lightweight and affordable carbon fiber wind turbines, which reduce their electricity costs. Homeowners can become clean electricity producers with projected savings of more than 15% of their annual home electricity costs.

The 2015 Scotiabank EcoLiving Student Leadership Award, valued at $10,000, was awarded to: Wesley Romak, Melissa Love, Thomas Marshall and Cody Carey, from the University of Guelph for their submission:

• Flywheel Energy Storage System is an energy storage system for residential homeowners that can be directly integrated with the grid. The system stores energy during low peak hours and converts it back to electricity during high peak hours.

Finalists and winners were selected by a judging panel, including Valérie Bécaert, Executive Director of the CIRAIG (Centre of expertise in life cycle issues based at Polytechnique Montréal), John Godden, Principal of Clearsphere, Ed Johnston, Canadian Tire Vice-President of Enterprise Sustainability, Shawn McCarthy, Global Energy reporter at The Globe and Mail and John Roberts, Scotiabank Vice President of Small Business.

For more information about the Scotiabank EcoLiving Awards, the 2015 Finalists, our Judges and the Scotiabank EcoLiving program overall, please visit http://ecoliving.scotiabank.com.

About Scotiabank:
Through our global philanthropic program, Scotiabank and its employees support causes at a grassroots level. Recognized as a leader for our charitable donations and philanthropic activities, Scotiabank has contributed on average $50 million annually over the last five years to community causes around the world.

Scotiabank is Canada's international bank and a leading financial services provider in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Central America, and parts of Asia. We are dedicated to helping our 21 million customers become better off through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of more than 86,000 employees and assets of $837 billion (as at April 30, 2015) Scotiabank trades on the Toronto (TSX: BNS) and New York Exchanges (NYSE: BNS). Scotiabank distributes the Bank's media releases using CNW. For more information, please visit www.scotiabank.com and follow us on Twitter @ScotiabankNews