CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
Thank you for your interest in Building Saskatchewan Green!
Green Future by Design: how we make the conscious decisions for a better world
Elizabeth May is an environmentalist, writer, activist, lawyer, and leader of the Green Party of Canada.
Elizabeth became active in the environmental movement in the 1970s. She is a graduate of Dalhousie Law School and was admitted to the Bar in both Nova Scotia and Ontario. She held the position of Associate General Council for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre prior to becoming Senior Policy Advisor to the federal minister of the Environment from 1986 until 1988.
Elizabeth became Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada in 1989, a position she held until March 2006, when she stepped down to run for leadership of the Green Party of Canada. Elizabeth is the author of seven books, including her most recent Losing Confidence: Power, Politics and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy.
Other Sizzling Speakers
Terry White
Facilities & Geomatics, Government of Sask
Terry White is a Facilities Consultant with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education. He spent three years with the Saskatchewan Office of Energy Conservation as Manager of Municipal Programs. He is a member of the National Research Council Standing Committee on Building and Plumbing Services, a member of the Low Exergy Network (www.lowex.org) and is a former President of the Solar Energy Society of Canada.
Peter Karras
Prairie Alternative Energy Solutions
Peter Karras is the owner of Prairie Alternative Energy solutions in Saskatoon. They design and install high efficient heating systems for both residential and commercial applications. With solar thermal he has participated in nearly all the commercial solar thermal projects across Saskatchewan. With Geothermal, Peter was trained by International Ground Source Heat Pump Association at Oklahoma State University. Then with the Canadian Geoexchange Coalition once they were formed. From design to drilling to ductwork his firm does the complete project.
Curtis Olson
Shift Development
Curtis Olson is the owner of Shift Development Inc., an urban real estate development firm focusing on green residential (The Shift Home) and adaptive reuse projects (Fairbanks Warehouse Lofts). His personal residence, The HayLoft, is a former Safeway grocery store converted to serve as the home, office, creative studio, and house concert performance venue for him and his wife, singer/songwriter Carrie Catherine.
Thomas Mueller
CaGBC, President
Thomas has 20 years experience in sustainable resource management and planning for urban sustainability in local government, consulting and non-profit environment. He has been President of the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) since July 2005. Thomas has an Undergraduate Degree in Geography, Planning and Applied Ecology from the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany; and a Master's degree in Regional Planning & Resource Development from the University of Waterloo, Ontario. He is a LEED accredited professional and a provisional member of the Canadian Institute of Planners.
Derek Thompson
City of Saskatoon
Derek has been a Professional Planner for over 15 years specializing in Sustainable Land Development Concept, Design, Servicing, and Marketing. His experience includes both the private sector and the public sector and he currently works in the City of Saskatoon’s Land Development Business – the Land Branch. Derek settled in Saskatoon after being raised in Atlantic Canada, Central Canada, Belgium, France, and Germany.
Brett Dolter
BD Green Solutions
Brett Dolter is a writer, researcher and environmental educator. His main research interests are the motivations that lead people to take environmental action and how to encourage environmental action. Brett has worked in government, the non-profit sector, and as an instructor at the University of Regina. He also writes for media such as the Sasquatch magazine, the Prairie Dog magazine, and operates an environmental policy consulting firm called BD Green Solutions.
Ken Kollinger
Manitoba Health, Capital Planning
Formally trained as an architect and now specializing in healthcare planning, Ken is a Project Manager with Manitoba Health, Capital Planning Branch. Ken is on the Board of Directors of the Manitoba Chapter of the Canadian Green Building Council and is a champion of sustainable design. He, along with his colleges at Manitoba Health, took a leadership role in shaping and implementing Manitoba's Green Building Policy, touted as one of North America's most progressive.
Cam Dupuis
CMHC, Equilibrium Communities Initiative
Cam Dupuis is a Regional Advisor – Research and Information Transfer with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation from Calgary. Cam has been with CMHC for over 21 years. He’s worked in several departments such as technical services, delivery of Federal Housing programs, Mortgage Loan Insurance and with Research and Information Transfer. Over the years Cam has worked closely with industry and municipal partners to deliver Sustainable Planning and Development for Small Communities workshops, promoting EQuilibrium™ Housing Demonstration Projects, and delivering numerous technical housing workshops.
Richard Kula
Sustainable Solutions
Richard Kula is the Principal of Sustainable Solutions Inc., one of Canada’s foremost Sustainable Building Consulting Firms. Richard was entrusted to adapt LEED® Canada for Commercial Interiors Version 1.0, the second LEED® rating system introduced in Canada, for the Canada Green Building Council, is the Past Co-Chair of the CaGBC's Education Committee and was one of 8 practitioners in Canada selected to participate in the LEED NC 2009 Submittals Task force. Richard was Canada’s First LEED® for Commercial Interiors Accredited Professional and was Manitoba's first LEED® for New Construction Accredited Professional. Richard also sits on The Manitoba Round Table for Sustainable Development advising a working group of provincial government ministers on Green Building.
Some of Richard's most significant project work has included the LEED® Gold certification of the National Award winning Winnipeg Mountain Equipment Co-op, Canada's 8th LEED® Certified Project. Other project work has included for the LEED® consultation on new Manitoba Hydro Downtown Office Project, the new Selkirk Hospital, the St. Boniface Cardiac Research Center, the Victoria and Seven Oaks Emergency Department Redevelopments and more than 40 other LEED® projects in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and North-western Ontario.
Barry Katz
Katz Housing
Barry Katz is one of Connecticut’s leading proponents of sustainability. With more than twenty years experience in new home construction and remodeling, Barry Katz Homebuilding now offers complete green building, renovation, and consulting services. Barry is the recipient of the 2007 HOBI Award for Best Green House from the Connecticut Association of Homebuilders. He is also a member of the Congress for the New Urbanism, CORA (the Congress of Residential Architecture), and the U.S. Green Building Council.
Peter Prebble
Sask Enviromental Society
Peter is the Director of Energy and Water Policy with the Saskatchewan Environmental Society and a former NDP Cabinet Minister and Legislative Secretary to the Premier on Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy Development. Peter has been involved in Saskatchewan’s environmental movement for over 30 years and is a long time opponent of nuclear power in Saskatchewan.
Doug Kelln
President and Chief Executive Officer SaskEnergy
Doug joined the natural gas division of SaskPower in 1982. Since then, he has had increasing responsibilities in the areas of engineering, construction, planning, customer services, distribution operations, marketing and business development within SaskEnergy and TransGas. Doug transferred to SaskEnergy/TransGas Limited when the companies were formed.
Doug was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer on November 25, 2004, bringing his wide range of company knowledge to the position. He is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan and earned his Bachelor of Civil Engineering Degree in 1982.
David Reid
HB Lanarc Consultants
David has been pioneering new areas of practice for more than 33 years and his passion is to “make sustainable development standard practice”. He was a founding partner in the national firm of the Landplan Collaborative, and by 1981 built its Vancouver practice into a staff of ten. Next, he started a Vancouver Island practice, and as the first Landscape Architect north of Victoria, built Lanarc Consultants with partners Doug Backhouse and Don Crockett. In 2008, David conceived the merger of Lanarc Consultants with Holland Barrs Planning Group to form HB Lanarc Consultants. David practices as both a land use planner and a landscape architect. Many of his projects have focused on water – ranging from watershed planning to water conservation strategies, and waterfront improvements to watercourse restoration.
Denis Tanguay
Canadian GeoExchange
Denis Tanguay received an honours BA in Economics from the University of Sherbrooke in 1986 and a masters degree in Economics from Carleton University in 1993. Since the beginning of 2005, Mr. Tanguay is the President and CEO of the Canadian Geoexchange Coalition. He served as executive director of l’Association québécoise pour la maîtrise de l'énergie (Quebec Energy Efficiency Association) from 1999 to 2005. From 1994 to 1999 he was an independent government relations consultant based in Ottawa and specialized in energy trade issues.
He started his career as an economist at the Bank of Canada from 1986 to 1988. He later joined Natural Resources Canada where he held several positions. First a market analyst at the Oil and Gas Branch from 1988 to 1990, he then became the executive assistant to the assistant deputy minister, Energy Sector in 1990-1991. From 1992 to 1994, he was chief, Electricity Markets – East, in the Electricity Division.
Over the years, Mr. Tanguay published several articles and position papers, mostly on energy related issues, and made several appearances in public consultations in parliamentary commissions and public hearings. He also served as a part-time lecturer at the Université du Québec à Hull and was invited as guest speaker in a number of conferences.
Daniel Roehr
Landscape Architect
Daniel Roehr is an assistant professor at the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of British Columbia, as well as a registered landscape architect in Vancouver and Berlin. His research areas are: green roofs, green facades, green streets and agriculture in cities. In 2007 he founded the Greenskins Lab, a research unit under the umbrella of the UBC Design Centre of Sustainability. The Lab monitors the holistic environmental performance of green roofs, green facades, green streets and agriculture in cities.
