Christine Thuring

My name is Mae Flanders, I am Kwakiutl, I am a member of the Mamalilikulla First Nations.

I grew up in Vancouver- the unceded, ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəjˀəm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish) and sə̓lilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil Waututh) Nations. I did not grow up in my Culture as I grew up in the foster care system. I have become more involved in learning about my roots, especially after having my two boys Killian and Ciaran. I have been in the Housing Sector for 11 years serving the DTES Vancouver residences.

I work for the Aboriginal Housing Management Association (AHMA) for the last 3.5 years. Last year I transitioned from Operations as a Portfolio Manager over to the Asset Management Department as an Indigenous Energy Advisor role at AHMA. Throughout my career, I have had the privilege to learn from people who are passionate in this field, and this I am so grateful for their patience, knowledge sharing and mentorship.

PROJECT

Our project will help guide the Climate Emergency Action Plan and the Climate Adaptation Strategy. Teaching the participants of the importance of reducing our carbon footprint in existing buildings as well as Indigenous Knowledge sharing and the importance of “walking softly on the earth”. There will be an understanding of the Energy Step Codes, Passive Housing materials and hands on applications and learning from Industry leaders while renovating a 50-year-old heritage cabin and to give it another 50 years of operating as a sustainable, healthy, and resilient cabin.

This project is the continued collaboration of a passionate and proven team to create Indigenous career pathways in the high-performance buildings sector to support transition to a net-zero economy. Building capacity within Indigenous Nations, communities, and housing providers to construct climate change resilient, high-performance buildings contributes to sustainable development, reconciliation, and enhanced self-governance.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

As an Indigenous woman, growing up I seen many broken communities, where you saw a lot of poverty, inadequate housing, energy poverty, health issues, mental health, and addictions. This is all connected to the trauma Indigenous Peoples faced during the Residential School System. I am motivated by the past generation and by the future generations. There are so many inspiring Indigenous Communities that are leading the way in Energy and Sustainability Sector. I want to help other communities live a more sustainable and harmonious lifestyle that aligns with Indigenous cultural beliefs.

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Her Mentor

Brenda Knights

Melissa’s purpose is to contribute to change for a healthier climate and communities. As a learning and development professional with 7+ years of experience in adult learning projects, she has designed and delivered eLearning lessons and activities, instructional videos, instructor and student guides, visual aids, and in-person training on net zero energy buildings, embodied carbon, and ship navigation. She has a MA in adult education, a BA in political science from the University of Victoria, and certifications in training management (CPTM) and Agile product ownership (CSPO). She is interested in supporting gender-diverse people and women with mentorship and training to create change and has volunteered for technology training and mentorship for women and gender-diverse professionals in the industry. Melissa works at BCIT’s Zero Energy/Emissions Buildings Learning Centre (ZEBLC), which supports the construction industry in transitioning to net zero energy and zero emissions standards through flexible and hands-on education.

PROJECT

This project is about learning from and developing a longer-term plan for supporting Indigenous and remote communities with zero emissions-building knowledge and skills to respond to the community’s housing needs. This project includes developing a strategy to adapt training for each community’s needs and contexts (i.e. wet or dry climates), identifying pathways or next steps for learners to enter formal training or certification programmes and working with community stakeholders to find further training topics that are needed. The goal of this is to develop more lasting ways to partner with Indigenous communities in supporting their own community’s housing needs and transition to net zero buildings.

In my current role as Project Leader at the BCIT Zero Energy/Zero Emissions Buildings Learning Centre, I support the Climate Emergency Action Plan through training on Net Zero (Energy and Carbon) buildings. Our team has partnered with several remote communities in BC, through a series of training on net zero building. While the feedback received was positive, we want to continue to learn and develop more lasting ways to partner with communities in this education.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

I grew up understanding our impact on the planet from energy use to waste products. However, when I learned that about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) come from buildings and electricity I knew I could contribute to a more sustainable planet, and better housing conditions by working on training for efficient buildings.

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Her Mentor

Robyn Wark

Caroline grew up between the mountains and the ocean of Vancouver’s North Shore and spent a lot of time playing outside as a child. Spending time living in other parts of Canada made Caroline appreciate how unique the city of Vancouver is, and how vulnerable it is to a changing climate. Caroline enjoys finding creative and fun ways to reduce the impacts of her daily life, from bike commuting to recycling electronics to optimizing airflow in her apartment to reduce heat. Caroline has a bachelors and master’s degree in civil Engineering from Queen’s university. Her master’s research was looking at methane release from peatlands, trying to quantify this potentially large, and misunderstood, emitter of green hours gas. Caroline now works for BGC Engineering as a groundwater scientist on a variety of groundwater quantity and modelling projects.

PROJECT

The objective of the BGC Sustainability Committee is to advise BGC on becoming an environmentally sustainable organization. The committee will have three main areas of focus: carbon footprint reduction, employee engagement/education and sustainability accountability. The committee will work to understand what the company’s emissions are, and where improvements can be made. Greenhouse gas accounting will be completed internally; once emissions sources are understood, actions will be prioritized based on their impact and a plan will be developed to implement them. Employee engagement and education will be initiated through employee facing events. The purpose of these events is to implement system changes that make it easy for employees to make sustainable choices, as well as to empower employees to carry the changes into their lives outside of work. Examples of employee facing events include recycling drives, community clean-ups or green commuting weeks. Sustainability accountability will be achieved by publishing annual sustainability reports detailing progress towards sustainability goals, and areas that need to be improved. The committee will also be advising on accreditations that BGC can pursue.

The Sustainability Committee was formed because of employee feedback at BGC that indicated that corporate sustainability was a priority. BGC has a Climate Change team, which is responsible for incorporating climate change into the technical work that BGC does, however was not formally addressing the sustainability of the company operations outside of our technical work. Surveys and employee engagements were conducted to canvass the employees about what they would like done about climate change at the company, and many of the suggestions were about the sustainability of our food, commuting, offices, and travel. BCG had grassroots initiatives being carried out throughout the company, however there was no accountability or formal group responsible for sustainability. The sustainability committee was formed to fill this gap.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

My motivation for protecting the planet comes from my upbringing in nature. I value the time I spent outside as it was formational to the person I am today. The outdoors has strengthened my families’ ties, has increased my personal resolve, and has positively impacted my mental and physical health. I think it is going to take a massive global effort to protect the planet and its people from a changing climate, and I would like to do my part.

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Her Mentor

Michelle Bonner

Molly thrives on connecting people and ideas and working with others to make systems-level change. She holds a master’s degree from the Simon Fraser University School of Public Policy and has spent a decade working on climate change as a policy and communications expert. Molly currently works at Vancity, developing and implementing the credit union’s public policy agenda, and previously served as an advisor in the Government of British Columbia and to Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. Passionate about building democratic processes and public policies that are shaped by and reflective of the people they serve, Molly is continuously working to empower people to participate in government decision-making. She is currently a Board member for CityHive, a Metro Vancouver-based youth-led and youth-run non-profit on a mission to transform the way that young people are engaged in shaping their cities.

PROJECT

Vancity credit union uses the tools of finance and our community relationships to expand economic opportunity, improve the wellbeing of our members, and make our communities better. We are committed to building a clean and fair world, and one way we are delivering on that is by working to reach net-zero emissions in our lending portfolio by 2040. With residential and commercial mortgages making up a significant portion of our lending, decarbonizing new and existing buildings will be key to reaching this goal. Public policy plays a critical role in advancing building decarbonization at the scale and pace required, and in the face of the climate emergency, we believe it is our responsibility as a financial institution to support government actions that reduce emissions while protecting the physical and economic well-being of people. To do this, Vancity is implementing a climate advocacy strategy and will also support other organizations in the private sector to use their voice and power in support of policies that create an equitable net-zero future.

Advocating for equitable government-led climate action is key to Vancity’s vision of a transformed economy that protects the earth and guarantees equity for all. At the heart of that vision is a recognition that a clean and fair world requires systems-level change, and as a co-operative financial institution we know we are stronger together. Working with our partners and supporting fair and affordable decarbonization policies will help achieve the big, structural changes that are needed to meet our commitment to a net-zero lending portfolio while also improving the financial well-being of our members and communities.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

My passion for climate action comes from knowing that a better world is possible. We can create safer and more vibrant, accessible, and inclusive communities with affordable homes, good jobs, efficient public and active transportation, and the services people count on. And in doing that, we also reduce emissions and strengthen our resilience to the climate impacts that are already here. At the end of the day, my goal is simple: do everything I can to make life better for people and protect this beautiful planet we all call home.

Her Mentor

Irina Scarlete

Mahdis is currently working as an EV Advisor with Plug In BC, a program of the Fraser Basin Council. She works to address barriers to bringing Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure to multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs), and workplaces. Prior to this, she worked as an ambassador for a municipality where through outreach and education of residents, students and the community at large she contributed to waste reduction, water conservation and reduction of conflict with wildlife in urban areas. She also founded many initiatives such as Repair Cafés, River and Trail Clean-ups, and Recycling Drives as further means to community-building and waste-reduction. Mahdis sits on the board and volunteers with multiple non-profit organizations working towards protection of mature tree populations, human rights, youth empowerment and waste reduction. She believes in holistic approaches to community and resilience building that lead to protection of our home planet, its inhabitants and resources.

PROJECT

Muti-unit residential buildings (MURBs) face many barriers to electrification: proper planning for equity and access for all residents, future-proofing, working with the existing electrical capacity, getting a majority yes vote for making structural changes to a building, the upfront cost of these projects, and addressing the myriad of misconceptions to electrification and EV adoption. In addition to these existing barriers, marginalized communities face further challenges when it comes to EV adoption. This is the focus of the Barriers to Electrification in Indigenous and Community Housing Research Project. Though there are hypotheses to what these barriers may be, Mahdis and her team want to hear what these barriers are directly from residents of marginalized communities, as well as organizations that work within these communities, such as Aboriginal Housing Managment Association, BC Non-profit Housing Association, and Co-operative Housing Federation of BC. The goal is to then compile the research findings and present solutions to address these barriers. The research will be published and available to governments and other organizations working within these communities to bring equity and adequate support for wide-spread EV adoption.

Mahdis is an advocate for social equity within her organization, as well as on a personal level through activism and non-profit work. These philosophies, together with her current career path in the sustainable transportation space, lead to the search for equity and access, and innovative solutions to address barriers to EV adoption, which lead to the inception of the research project with her team.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

Mahdis considers herself to be a citizen of planet Earth. She has been tuned into nature and wildlife since she can remember. She believes humanity to be part of the eco-system, not above it. She is deeply concerned with the unsustainable nature of current agricultural practices, resources extraction, waste management, over-fishing of our oceans, species extinction, and climate change. She deeply believes that any ailing part of our eco-system, will lead to ailment of the whole. As so, it is imperative to look for innovative, heart-based solutions that focus on building resilience, equity and protection of the most vulnerable members of our planet. Mahdis also has a son and she is driven to ensure she leaves this planet in better shape than the one handed to her by previous generations.

Her Mentor

Sandra Phillips

Darla grew up spending summers camping with her family, cultivating a deep connection with nature. In grade 3 she wrote in her journal she wanted to be an environmental lawyer, in grade 11 it was a park ranger, today she works to decarbonize our homes and workplaces. While the details have changed, her drive has not. Darla has spent her whole career in sustainability. First in advocacy bringing attention to the threat of climate change, then helping empower students and staff in the K-12 sector to reduce energy and water waste in schools. In 2003 she founded the Elements Society to deliver the Destination Conservation program in schools across western Canada. In 2011, Darla joined SES Consulting, a social enterprise and B-Corp specializing in low-carbon retrofits of existing buildings. Her role was to develop the Sustainability Services offering: education, training and designing sustainability programs for clients. Darla also holds the title of Director of Sustainability and Culture at SES.

PROJECT

The Strata Energy Advisor (SEA) program was originally envisioned as a concierge-style program giving multi-unit residential strata owners access to information and resources to make smart, energy-wise, decisions around managing their buildings, particularly when major mechanical or building envelope systems were due for replacement. Energy advisors would complete a walk-through energy assessment of the building, document building systems, and prepare a business case for the strata-council including simple “tune-up” measures to reduce energy waste right through to full end-of-life replacement of major building systems. In an updated program, we hope to support strata-owners to map a path to decarbonize their buildings, with every retrofit project moving them closer to a net-zero building while improving air quality and comfort, reducing noise, and helping to maintain the stock of affordable condominium units in British Columbia. This would be one part of an ecosystem of programs to support this building sector, including new rebate programs.

The SEA program started as a pilot developed by the Metro Vancouver Regional District. SES Consulting successfully bid to develop and deliver the pilot as proof of concept that the complex ownership of multi-unit residential strata-owned buildings could be moved to invest in energy efficiency. After a very successful pilot, the program went into hiatus and hasn’t been reactivated. Through her work developing the pilot and collaborating with strata residents, Darla saw the need for this kind of program support and the potential for transformative change. Since then, she has been determined to revitalize the SEA program.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

I’ve always had a drive to work on environmental issues, and particularly energy and climate change. As I learned more about social justice issues, I started to see how climate, energy, health, and housing affordability intersect. Multi-family buildings typically house lower-income individuals, and a higher proportion of young and older demographics compared to single-family homes. I also saw how they were excluded from most government and utility energy efficiency programs, despite making up 24% of British Columbia’s residential housing market. I’m determined to fill the support gap to decarbonize multi-family buildings, not only to maintain affordable housing in our region, but reduce energy poverty and mitigate health risks associated with climate change.

Her Mentor

Kate Hammer

Nazli is the Supervisor of Continuous Improvement in Water Services at Metro Vancouver. She is also a member of the advisory committee on Environment and Climate at the City of New Westminster. With a graduate degree in Civil engineering and over 10 years of experience in engineering design and construction, she appreciates the challenges faced by public sector organizations to reduce green house gas emissions and increase climate resilience. She’s passionate about applying systems thinking and process innovation to overcome these challenges. Nazli has a passion for inspiring and empowering her colleagues and bringing out of the box thinking to public sector organizations. Realizing the important role that policies and procedures play in public sector utilities, she envisions a future where effective policies, efficient processes and a culture of collaboration continuously yield accelerated learning and innovative solutions.

PROJECT

Lean Green Region is an initiative to facilitate the application of Systems Thinking and Lean methodology in two local government bodies to help them reach higher levels of sustainability. As the supervisor of Continuous Improvement, I will be working with teams across Water Services Utility in Metro Vancouver to find improvement opportunities and to continuously reach higher levels of sustainability, safety, quality, service delivery, equity and fiscal efficiency. I will be helping the department identify tangible means to measure GHG emissions, energy consumption and environmental impact in managing its water infrastructure. This data-driven approach will help teams navigate the complexity of aiming at multiple, sometimes competing, objectives and find opportunities to apply innovation to their processes. The goal is to find solutions that work synergically to address multiple problems at the same time, eliminating trade-offs. As a member of the Environment and Climate Advisory Committee to the City of New Westminster, I will be working with other committee members to consider a systemic response to climate change. In advising the City’s Environment and Climate Task Force on Bold actions related to climate change, addressing interdependencies and ensuring equity will increase our chances of success.

I am passionate about public service and helping public sector organizations find meaningful ways to make improvements. The work environment in public sector organizations is very complex and involves many stakeholders with different priorities. After over a decade of performing engineering work on projects including buildings, transportation, and utilities infrastructure, I have developed a unique talent for inspiring and empowering my highly talented colleagues to tackle complexity by considering interdependencies and thinking systemically. I am motivated to further develop the art of arranging and organizing information in these complex environments in such a way that helps functional teams make sense of their problems and understand the full scope of the interdependencies. This together with cross-sector collaboration will help uncover opportunities for innovation. The best solutions solve multiple problems at the same time. With this goal, I have expanded my engineering career to include the continuous improvement domain and am very excited about the role I play both at Metro Vancouver’s Water Services and City of New Westminster’s Climate and Environment advisory committee where I get to apply systems thinking and facilitate cross collaboration.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

As the mother of two young daughters, playing my part in tackling climate change is one more way in which I hope to secure a bright future for my kids. I envision a future in which a cohesive and systemic coalition of private and public partnership makes it possible for economic prosperity to be fully aligned with sustainability. To this end, I’m committed to continue to increase my awareness of challenges associated with climate action and exploit lessons learnt. I aspire to effectively organize this information to help my colleagues connect the dots more efficiently and reach their multiple objectives.

Her Mentor

Gemma Dunn

Aubree is passionate about facilitating connections to place through education, community building and systems change work. With a background in place-based learning, Aubree spent five years in the field of education program development and land conservation in Chile, before moving to Canada, where she completed a master of education for sustainability and worked for both UBC’s Sustainability Initiative and B.C. GreenCare, leading programs and engaging stakeholders in sustainability. Aubree currently leads the development and implementation of innovation projects across Western Canada as the regional project coordinator, working within the UBC Planetary Healthcare Lab for CASCADES. Her interests intersect climate action, community well-being, and planetary health. In her free time, she enjoys cooking with friends, going on bikepacking adventures, and tending to her garden. She is grateful to work and live on the traditional and unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations in Vancouver, B.C.

PROJECT

Aubree’s work locally takes place in collaboration with VCH and the UBC Planetary Healthcare Lab. As part of CASCADES she is supporting efforts to transform systems and practices to move toward climate resilience, low-carbon and sustainable health systems. One of the projects that she is supporting and has recently been launched is the Planetary Health Capital Projects working group at VCH. This work is committed to bringing a planetary health lens to the capital projects across the health authority. This work is connected to two core actions with the Climate Adaptation Strategy, core actions 1 and 2–climate robust infrastructure and climate resilient buildings. Her role in this climate initiative will be to support the spread and scale of these efforts, through the development of a playbook that will document their learning process and strategies. This will then be adapted for other health authorities across the Lower Mainland, BC and other provinces.

This initiative is supported and led by Vancouver Coastal Health Authority to develop an integrated strategy for planetary health as a strategic priority. This work is a collaborative initiative supported by the VCH Transformation Office, the Energy and Environmental Sustainability team, the Environmental Health Protection team, and the Sustainable Clinical Services team to develop organization-wide transformation.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

Her early career as an education director in large-scale conservation projects immersed her in rewilded landscapes and seascapes which evoked a sense of care for her community and the planet. These experiences led her to working in the field of environmental sustainability and civic engagement across many different sectors—such as agriculture, academia and health care. It is in the spaces, that she learned to see from a different perspectives and appreciate the need to find ways to support both human and environmental health. Her hopes in being part of the Women 4 Climate mentorship program are to strengthen and enhance opportunities for relationship building, to develop her leadership skills and to make connections within the W4C community.

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Her Mentor

Rhonda Lui

Justine is an aspiring city shaper, and an advocate for decarbonization, accessibility, and climate equity. She works at OPEN Technologies, a Vancouver-based tech company that builds software tools to help policy-makers make climate friendly decisions for the built environment. 

Justine has a uniquely multidisciplinary background, with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Geography from Simon Fraser University, and an advance diploma in Sustainable Business Leadership from BCIT. Prior to completing her education, she worked in special education for over 5 years. 

Outside of work, Justine enjoys spending time outdoors, whether running, paddling, hiking or skiing on our local North Shore mountains.

PROJECT

As the cost of housing rises, Canadians are struggling to find affordable housing throughout the country, and when it comes to increasing the supply, many projects are canceled before they can even start. Non-profit housing organizations can struggle to navigate conflicting priorities, such as balancing costs with the levels of environmental performance that regulation and livability require. The Affordable Housing Navigator, aims to help non-profit housing developers to overcome these barriers to identify viable, sustainable design options to create comfortable, high-performance, and affordable housing. It will provide early insights on the most (cost) effective design pathways to reach the high performance standards that are increasingly required by regulators and incentive providers. Affordable housing that meets a high level of energy and climate performance brings many benefits – such buildings are healthier for tenants, more durable, carry lower ongoing operational costs, and are typically more resilient to climate impacts. By making this type of analysis available and highly visible for decision makers, we aim to help more high performing, affordable housing projects get approved, ensuring that resilient and comfortable housing is accessible to all.

I was introduced to the Affordable Housing Navigator project through my work at OPEN Technologies. In early 2021, OPEN was one of 21 organizations to be awarded Stage 1 funding through the CMHC’s Housing Supply Challenge, out of 136 applications. In October of 2021, OPEN was then one of 14 organizations to receive full funding to develop and implement the Affordable Housing Navigator. It was at this stage that I was introduced to the project, and I assumed the role of project and research coordinator. Since joining the project, my role has been to engage with housing providers and funders to assist in developing a better understanding of the challenges and needs they face, and how the Affordable Housing Navigator can best address them.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

The majority of my post-secondary education has been linked to learning about climate change, from the scientific evidence behind it, to the effects on the landscape, to how we can mitigate and take action through leadership. I fell into geography and environmental science out of interest – and stayed because the urgency around climate change is imminent, and it affects everyone.

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Her Mentor

Kathy Wardle

Arushi is a healthcare leader with a track record for piloting and scaling solutions to address multifaceted challenges. She is currently the Director for Commercialization at the Praxis Spinal Cord Institute–where she focuses on identifying and building the best technologies to address the needs of people living with spinal cord injury. She is particularly interested in the intersections of climate change and needs for people living with disabilities. She is also a WEF Vancouver Global Shaper and a recipient of the BC Business 30 under 30 award. Arushi is also the author of the award-winning novel set in apartheid South Africa called “When Morning Comes.”

PROJECT

The project seeks to identify and pilot affordable, accessible and scalable technologies that address the disproportionate threat climate change related events (heatwaves, natural disasters) pose to people living with spinal cord injury and other disabilities. This could include like threatening over-heating due to heatwaves or inability to evacuate due to difficulty with mobility during a natural disaster. This project will be conducted in 2 phases–phase 1 will consist of a technology research phase culminating in a pitch to identify the strongest solutions to address these challenges based on the needs for people living with SCI and the impact on GHG emissions. The second phase will then design a pilot to deploy a shortlisted technology with someone living with a spinal cord injury to identify benefits, learnings and opportunity to scale this technology for other people with disabilities.

Working in spinal cord injury during the heatwave, a number of my colleagues were unexpectedly in danger due to the dangerous heat, lack of access to refrigerants, mobility challenges and difficulty in “sweating” due to compromised functions. I came face to face with the reality of how fatal even a few degrees increase in temperature is to people living with disabilities and the lack of our preparedness to help ensure safety for our communities. I began to research solutions, and also learned that refrigerants – while critically in demand, are also a significant GHG emitter. This is just one example of the type of technology gap I would like to address: meeting the needs for people with disabilities but also reducing GHG emissions from status technologies. As someone who has designed and led an accelerator and incubator for technologies for people living with SCI, I felt well-positioned to identify technologies that would help address this solution, and design pilots to deploy them.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

Climate change intersects with healthcare and every facet of our lives, and our community–I feel compelled to act and deploy solutions to mitigate the risks for our community, especially the most vulnerable and at-risk.

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Her Mentor

Eleena Marlee