Craig & Layla Baird
Married in 2006, Craig and Layla Baird have spent the last few years working hard to live a green life and help others live green as well. As small business owners and writers, they spent an entire year blogging about going green. From April 20, 2008 to April 20, 2009, they implemented a new green tip in their life and blogged about it, doing 365 green things in the process. By doing this they were able to lower their carbon footprint by 90%. They have appeared in several media outlets because of Our Green Year, including Global Edmonton News, Global Calgary News, Global National and the Edmonton Journal. In their spare time they write from home and hike in the mountains near Jasper with their dog Niko.
Craig Bartlett
Craig Bartlett is a graduate of Carleton University, Ottawa with a degree in Physical Geography and has worked in the field of Waste Management for 25 years spanning both Private and Public Sectors.
Craig began his career in waste management in the Private Sector with Laidlaw Waste Systems throughout North America.
For 18 years he was with the City of Toronto and was responsible for initiating the high rise apartment recycling, the Grey Box paper program and oversaw the amalgamation of waste operations from six municipalities during the transition to the new City of Toronto. Most recently overseeing all of Toronto's processing operations for recycling, marketing, composting, household hazardous waste and anaerobic digestion.
Craig has also done waste management work on behalf of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in El Salvador and most recently in North Sumatra, Indonesia, devastated by the December ’04 Tsunami.
In his role as Manager of Waste Management with the Region of Durham, Craig is responsible for overseeing all waste and diversion operations.
In addition, Craig sits on the Municipal Industry Program Committee for the Ontario Blue Box Plan and is Co-chair of the Municipal Household and Special Wastes AMO Committee that recently negotiated a Program Plan for industry funding to offset municipal costs.
Sarah Begg
Sarah is originally from Burlington, Ontario, and received a B.Sc. from Brock University in Biology and Geology. Sarah found her niche in the not-for-profit environmental sector about 6 years ago when she moved to Calgary and began working at Clean Calgary Association.
Sarah is the program manager for the Commercial Environmental Services program at Clean Calgary Association (CCA). During her time, the program has expanded to help companies and the ICI sector throughout Calgary to change their behaviour and perception of waste and divert waste from landfill. The program has been the recipient of an Emerald Award, a Calgary Award and an RCA Rs of Excellence Award.
Sarah is active in pushing the environmental agenda through by involving herself with other organizations including sitting on the board of the Recycling Council of Alberta, and committee work with BOMA Calgary EH&S committee, University of Calgary solid waste committee, Mount Royal University Environmental Science Advisory Committee
Adam Brundage
Adam Brundage is an environmental consultant working for ICF International as an Associate in the Energy, Climate and Transportation Practice since 2007. He has been involved in various climate and waste related projects including quantifying the energy and GHG benefits of waste management pathways for common municipal solid waste materials. Adam has also been involved in product and corporate carbon footprint analysis for private sector clients. He holds a B.Sc. in Atmospheric Science from McGill University, and a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University in North Carolina. Adam currently lives in Washington, DC and enjoys playing tennis and traveling.
Linda Bruce
Linda Bruce is the Mayor of the City of Airdrie. She was elected to Airdrie City Council in 1995 and served three terms as Alderman before being elected as Mayor in 2004. She was acclaimed in 2007.
She was elected by her regional peers as Chair of the Calgary Regional Partnership in November 2004. She became involved with the CRP at its inception, seeing the value of a united region working together. And to further provide the Alberta Government with advice in the development of regional plans, Mayor Bruce is very excited to have been recently appointed to the South Saskatchewan Regional Advisory Council. She also Chairs the Regional Land Use Planning Committee, the Nose Creek Watershed Partnership Committee, Co-Chairs the Calgary Regional Waste Reduction Partnership Committee and is ex-officio on all City of Airdrie committees. Mayor Bruce is very excited that the City of Airdrie has partnered with The Natural Step as it continues to find innovative ways to reduce Airdrie’s ecological footprint and make Airdrie a sustainable community.
Linda has a BSc, Geology from Dalhousie University and a Diploma of Remote Sensing Technology from the Nova Scotia College of Geophysical Sciences. She is married to Captain Pat, a Westjet pilot, and has three young boys Tristan 16, Aidan 14 and Kieran 10. Linda and her family have a passion for the outdoors with skiing in the winter and sailing in the summer.
Brad Clute
Brad Clute is the Sustainability Coordinator at Mountain Equipment Coop in Calgary. He is involved in MEC's commitment to the ethical sourcing of its products, to reducing the ecological impact of the store, and to MEC's positive contribution to the community. MEC Calgary has won both an Emerald Award and a Calgary Award for corporate environmental achievement and their sustainability programs are an example of how businesses can both prosper and have a positive impact on the community and the planet.
Lorenzo Donini
Lorenzo Donini completed a Bachelors of Science at the University of Alberta in 2004 and was taking a Masters of Physical Therapy degree when Ever Green Ecological Services was created. Lorenzo was one of the founders of Ever Green Ecological Services and continues to serve as Director. Ever Green began in September 2004 with the aim of addressing the need for more effective recycling programs in outlying communities of the Capital Region. The provision of 'turn-key' blue bag recycling programs including promotion, education, and service delivery including both collection and material handling, have become a particular niche for Ever Green. Currently, they service over 70,000 homes each week in the Capital Region for recycling services, and operate a number of recycling depots. Ever Green's recycling facility handles over 1000 MT/month of blue bag recyclables. In addition, they also provide curbside organics programs and waste collection services within the larger framework of environmentally sound waste management.
Joanne Fedyk
Joanne Fedyk has been the Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council for the past 18 years. During that time, she has been involved, both as observer and participant, in the development of many recycling and stewardship programs. Joanne's educational background is in Home Economics, she holds a Master of Science in Family Economics from the University of Saskatchewan.
Barry Friesen
Barry Friesen joined CropLife Canada in May 2009 as General Manager of CleanFARMS™ Inc., a soon-to-be established organization that will assume responsibility for managing the collection and recycling of used containers and disposal of obsolete pesticides for Canada’s pesticide industry.
Barry comes to CropLife Canada with a long history in recycling and waste management. Most recently he served as regional vice president at Product Care Association. Before that he worked for the Niagara Region as director, waste management services division and as the solid-waste resource manager for the Nova Scotia Department of Environment. Barry was a board member of the Recycling Council of Ontario and a past-chair of the Composting Council of Canada.
Ken Friesen
Ken Friesen is a Director of StewardEdge Inc. He
has been directly involved in waste reduction and
recycling since 1990. In the two decades since then
he has been involved with and led in the initiation,
design, and implementation of multi-stakeholder
stewardship programs as well as providing strategic
governance and oversight. Concentrating on both
the technical underpinnings of stewardship programs
as well as the leadership required for stakeholder
collaboration, Ken has provided technical and
strategic direction on waste reduction and waste
diversion initiatives in Manitoba and western Canada.
Ken Friesen's background in waste reduction,
recycling, and stewardship programs includes
approaching the related issues in the employ of a
number of perspectives: industry, municipalities, Non-Governmental Organizations, and the private sector.
He is known for his ability to work with diverse
stakeholders leading them to a common goal. Ken is recognized as an exceptional team-builder
and collaborator of diverse stakeholders with
interests in stewardship programs. He has worked
on developing and governing EPR programs in
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.
Cam Hantiuk
Cam is the Public Affairs Director for Waste Management of Canada Corporation in western Canada. His responsibilities include public policy development, internal & external stakeholder relations, and corporate communications. Cam received a B.A. Spec. from the University of Alberta in Political Science, and enjoyed the benefits of being raised in small-town Alberta. Cam’s prior experience includes marketing and government relations in the pharmaceutical business and 9 years with the Alberta Government – the majority of the time with Alberta Environment.
Theresa Howland
As Vice President, Western Region, Theresa Howland is responsible for leading Bullfrog Power’s operations in Western Canada. Theresa has held progressively more senior positions in marketing and product development since joining the deregulated electricity industry in 1996. Prior to joining Bullfrog Power, Theresa oversaw business development activities for leading wind power developer, Vision Quest Windelectric, an independently operated division of TransAlta. From 2004 to 2005, Theresa served as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Wind Energy Association, and from 2002 to 2006, served as a Director. In this capacity, Theresa led and participated in cross-functional industry teams to develop strategies and policy recommendations to support wind energy growth in Canada. Earlier in her career, Theresa spearheaded a successful green power program for a major utility. Theresa received a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary.
Olena Juzkiw
Olena Juzkiw is a professional engineer with experience in mechanical design and project management. She received her B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto and moved out to Calgary after graduation. Olena currently works for the Calgary Board of Education as the Community Projects Coordinator where her role is to facilitate partnerships and relationships within the CBE and between the CBE and the community with respect to operational environmental literacy, energy efficiency and sustainability. In her extra curricular time, Olena teaches dance, enjoys outdoor activities and tries to close the gap between what she knows and what she knows she doesn’t know.
For more information about the CBE ecoStewardship initiatives visit www.cbe.ab.ca/community/ecoStewardship
Patrick Kane
Pat is currently the Head, Pollution Prevention and Conservation Section with Alberta Environment, responsible for the development of waste stewardship and conservation programs for Alberta.
Pat has played a key role in the establishment of recycling programs for beverage containers, used oil materials, tires, unused paint and paint containers and Canada’s first program for electronics recycling. Pat serves as a Director on the Beverage Container Management Board, the Alberta Used Oil Management Association and the Alberta Recycling Management Authority.
His team was awarded an R’s excellence award for government leadership by the Recycling Council of Alberta (2005) and was the recipient of an Alberta Emerald Award (2007) for the development of provincial waste stewardship programs.
Pat is a Certified Management Accountant, has a degree in Business Administration from the University of New Brunswick and is a Canadian Certified Environmental Practioner (CCEP).
Bob Kenney
Bob Kenney has 10 years of experience with Nova Scotia Environment as a solid waste-resource analyst, and more recently as a recycling development officer. He previously worked in the private sector on a variety of recycling, composting, and solid waste-related projects.
Bob is currently focused on reducing Nova Scotia’s waste disposal rate to 300 kilograms per person, per year by 2015 - one of the targets of the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act. This is a 38% reduction from 2006 levels.
Fluent in English and French, Bob has spoken on Nova Scotia’s waste diversion success at numerous conferences and speaking engagements in Canada (15), the United States (5), Japan (6 cities), Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas and the United Arab Emirates. He has also hosted numerous regional, national, and international groups that have visited the Province to study its waste resource management diversion infrastructure and processes.
Megan Lewis
Megan Lewis joined the Waste Reduction and Management Division of Environment Canada in 2007. She holds a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from McGill University and a Masters of Arts in Public Policy from Concordia University, both in Montreal. Back in her hometown of Ottawa, Megan’s role with Environment Canada includes overseeing a landfill monitoring program as part of the Chemicals Management Plan, promoting the GHG Calculator for Waste Management and the Technical Document for Batch Waste Incineration, and advancing the general knowledge on waste management in Canada. Outside of work, Megan enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee, canoe camping and traveling.
Brock Macdonald
Brock Macdonald originally joined the Recycling Council of British Columbia (RCBC) in 2003 as director of communications and has been the executive director since 2006. Prior, he was communications manager for Product Care, which developed B.C.’s first regulated Extended Producer Responsibility Program for paint in 1994 and for flammable liquids and pesticides in 1997. Brock is a former educator and an award-winning print and broadcast journalist who has also worked in the computer, manufacturing and sports entertainment sectors.
Paula Magdich
Paula Magdich is the Program Development Leader with Waste & Recycling Services at The City of Calgary. In this role, she oversees the implementation and optimization of existing and new waste diversion programs. She was the project manager for the blue cart recycling program which was rolled out to Calgarians this year. She had overall responsibility for all aspects of blue cart implementation including procurement and door-to-door distribution of carts, collection and processing of the recyclables, addressing and billing, and communication and education of the public and internal staff. Paula has been with The City of Calgary since 1998 and she has worked in a variety of different roles. Before joining The City, Paula worked in engineering consulting and for the 3M Company. Outside of work, Paula likes to spend time with her family and friends traveling, playing golf, skiing and dog-walking.
Claudia Marsales
Claudia Marsales has been Manager of Waste Management for the Town of Markham since 2002. Claudia came to Markham after several years with the private sector as Manager of HHW programs with Laidlaw Environmental. Claudia helped develop HHW collection programs across Canada from single collection events to the establishment of permanent collection depots.
Claudia has devoted her efforts to increasing diversion and speading the Zero Waste message. Wanting to move from ‘talking’ about Zero Waste to actual implementation, Claudia focuses much of her efforts in making Markham a Zero Waste community and establishing practices that can be adopted by other communities.
Claudia is a past Board member of the AMRC, RCO and recently assisted in the development of the Ontario Zero Waste Coalition.
Dr. Jeffrey Morris
Jeffrey Morris is a Ph.D. economist (University of California – Berkeley) and currently is a principal in Sound Resource Management, an economic and environmental research and consulting firm in Olympia, WA. Dr. Morris has taught economics and econometrics at the University of Washington, the University of Colorado, and the Evergreen State College. He has published in peer-reviewed journals, including The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Journal of Resource Management and Technology, and The Review of Economics and Statistics.
Dr. Morris has conducted economic and environmental cost-benefit and life cycle analysis studies of waste management systems for clients across North America, including the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, WA Department of Ecology, MA Department of Environmental Protection, MA Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, King County (WA), Seattle Public Utilities, New York City, San Francisco, and Halifax (Nova Scotia). He recently developed a spreadsheet model MEBCalc (Measuring the Environmental Benefits Calculator) for estimating the monetary value of environmental benefits from recycling and composting, which has been used by communities in Canada and the US. Morris used this calculator for the recently released report Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Waste Management Strategies with a Zero Waste Objective: Study of the Solid Waste Management System in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia.
Dr. Morris also recently led a US team of economists and life cycle analysis experts in developing the Consumer Environmental Index (CEI) for the Washington Department of Ecology. The CEI is a tool for tracking the full life cycle impacts of consumer goods and services on global warming, human health and ecosystems toxicity.
Tony Moucachen
Tony Moucachen is the president of Merlin Plastics Supply Inc., which was established over 20 years ago. Merlin Plastics is the largest plastic beverage container recycler on the west coast, and processes HDPE, PP, PET, LDPE and PS. The three plants process approximately 100 million pounds of numbers 1, 2, 4 ,5 and 6 plastics annually.
Tony has a BA in Finance and Banking from St. Joseph University , and completed all the course requirements for an MBA in industrial management, but has not completed the thesis. He has taken additional training in Plastics Engineering at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
Tony is a director of the Association of Post Consumer Recyclers, is a long standing member of the Recycling Council of British Columbia and Recycling Council of Alberta.
Atul Nanda
Atul Nanda is the Vice-President of RecycleBank’s U.S. Midwest Division and President of RecycleBank Canada.
Atul has worked in both the public and private sectors during the past eighteen years – including management positions within the City of Toronto and several large national solid waste and recycling companies. Atul has an undergraduate degree in Environment and Resource Studies from the University of Waterloo and a Masters degree from York University.
Atul has been involved in municipal and federal waste management and recycling policy making as well as marketing materials from curbside programs including paper, plastics, metal and glass. He has served on many advisory committees associated with the recycling and environmental industry including the Canadian National Roundtable on the Environment and Economy.
Tim Reeve
Tim Reeve is a well-recognized and results-oriented professional with 15 years experience delivering successful sustainability strategies, corporate social responsibility programs and stakeholder engagement processes for private sector and non-profit organizations, governing bodies and educational institutions. Tim has a specialization in procurement and supply chain management and served on secondment to the 2010 Bid Corporation helping to plan purchasing, sustainability and social responsibility strategies. Tim is currently working on Ethical and Sustainable Purchasing projects with the City of Vancouver, the City of Edmonton, Alberta Environment, and BC Hydro.
Prior to launching his own consultancy, Tim spent nearly 15 years helping a variety of public, private and non-profit organizations optimize their environmental and community programming. His key positions during that time included serving as the Industrial Waste Reduction Coordinator for the Greater Vancouver Regional District (1994-97); Executive Director of the Recycling Council of British Columbia (1998-2000); and Project Manager, Sustainability Programs and Strategy for VanCity Credit Union (2001-2003), recognized as one of the world’s leading financial institutions in terms of corporate social responsibility.
Tim has served the community through a number of secondments to NGO groups, including working with cooperatives to develop social auditing and reporting capacity in the Philippines (2002), and with the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation to assist in developing the sustainability management plan for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (2003).
Tim is a member of Canadian Business for Social Responsibility and the Social Purchasing Portal. He lives in Vancouver, BC and is a regular speaker locally and internationally on purchasing and sustainability issues.
Denise Taschereau
Denise is the Co-Founder of Fairware Promotional Products Ltd, a Vancouver-based company specializing in ethically sourced, sustainable custom branded promotional products with clients across North America including AVEDA, Stonyfield Farm Yogurt and Telus. Previous to launching Fairware, Denise was the Director of Sustainability and Community for Mountain Equipment Co-op for seven years. At MEC she was responsible for overseeing MEC’s national efforts to be a leader in social and environmental responsibility.
Denise was an inaugural Fellow of Action Canada, a national public policy leadership program and sat on the City of Vancouver’s Ethical Sourcing Policy Task Force. She is currently on the executive of Vision Vancouver, a local civic political party.
Robin Tator
Robin is the President of TerraCycle, Canada, and the co-founder of TerraCycle, Inc. (USA). He is a seasoned professional with over 30 years of experience in the development of innovative start-up ideas and successful businesses.
Robin and Tom Szaky, TerraCycle’s co-founders, based its business plan on the principal of reusing or “upcycling” trash as much as possible in all aspects of its operations.
TerraCycle has built significant relationships with companies like Kraft, Frito-Lay and Mars to sponsor its upcycling Brigades programs. These enable the public to send in specific types of waste, like wrappers and juice pouches, in exchange for donations to their favourite charities. The waste so collected is converted to new, useful consumer products, which save on new material and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
The company continues to expand opening operations around the world, most recently in the UK, Brazil and Mexico. Inc. Magazine placed it in the top 500 fastest-growing private businesses in the US.
TerraCycle has garnered many awards for innovation and environmental stewardship in several countries.
In addition to his role in directing the company as one of its founders and visionaries, Robin will now head up TerraCycle’s new Canadian operation.
Jodi Tomchyshyn
Jodi has been Waste Reduction Specialist with Alberta Environment since 2003. Some of her current projects include: developing a greening government strategy for the Government of Alberta, developing the background work for a packaging and printed materials program, and undertaking a regulatory review of the used oil program. Last year, she was seconded to the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment, as a senior policy advisor working on extended producer responsibility. Jodi holds the degrees of Master of Environmental Design (from the University of Calgary) and Bachelor of Science (from the University of Alberta).
John Vidan
John Vidan is the Director of Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment’s Waste Management Policy Branch. The branch is responsible for setting the legislative, regulatory and policy framework for the sound and effective management of hazardous, industrial, and non-hazardous wastes in Ontario. A key role for the branch is developing and implementing provincial policy related to waste diversion.
John has been with the provincial government for almost 25 years, the past 14 with the Ministry of the Environment. He has held senior positions in key policy and program areas including drinking water protection, environmental assessment, Great Lakes protection, urban growth management, and, of course, waste management.
Douglas Wilson
Doug Wilson began working for the University of Calgary in the Spring of 2000 as a certified tradesmen. Taking advantage of the benefits offered by the institution, Doug pursued his passion of life long learning, achieving certificates in Project Management, Business, and Leadership. Moving through a number of portfolios within Facilities Management, Doug is currently Managing Grounds and Motor Pool within Operations & Maintenance. He was appointed chair of the Solid Waste Working Group with in the University’s Office of Sustainability in 2006. “If you build it they will come” is a presentation detailing where the University was, where we are now, how we got here, and where we are going in the future.