Gregor Robertson
Mayor, City of Vancouver

Gregor Robertson is the elected Mayor of Vancouver. Previously, he was a successful businessman, community activist, and politician. Mr. Robertson began with an organic farm near Fort Langley that led him to create Happy Planet Foods, and over the next decade, helped grow the company into one of Canada's leading organic food businesses, showcasing sustainability long before it was a buzzword. His business success earned him the Vancouver Mayor's Environmental Award for exemplary achievement in 2003 and the Ethics in Action Award in 2004. He was named one of Canada's 'Top 40 under 40' by the Globe and Mail. In 2005, Mr. Robertson was elected a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Vancouver-Fairview and served as the Opposition Critic for Small Business and Co-Chair of the Caucus Climate Change Task Force.

Karim Kassam
Director, Business Development, Ballard Power Systems

Karim Kassam is responsible for planning, organizing and executing the Company’s corporate and business development activities. He leads the development and negotiation of significant strategic relationships with new and existing customers and partners in support of the market segments and corporate strategy worldwide.

Karim holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta, an MBA from Queens University, and is a designated CMA. His experience prior to Ballard includes international experience, particularly in Asia-Pacific and experience in a range of sectors, including commercial real estate, government and retail.

Jared Blumenfeld
Administrator Region 9, US Environmental Protection Agency

US EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced President Barack Obama’s selection of Jared Blumenfeld to be the Agency’s Regional Administrator for EPA’s Region 9. Jared assumed his duties as Regional Administrator in January 2010. This region encompasses California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands, and over 140 Tribal Nations.

Regional Administrators are responsible for managing the Agency’s regional activities under the direction of the EPA Administrator. They promote state and local environmental protection efforts and serve as a liaison to state and local government officials. Regional Administrators are tasked with ensuring EPA's efforts to address the environmental crises of today are rooted in three fundamental values: science-based policies and programs, adherence to the rule of law, and transparency.

Jared Blumenfeld was previously the Director of the San Francisco Department of Environment where he spent eight years as the primary environmental decision-maker for 28,000 city staff and a $6.5 billion budget. He also managed the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department which oversaw 242 world-class parks and recreational centers including facilities such as Golden Gate Park, Candlestick Park, and Harding Park PGA golf course. He is a founder of Business Council on Climate Change, an organization that unites local businesses around the challenge of climate change. His varied experiences also include overseeing the Treasure Island Redevelopment Authority, leading the first United Nations World Environment Day hosted by the United States, directing international initiatives to protect 8 million acres of wildlife habitat and editing an annual report on international environmental case law at Cambridge University.

Claire Gram
Population Health Policy Consultant, Vancouver Coastal Health

Claire Gram is a Planning professional with over 15 years expereince in Public Health. For the past 4 years she has been working on the Population Health Team of Vancouver Coastal Health addressing the social determinants of health through policy, partnership, leadership and advocacy.  Her current portfolios include food security and Healthy Built Environments.

As the interest has grown for health authorties to re-engage in the field of the built environment, Claire has been part of National, Provincial, Regional and local intiatiaves to promote and explore the role that Health Authorities can play to enure that our communities promote optimum health for ALL residents.  It is essential that if we want people to chose healthy lifestyles (and we know that they do want to)  that we create the environments that make that possible, and address the underlying inequities that make it more possible for some than for others.

Gordon Feller
Director of Urban Innovation, Cisco Systems

Gordon Feller serves at Cisco Systems as a Director of Urban Innovation within the Public Sector team of the company’s Internet Business Solutions Group. IBSG works in more than 35 countries as an advisor to the leaders who run national governments, or regional/state governments or city governments. In his role at Cisco, Gordon is focused on urban governance and the underlying systems which, when fully utilized, can help cities -- of all types and sizes -- create smart and connected communities. Cisco’s work, and Gordon’s programs, are dedicated to the proposition that technology is already playing a key role in creating more sustainable urban communities.

San Francisco, Seoul and Amsterdam have been especially strong Cisco partners – each one jointly the developing smarter and greener infrastructure, focused in at least one and sometimes two demonstration projects or pilots.

Before joining Cisco he served as the CEO of Urban Age, an international research and policy-focused institute which partnered -- on infrastructure issues -- with a wide range of institutions: foundations (eg Rockefeller Foundation; Rockefeller Bros. Fund); global city networks, (eg CityNet in Asia); individual cities and national governments (eg Canada; Germany); multinational corporations (eg Toyota; Siemens), international agencies (eg, UN).

Gordon’s undergraduate and graduate degrees are from Columbia University in NYC. He’s resided in the San Francisco Bay Area (California) for nearly 30 years.

Michael J. Dichand
Güssing Renewable Energy

Michael J. Dichand belongs to the most influential media family in Austria. His main interest has been energetics: he is convinced that electric energy is the moving force for Europe’s prosperity over the next few decades.

He was born in Vienna where he studied law, political science, journalism and agronomics. He founded the largest organic food company in Austria. In 1993, he went to live in Cuba for four years and then moved to California. As he admitted himself, after living in one of the last remaining socialist countries in the world, he decided to see how the strongest capitalist country functioned.

Fiona Crofton
President, ORCAD Consulting Group Inc.

Fiona’s background is built upon a systems and design foundation. Working locally, nationally, and internationally, Fiona has established a reputation as an innovative process design specialist, educator, facilitator, and, most particularly, as a catalyst for change and action. Her primary aim is to facilitate sustainability-oriented decision-making & action in planning, design and lifestyle choices.

Areas of work include, for example: opportunities/needs assessment; participatory decision-making; policy analysis and development; site-based planning and design; and various related educational initiatives which facilitate social and organizational change. Dr. Crofton serves on various boards (e.g., she is President of EcoDesign Resource Society), and is an Adjunct Professor at UBC in the Department of Civil Engineering (Sustainable Development and Engineering).

For the past >20 years, Fiona has devoted her attention exclusively to issues related to sustainable development. Issues include, for example, participatory decision-making; community and site planning and development; ecological design; assessment; and related cultural, economic, and political issues. Building on her work in social and organizational change, her aim is to increase understanding of sustainable development and the means through which the goals of sustainability may be furthered.

Chief Bill Williams
Squamish First Nation

Chief Bill Williams has served as an elected member of the Squamish First Nation Council since 1980, and as a member of the community’s Hereditary Council since 1995. Throughout his political career Chief Williams has played a leadership role among First Nations by successfully blending business and conservation efforts.

He is also currently negotiating for Squamish management of sixteen area parks and has been instrumental in the development of a land use plan for the entire Squamish territory. On a regional level, Chief  Williams serves as the appointed Vice-President of the British Columbia Native Forestry Association, and was awarded the 2005 Eugene Rogers Award for Leading Conservation Efforts by Western Canada Wilderness Committee.

Andrew Petter
Incoming President, Simon Fraser University

Professor Petter joined the University of Victoria, Faculty of Law, as Assistant Professor in 1986 after teaching at Osgoode Hall Law School from 1984 to 1986. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1988 and to Professor in 2004. He was appointed Acting Dean for 2001-02 and served as Dean of the Faculty from 2002 to 2008.

From 1991 to 2001, he represented the riding of Saanich South as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, during which time he held numerous cabinet portfolios, including that of Attorney General and Minister of Advanced Education. His major fields of interest are constitutional law, civil liberties and democratic reform. He has written and lectured extensively on these topics. Professor Petter teaches Legal Process, Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties.

In January 2010, Professor Petter was named the new president of Simon Fraser University. His term will begin on September 1, 2010.

Stephen Hynes
Founder, Hynes Developments

Stephen Hynes has a passion for understanding and promoting positive social interaction and sense of community.

He is recognized as an expert in social architecture, caring deeply for the wellbeing of the people that live in his projects. Stephen's work ranges from the design and development of computer facilities and control systems and their integration into building design to the implementation of new models of strata governance, avoiding difficulties common to traditional strata systems. His energy and creativity are the drive behind Hynes Developments.

Hynes Developments asks the question "what makes a community work"? Our sense of community can be enhanced by incentives or suppressed by barriers presented to us through the built and natural spaces that surround us. Our exploration of the human urban experience is led by a desire to understand the full spectrum of social consequences of where and how we live.

Hynes Developments' focuses first and foremost on the social and environmental impact of its developments. They strongly believe that as both individuals and groups our behaviour is greatly influenced by our surrounding physical environment. They seek to understand the social consequences of built form, functional organization and patterns of use, ownership and governance.

Don Wright
President, British Columbia Institute of Technology

Don Wright's career has included experience as a teacher at several universities, a senior government official, and a private sector executive. His government service has included positions as Deputy Minister in the ministries of finance, forests, economic development, and education in the Saskatchewan and British Columbia provincial governments. He was British Columbia Deputy Minister of Education in 1996-97. Don was Vice-President of Forestry, Environment and Corporate Affairs with Weldwood of Canada from 1997 to 2001. He returned to government in 2001, and was the British Columbia Deputy Minister of Forests until 2003.

In 2003 he established Analytica Consulting which provided advice to public and private sector clients. Don holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan, a Masters degree in Economics from the University of British Columbia, and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University.

Mark Sherman
President, Victoria Community Health Cooperative

Dr. Mark Sherman is an Integrative Family Physician working in Victoria, BC. With a background in International Health and a specialty in Integrative Medicine, Dr. Sherman has a unique perspective on the importance of community ownership and participation in health and wellness.

As a teacher of Yoga and Mindfulness meditation, Mark has a deep belief in the role of Spirit in the health of our minds, bodies, communities and environment. Mark is President of the Board of the first Health Co-operative in Victoria, and has been a part of the organization of two Body Heals conferences in the past.

Chris Corps
Prinicipal, Asset Strategics Ltd.

Chris Corps, a former chairman of the Canadian Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), has led industry efforts to better understand and accurately incorporate into the balance sheets of corporations and the value of Green Buildings. His leadership in the publication of the 2005 RICS study “Green Value,” broke new ground and moved the discussion of Green Valuation forward.

Chris, a Principal in Asset Strategics, provides real estate and business advisory services; concentrating on advice in planning, development, financing and economics of real estate and business projects, including healthcare, major corporate and government projects. Primarily focused on business/program, development and investment viability engineering, contracting and procurement management.

Prior to founding Asset Strategies in 2004, Mr. Corps was at the British Columbia Buildings Corporation, where he had various responsibilities including Senior Advisor, Project Office Director and led BC Buildings Corporations’ Public-Private Partnership involvements.

Mr. Corps has over 25 years of real estate experience including partnership in a real estate consulting practice providing sophisticated real estate analysis and advice and the Canadian office of an established internal company selling property development software, used to analyze economic development viability and valuation. He has worked as a senior appraiser, head of Municipal Development Department, and as a surveyor involved in acquisitions, dispositions, lease renewals, rent reviews, mortgage inspections and other activities.

Brent Toderian
Director of Planning, City of Vancouver

Brent Toderian was appointed the City of Vancouver’s Director of Planning in 2006, succeeding celebrated Co-Directors Larry Beasley and Dr. Ann McAfee. His broad mandate involves development planning and architectural design approval, including many projects related to the 2010 Winter Olympics, as well as city-wide policy and visioning, central area planning, and community planning. Since assuming the Director’s role, Brent has been encouraging candid and constructive dialogue around an evolving urbanism, with new opportunities around sustainability, creativity, and architectural risk-taking.

Brent came to Vancouver from the City of Calgary, where as Manager of Centre City Planning + Design, he oversaw visioning, planning, development and design in Calgary’s Downtown, Midtown and Beltline communities. Brent also created and was leading Calgary’s award-winning Centre City Plan, which took a creative and unusually holistic approach to the future success of Centre City.

Brent previously spent 4 years championing a new tone for innovative neighbourhood design and integrated communities in Calgary as its Chief Subdivision Planner. For almost 10 years before that, Brent was an award-winning planning and design consultant based in Ontario, working for and with many municipalities, community groups and developers from Toronto to Yellowknife. Brent had a particular consulting emphasis on downtown and inner city planning and revitalization.

A passionate advocate for creative city building, urban design and architecture, Brent speaks and writes globally on the subjects, has taught and lectured at numerous universities, and is a co-founder and President of the Council for Canadian Urbanism while sitting on numerous other boards and groups related to cities.

Jane McCarney
Public Health Agency of Canada, BC Regional Office

Jane McCarney is a Public Health professional with over 17 years experience in the health sector.  The impact of the built environment on our health has been a long standing passion for Jane.  Jane started her career as a clinical occupational therapist working in Ontario, BC and the NWT.  Since 2004, she has worked in public health at the health authority and federal government level in BC.  Jane recently completed a Masters of Public Health from SFU.  She currently works in policy, panning and intergovernmental relations with the Public Health Agency of Canada, BC Regional Office.    

Over the past several years, Jane has worked closely with planning and public health professionals to promote a healthy built environment lens in municipal land use and transportation planning decisions.  BC is a leader in this emerging field and Jane is confident the work of these many committed professionals will result in BC having the healthiest communities in Canada.

James Schwinn
Founder, Aixecar Incorporated

James Schwinn is the founder of Aixecar Incorporated, a privately owned company, headquartered in Victoria, that offers advisory, platform development and transaction management services to municipalities, civic planners and socially responsible developers and financial institutions involved in property and community development projects in Canada and the U.S.

In addition to de novo projects, Aixecar has a strong interest in the restructuring and workout of projects that have relied to date upon traditional development models but that can benefit from the introduction of sustainability-based approaches and are in need of recapitalization. James is a co-founder, and through Aixecar, contributing partner to the development of ASH (“Affordable Sustainable Homes”), a stylish, small-space urban housing solution made timely by the realities of the economic downturn and the transformational impact of sustainability thought, culture and practice and its influence on “footprint thinking” at the community and individual levels.

James has over twenty years experience in international structured finance and capital markets with particular expertise in the areas of shelter finance, credit and capital structuring and sustainable economics. In 2004, James co-founded and served as the first chief executive officer of Surrenda-link Mortgage Holdings Limited, an innovative European structured finance company. His previous professional experience includes roles as Director and head of the ING/Barings global conduit finance business where he managed a commercial paper-based financing business that funded over US$8 billion of structured assets and Vice President at Citibank where he managed securitization transactions in the U.S. and U.K. and advised on securitization programs in Australia, Germany, Spain, the Philippines and India.

Colin Ellard
Associate Professor, Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Waterloo

Colin Ellard helps us understand how deeply the problems of physical space permeate our lives, and how we can overcome them. In his book Where
Am I?, he explores our horrible grasp of space, and how this influences everything from our behavior, our preferences, and our attitudes toward buildings, cities, and natural settings. Where Am I?  (called You Are Here in the U.S.) showcases what the New York Times calls Ellard's "knack for distilling obscure scientific theories into practical wisdom." The Los Angeles Times calls him, "One of the finest science writers I've ever read," and writes, "You know you are in the hands of a good teacher when you look up from a book and your own ideas spill out like winnings from a slot machine."

Ellard is a Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Waterloo. He's also Director of the Research Lab for Immersive Virtual Environments (RELIVE), also at UofW. He has been conducting multidisciplinary research and writing about the psychology of spatial perception for the last 25 years. His research projects include investigations of the psychology of residential design, wayfinding at the urban scale, restorative effects of exposure to natural settings, and comparative studies of defensive responses.

Carol Sanford
CEO, InterOctave Development Group, Inc.

Carol Sanford is CEO of Developmental Economies Group, International (DEGI ), providing economic and community development consulting— for cities, nations and bioregions— in creating competitive non-displace-ability economies and future-proofing them against shifting trends. DEGI co-creates strategies based on the unique identity and vocation of a place, building incubators, business improvement for economic, sustainable growth, and business development of individual businesses and jurisdictions. Her work as been effective for nations such as South Africa and bioregions such as the European Market and the Middle East.

She also leads InterOctave Development Group, developing strategy and work systems that integrate corporate responsibility into all parts of the business. Clients include development and real estate firms, Fortune 100 including Intel and DuPont and new economy businesses like Seventh Generation. She lectures at MIT and University of Michigan Business Schools, publishing in 10 languages. Her forthcoming book from Jossey Bass, The Responsible Corporation provides a systemic and systematic framework for integrating Corporate Responsibility into everything a business does. She has graduate degrees in urban planning and business as well as undergraduate degrees in economics and public law.

Stewart Brand
Founder Whole Earth Catalog and author Whole Earth Discipline

Stewart Brand is cofounder and co-chairman of The Long Now Foundation. He is also the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, cofounder of The Well, and cofounder of Global Business Network, He is on the board of the Santa Fe Institute, and maintains connections with Electronic Frontier Foundation, Wired magazine and MIT's Media Lab, while occasionally consulting for Ecotrust.

In 1966, Brand campaigned to have NASA release the then-rumored satellite image of the entire Earth as seen from space. He distributed buttons—for 25 cents each—asking, "Why haven't we seen a photograph of the whole Earth yet?" He thought the image of our planet might be a powerful symbol. In 1968, a NASA astronaut made the photo and in 1970 Earth Day began to be celebrated. During a 2003 interview, Brand explained that the image "gave the sense that Earth’s an island, surrounded by a lot of inhospitable space. And it’s so graphic, this little blue, white, green and brown jewel-like icon amongst a quite featureless black vacuum."

He is the original editor of The Whole Earth Catalog, (Winner of the National Book Award); author of The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT, How Buildings Learn, and The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility (MasterMinds Series); and Two Cybernetic Frontiers on Gregory Bateson and cutting-edge computer science. It had the first use of the term "personal computer" in print and was the first book to report on computer hackers. He was featured on the cover of The Los Angeles Times Magazine: "Always two steps ahead of others.....(he) is the least recognized, most influential thinker in America."

Hank Dittmar
Chief Executive, The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment

Hank Dittmar has been Chief Executive of The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment since January 2005. Until 2008, Mr. Dittmar was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Congress for the New Urbanism, an international membership organization that promotes the creation and restoration of compact, walkable, mixed-use cities, towns and neighbourhoods and remains on its board.

Mr. Dittmar has over twenty years of progressively responsible international experience in urban design and development and urban and transport policy. Prior to assuming the post with The Prince’s Foundation, Mr. Dittmar was President and CEO of Reconnecting America. Mr. Dittmar was appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton to the White House Advisory Committee on Transportation and Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the President’s Council on Sustainable Development’s Metropolitan Working Group, which he served as Chair. He is a Senior Research Associate at the Oxford University Centre for the Environment and was outstanding Alumnus of the Graduate School of the University of Texas in 2008.

Mark Holland
Principal, HB Lanarc
and Conference Moderator

Mark‘s consulting work focuses on integrating sustainability principles into the mainstream development industry, with an eye to developing competitive advantage for his clients and their projects. He frequently works closely with development teams to find cost-effective ways of developing in a more sustainable manner, including projects from small infill to large-scale master-planned communities, in both the rural and urban context.

Mark has extensive public sector experience, including serving as the City of Vancouver’s first Manager of Sustainability. Mark was also the sustainable development planner and project co-ordinator for the Southeast False Creek sustainable urban development project, now the site of the Athlete’s Housing for the 2010 Olympics. His current work with local government focuses on city-wide sustainable development strategies for small and large cities across North America, including recently the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico and many cities in British Columbia.

Mark was selected as one of Vancouver’s top 40 under 40 in 2004 by Business in Vancouver Magazine. He is sought after as a speaker and is widely known for his ability to “make sense of sustainability” in a pragmatic way that leads to action. In 2009, Mark was appointed as an advisor on the City of Vancouver's Greenest City Action Team alongside such leaders as Dr. David Suzuki, Former Premier Mike Harcourt, and Vancity CEO Tamara Vrooman.

Marc Laliberté
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada

Marc Laliberté has worked in the railway sector for almost 30 years. Throughout his career, he has continued to demonstrate solid expertise in dealing with key industry issues.

In January 2010, Mr. Laliberté was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer at VIA Rail Canada. Between 2003 and 2009, he held the position of President and CEO for the Quebec Railway Corporation, the largest Canadian owned shortline railway. His vast experience in both the railway and business sectors is certainly a valuable asset at VIA Rail.

Mr. Laliberté began his rail career in 1980 working as a mechanical engineer at Canadian National (CN), where he moved up the ranks to become Director of Intermodal Operations. Between 1994 and 1996, Mr. Laliberté worked as President and CEO of CN subsidiary AMF Technotransport Inc. In 1996, he was promoted to General Manager of CN's Eastern Canada Champlain district. There, he successfully improved the efficiency, on time performance and safety of trains. In 1999, he became President and CEO at Vapor Rail Inc.

Patrick Mooney
Associate Professor and Acting Chair, Landscape Architecture, University of British Columbia

Patrick Mooney teaches sustainable landscape planning and management, ecological restoration, design studio and planting design. He holds a Bachelor of Music from UBC, a Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of Guelph, and a PhD in Landscape Architecture (biodiversity studies) from the University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources and Environment. He is the graduate advisor to the Masters of Advanced Studies in Landscape Architecture Program at UBC. Patrick consults to developers, environmental groups, The B.C. Ministry of Environment, regional parks and city governments on habitat management and restoration. In 1996 he was made a Fellow of The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects in recognition of his work in this area and in 2000, he was awarded the Sanford Medal by the Vancouver Natural History Society for community service in biodiversity management.

Patrick has received research awards from both the CSLA and ASLA for his work on the effects of exterior environments for people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. He has also received professional awards for communication, heritage restoration, planning and ecological restoration.

Trevor Hancock
Public Health Physician and Healthy Communities Advocate

Dr. Trevor Hancock, MD, is a public health physician and health promotion consultant who has worked for local communities, municipal, provincial and national governments, health care organizations and the World Health Organization.  His main areas of interest are health promotion, healthy cities and communities, healthy public policy, environmental health, health policy and planning, and health futurism.

He is currently a Public Health Consultant at the Ministry of Health in British Columbia, where he is working to implement core programs in public health, to increase preventive services in primary care, to foster a population health promotion approach, to develop a comprehensive self-care strategy and to ‘green’ the health care system.

In BC he Chairs the Core Public Health Functions Steering Committee, is Co-Director of the Core Public Health Functions Research Initiative and Co-chairs the Clinical Prevention Policy Review.  Nationally, he is co-chair of the Population Health Promotion Expert Group of the Public Health Network of Canada..  Internationally, he was a member of the Knowledge Network on Urban Settings (part of the new WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health), a member of the Advisory Board for the Urban HEART project of the WHO Kobe Centre for Health and Development, and is a member of the Global Research Network on Urban Health Equity.

The main focus of his work has been in the area of healthy cities and communities, an area he helped to pioneer. In addition to his interests in public health, Dr. Hancock has been described as among the ten best health futurists in the world.

Jeff Tumlin
Principal,Nelson/Nygaard Transportation Planning, San Francisco

Jeff Tumlin is an expert with 17 years of experience in multimodal transportation planning, with an emphasis in minimizing the impacts of
growth. Jeff has extensive experience working with cities, developers and regional governments to foster economic development while improving quality of life through smart transportation investments. In almost all of his projects, he uses direct community involvement to ensure long term success and feasibility. His expertise covers four key areas: Planning for Urban Infill and New Towns; Transit-Oriented Development; Regional Transit Planning; and Multimodal Planning.

Jeff’s projects have won a variety of awards, including the 2003 United States General Services Administration “Achievement Award for Real Property Innovation” for the NASA Research Park Plan, and the Palo Alto “Consultant of the Year” Award for the Palo Alto Transportation Master Plan.

Jennie Moore
Director, Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship, School of Construction and the Environment, BCIT

Jennie Moore works in the School of Construction and the Environment to accelerate the greening of the construction industry. She is also helping to change the state of practice by committing BCIT’s campuses to becoming Living Labs of Sustainability.

Prior to joining BCIT, Jennie was the Division Manager of Strategic Initiatives at Metro Vancouver where she helped develop the Sustainable Region Initiative. Previously, she helped to initiate the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s efforts in: green buildings, eco-industrial networking, greenhouse gas mitigation, energy and transportation demand management.

Jennie is a founding member and coordinator of Vancouver’s Eco-City Network, and a co-founder and board member of New City Institute that helped to launch SmartGrowth Canada. Jennie’s work has received local, national and international acclaim including: a national award of Environmental Citizenship. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and member of the Canadian Institute of Planners. She has a Masters of Arts in Natural Resources Planning specializing in ecological sustainability and urban systems, and she participated in the UBC Task Group for Planning Healthy and Sustainable Communities while the Ecological Footprint was being developed. She continues her studies with Professor William Rees in Ph. D. research on urban restructuring for sustainability and restorative footprints. She has been published in North America and Asia and is a contributing author to two books: Eco-city Dimensions: Healthy Communities Healthy Planet and Fatal Consumption: Rethinking Sustainable Development.

Scott MacDonald
Chief Executive Officer, Pacific Carbon

D. Scott MacDonald was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Pacific Carbon Trust on May 1, 2009. As CEO he has overall responsibility to set the strategic direction for the Crown Corporation. In the start-up phase, Scott was responsible for PCT’s governance structure and staffing; his current focus is to provide the direction needed for PCT to become a leader in the BC carbon offset market, setting the standard for credible, highquality BC greenhouse gas offsets to help clients meet their carbon reduction goals and support the growth of BC’s low-carbon economy.

Scott has extensive leadership and public sector experience. A former Assistant Deputy Minister for the BC Ministry of Education, he developed his career shaping the BC school system, from his role as a classroom teacher on Vancouver's east side, to setting provincial education policy and curriculum standards. Scott was instrumental in creating and implementing world-leading information management systems for use in BC schools and led the provincial Green Schools Strategy in response to growing concern over climate change.

Sadhu Johnston
Deputy City Manager, Vancouver

Sadhu Johnston was appointed to lead the city's environmental efforts as Vancouver’s Deputy City Manager in 2009. Johnston came to Vancouver from Chicago where, as Chief Environmental Officer, he oversaw all City of Chicago environmental initiatives. Sadhu also served as the Commissioner of the City of Chicago Department of Environment (DOE) and as Assistant to the Mayor for Green Initiatives. His responsibilities as commissioner included the overall management of DOE, which administers programs to protect and restore Chicago's natural resources, reduce waste, clean up brownfields, promote energy efficiency and reliability, educate the public about environmental issues, and enforce the City's environmental protection laws. Prior to working for the City of Chicago, Sadhu served as the Executive Director of the Cleveland Green Building Coalition. Sadhu graduated from Oberlin College in 1998 where he studied environmental studies.

Shelley Penner
Director of Practice, Penner & Associates

Shelley Penner leads a multi-disciplinary team of professionals optimizing sustainable design strategies with other hallmarks of good design – aesthetic, function, performance and cost.

Her research and application of green strategies and innovative technologies gives her an extensive and practical knowledge base unparalleled in the industry. Public and private sector clients have commissioned Shelley specifically for her expertise in sustainable design.

An excellent communicator and presenter, Shelley has developed and delivered seminars and workshops on sustainable design to the Architectural Institute of BC, Canada Green Building Council, Cascadia Region Green Building Council, City of Vancouver, IIDEX Neocon Canada, Metro Vancouver (formerly GVRD), Interior Designers Institute of BC, and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, in addition to other clients.

In May 2009, Shelley was a judge for the Green category of Western Living’s Designer of the Year competition. In 2008, she was a member of the judging panel for Canadian Interiors' 10th Annual Best of Canada Design competition. In 2006, Shelley was a judge for Vancouver Magazine's Restaurant Design Awards, and in 2005, she was a judge for Western Living's Residential Design Awards.

Shelley was also the driving force in the creation of the EcoDesign Resource Society (EDRS), an independent and multidisciplinary organization founded in 1992 to encourage environmental ethics in the building industry. From 1992-97, Shelley helped define and forward a vision for EDRS as a president and a director. Shelley's leadership and fundraising efforts were instrumental in developing a library, website and journal as resources for the building industry and general public.

Rob Abbott
Director of Sustainability, Stratos Inc.

Rob Abbott is one of Canada’s leading sustainability strategists. Over the past twenty years he has helped businesses all over the world discover wealth-creating opportunities through a deeper integration of sustainability with organizational and competitive strategy. A frequent commentator on sustainability and green economy issues on radio, TV, and in the press, Rob is especially skilled at facilitating organizational transformation through sustainability.

He is the author of Conscious Endeavors: Essays on Business, Society and the Journey to Sustainability (2009), and Uncommon Cents: Thoreau and the Nature of Business (2008). Rob’s research and professional and work has three broad thrusts: (i) understanding how the creation of financial and social wealth or well being can be achieved without eroding the aesthetic and productive capacity of natural capital; (ii) examining how innovations in science and technology can be translated into economic and social opportunity that lessens humankind’s impact on the Earth; and (iii) helping businesses, governments, and NGOs worldwide embrace the audacious thinking needed to transition to a less carbon intensive economy.

Sarah  Webb
Climate Change Coordinator,
Capital Regional District

Sarah Webb is a sustainability professional, an activist, and a mom. She is currently leading up the CRD Climate Action Program which aims to support the 13 local governments in the Capital Region in developing and implementing emissions reduction and adaptation strategies. Essentially, Sarah is helping to champion “future friendly” communities.

Sarah has a diverse background in both the non-profit and private sectors working on issues that relate to environmental stewardship. Her previous professional experience includes the University of Victoria Office of Campus Planning and Sustainability, the Ministry of Advanced Education, the Canadian Urban Transit Association, and the Center for Urban Innovation.

She loves the outdoors, is an avid commuter cyclist, and aims to live simply in a complex world.