Keynotes
Scott Parent
Adventure photographer/writer and homesteader on a reclaimed disposal site
Scott Parent, his partner Tatiana, and their daughter Thalassa had been living in Canmore, AB, when they purchased a 5 acre piece of land on the Bruce Peninsula, in Ontario, back in 2008. The land had buildings, a well, septic, and hydro, with potential for gardens and the opportunity to build a small family farm. As part of the Niagara Escarpment, the land has unique rock features, water drainages, and sensitive ecosystems. The land had something else. Garbage. A previous owner to the land the Parents now call home permitted locals to use parts of the land as a local dump site. Underneath the wasteland, Scott and his partner Tatiana believed the land to be unique and worth the work involved to reclaim it back to health, by cleaning up the mess and building anew. Even more, they found it to be the ultimate shared adventure to raise their house and family on the land through the process. The family lived in a cabin while building their home using local materials and constructing using the timber frame method used by local barn builders in the last century. Things move a little slower for the Parent family on the farm, due to the hands-on educational participation the children have with every aspect of raising the farm, and restoring the land. Scott and Thalassa share the story and photographs of their family journey, and make visible the unique ecosystems and environment that had been threatened by waste and mismanaged use of the land.
Jerry Powell
Editor, Resource Recycling
Jerry Powell is the owner of three magazines (Resource Recycling, Plastics Recycling Update and E-Scrap News). He edits Resource Recycling. In addition, he aids in the management of three annual conferences, The E-Scrap Conference, The Plastics Recycling Conference, and The Resource Recycling Conference, several of which are the world’s largest in their fields.
Previously, Jerry founded and managed a recycling consulting firm for a decade and founded and managed a recycling business in Portland, Oregon for more than eight years.
He is a past three-time chair of the board of the National Recycling Coalition and the three-time chair of the board of a state recycling association. He has spoken on waste management and recycling issues in 48 states and five Canadian provinces.
Session Speakers
Annette Hunter
Aquatera Utilities Inc.
Annette is Aquatera’s Landfill Manager. The landfill is a municipal class II with bioreactor cells . The produced methane is captured and used to power the water treatment plant.
Annette’s has previous experience in the recreation industry, but she always had a passion for recycling and environmental stewardship. She is enjoying her current position at Aquatera, where she is working on many programs to educate the public about recycling.
Bob Kenney
Nova Scotia Environment
Bob Kenney has worked for the past 18 years for Nova Scotia Environment, currently as a Recycling Development Officer. Previous to this, he worked in the private sector on a variety of recycling, composting, and solid waste diversion related projects.
Bob’s current work is focused on:
- Coordinating research and development projects for waste materials that are challenging to effectively and efficiently collect and recycle;
- Promoting the creation of value added products from materials in the waste; and
- Supporting existing waste diversion businesses to enhance their services to increase waste diversion and green jobs.
Celia Lam
From Root to Sky (Salvage Supperclub)
It was after her first visit to a farm where Celia stared at fields of food that would never make it to market due to aesthetic imperfections, that she realized there was a serious issue.
“How can so much nutritious, perfectly good food go to waste when there are people without access to healthy food? How can we support our farmers and help recover this food?”
These questions sparked a flame that unknowingly led her to become a passionate food rescue activist. After working in the corporate realm for over a decade, Celia left her hometown of Edmonton to study culinary arts at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City. She became involved with “Salvage Supperclub”, an initiative based on a master’s thesis on food waste by a designer named Joshua Treuhaft. The duo launched their first collaboration in April 2014 in Brooklyn, curating thought provoking culinary events where guests experience the potential of food destined for the compost or landfill. Their work has been covered in Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Forbes and National Geographic.
Celia was proud to be a member of the planning team that launched Canada’s first Feeding5000 in Vancouver in 2015, a global food waste event. She relocated to Thailand to teach the first Plant-Based Cooking course for Matthew Kenney Culinary and helped to incorporate zero waste approaches to the curriculum. She recently launched a Salvage Supperclub Tour in Japan with Chef Rieko Sakuramoto, working with local farmers and food businesses across the country. She is founder of From Root to Sky, where she offers root to stem cooking courses, curates sustainability events and consults on menu design. Celia is excited to share her insights on how we can discover the potential in our food.
Claudia Marsales
Town of Markham
Claudia Marsales joined the City of Markham in 2002 and is responsible for collection services and the development of diversion opportunities. Ms. Marsales has over 30 years experience in the Waste Management field, having held significant positions with both the Private and Municipal sector. Prior to joining the City of Markham, Ms. Marsales was Manager, Household Hazardous Waste programs for Laidlaw Environmental and has worked for City of Toronto, Region of Halton, and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.
Cole Nelson
Rocky View County
Cole is the Agricultural and Environmental Services Manager for Rocky View County. Rocky View County comprises a largely rural and agricultural land base that surrounds the City of Calgary, north of the Bow River; it includes several large urban communities, serving a population of nearly 40,000 residents. The County is home to many types of agricultural production and a vast array of commercial businesses.
Cole has provided nearly 25 years of private sector and government service related to Environmental operations; most relevant for the RCA would be his duties providing direction to the Solid Waste and Recycling Services section at Rocky View County. He was directly involved with the waste management needs arising from the flood of 2013, this recent disaster directly impacted the County and specifically the community of Bragg Creek.
Given the urgency and the numerous limitations encountered, Cole and his team are very proud of the waste diversion that was achieved during those days and weeks that followed the flood.
Fred Rabiner
Shaw Industries Inc.
Fred Rabiner is the Regional Vice President, Commercial Sales, responsible for the four Western Provinces. He has been with Shaw Industries, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, for over 23 years and has over 40 years of industry experience. Fred has managed Canada for the company as well as the US North West.
Shaw is a Cradle to Cradle company and has been working hard to change the chemistry of the products manufactured to ensure they are safe to sustain. Achieving C2C status requires vigorous adherence to procedures that ensure the healthy outcome of materials recycled. Fred has been an enthusiastic supporter of this process and has always encouraged the company to continue on this path.
Fred believes that his company is an encouragement to others in his industry as well as those outside to work hard to achieve the goals that lead to safe sustainable product.
Jennifer Green
Canadian Biogas Association
Jennifer is Executive Director of the Canadian Biogas Association, a non-profit, member driven organization that helps to grow the biogas and renewable natural gas sector in Canada to its fullest potential. The Canadian Biogas Association advocates for regulatory and policy change; educates stakeholders about biogas and its contributions as a renewable energy form, waste management solution, and pathway to help reduce GHG emissions; and, offers information and resources related to biogas and RNG. Jennifer works directly on behalf of the membership, with industry leaders and biogas stakeholders to create awareness and opportunities for biogas development. She is passionate about biogas and continues to direct her enthusiasm and energy to the betterment and growth of the sector.
Jo-Anne St. Godard
Recycling Council of Ontario
Jo-Anne St. Godard has been Executive Director of Recycling Council of Ontario (RCO) since 2004, and plays a key role in furthering waste reduction in Ontario and beyond. Her expertise relates to development of policies and practices that drive positive environmental outcomes under market-based approaches. In doing so, she applies demonstrated best practice on waste policies that balance environmental and economic interests to achieve results.
Jo-Anne also works with business and industry to help them understand and leverage opportunity from their environmental obligations and business models, and demonstrates how economic and environmental interests align. A big part of her role is to facility learning and collaboration, which RCO does through its innovative campaigns and programs – many of which bring public and private sectors together to collective solve waste issues.
Joe Angevine
Foothills Regional Landfill & Resource Recovery Centre
Joe has worked for The City of Lethbridge, The City of Calgary, The Town of High River, and The MD of Foothills in various roles in waste and recycling. He completed a Bachelor of Management from The University of Lethbridge and is currently working on a Master’s Degree in Environmental Management through Royal Roads University. He has worked in waste and recycling for over 12 years and is currently the Manger of the Foothills Regional Landfill and Resource Recovery Centre. Outside of work, Joe’s passions are drumming and scuba diving.
Kevin Weisinger
FleetMind Solutions Inc.
Kevin Weisinger is a long-time business development leader with a proven track record of accomplishment in mobile technology and the waste and recycling industry. For over 20 years, he has built his expertise and understanding of the waste management sector and its fleet management issues to better address his clients’ needs and help shape solutions to positively impact their businesses. Prior to joining FleetMind, Mr. Weisinger served as the Director of Sales for MotionLink and Regional Sales Manager for Zonar Systems and Vnomics Corporation. He began his mobile technology career working for the leader in RF technology, Motorola and was awarded one of Motorola’s top honors, The Annual Peak Performer Award. Mr. Weisinger is responsible for serving the Waste and Recycling Industry in the Mid-Western United States for FleetMind.
Laura Thygesen
Alberta Agriculture and Forestry
Laura Thygesen works with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry as an Agri-Environmental Extension Coordinator. The focus of her extension work this year is manure management, Growing Forward 2 Stewardship programs and broadly supporting Environmental Stewardship Branch’s goals. Laura, along with several other coworkers, is currently finishing fact sheets regarding the “Highlights from 2015 Market-Based Solutions for Used Agricultural Plastics” based on information collected from municipalities and municipal waste authorities.
Leah Seabrook & Erin Wildeboer
Strathcona County
Leah Seabrook is the Manager of Waste Management and Community Energy Services with Strathcona County and has worked within the organization for over 15 years. Erin Wildeboer joined the waste team in 2008, as the Waste Diversion Program Liaison.
These two energetic and creative individuals play a vital role in the success of the community’s Green Routine residential waste diversion program, which has been successful in diverting over 60% of residential waste from landfill. With the Green Routine program nearing a decade of existence, the two are motivated to take the program to new levels of engagement, outreach, and of course diversion.
Leigh-Anne Palter
Chestermere Utilities Incorporated
Leigh-Anne Palter is the CEO of Chestermere Utilities Inc. (CUI), serving an urban population of nearly 20,000 residents with innovative delivery of essential services. These services currently include solid waste removal, enhanced curbside recycling and organics collection, potable water distribution, storm water and wastewater collection.
Bordering the City of Calgary, Chestermere has experienced population growth of 230 per cent in the last decade; this rapid residential development has put increasing demand on the expansion of the utility system. Under Leigh-Anne’s leadership, CUI invested $5.3 million in new assets in 2015 and added 14.8 km of pipe to the system. In addition, CUI made the transition from conventional solid waste disposal to enhanced curbside collection of recycling and organics in 2015.
Leigh-Anne holds an MBA from Queen’s University. She is a seasoned executive with more than 25 years progressive experience working in the energy and utilities sectors. She held a variety of senior executive portfolios within EPCOR Utilities in Alberta and Ontario and before taking on her current role at CUI in 2015, Leigh-Anne was a Partner at a national executive search firm.
Michael Brown
BIOFerm Energy Systems
Michael Brown is a Business Development Manager at BIOFerm Energy Systems. He received his Bachelors of Commerce degree from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, and spent the initial years of his career working for a leading North American health care company. Michael continues to focus on the health of us mortals, but now channels his efforts on improving the environment we live in by furthering the biogas-to-renewable natural gas (RNG) sector.
For the last 10 years, Michael has developed a number of biogas projects processing a variety of organics ranging from: municipal SSO/WWT biosolids, to commercial food and agriculture based material. Michael’s biogas experience also covers the full range of major biogas technologies in the transformation of biogas to renewable energy consisting of: organics pre and post processing, dry and wet anaerobic digestion, combined heat and power (CHP) and biogas upgrading for both grid injection and compressed natural gas for vehicle use (CNGV).
In addition to his responsibilities with BIOFerm, Michael recently completed his work as a Board Director for the Canadian Biogas Association (CBA) where he continues as Vice Chair of the Membership Committee and whose mission it is to be the collective voice of the Canadian biogas industry and to develop this sector to its fullest potential.
Mikhael Metauro
Cascades Recovery Inc.
Mikhael Metauro has grown up with Green in his blood having been a part of the Cascades family for over 15 years in one capacity or another. With his undergraduate degree in Strategic Selling & Marketing, Mikhael currently works within the Recovery division of Cascades focusing on Business Development and Corporate Strategy. Day in and day out, Mikhael has the opportunity to deal with a wide range of customers from different market segments and backgrounds with various types of discarded material recovery needs. “Its amazing to see how more and more organizations are focusing on sustainability and have put the people power in place to start thinking about better ways to recover more and waste less. For me this is where my focus has been and always will be, working with organizations to help them achieve their sustainability goals through coaching, strategy planning and execution.” Mikhael believes in the power of the Cascades Family and is focused on creating a circular economy – a world where ALL materials have a positive end of life……
Robert Carlson
California Department of Resource, Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle)
Robert is a Senior Environmental Scientist with the California Department of Resource Recovery and Recycling and is an expert on the topics of household hazardous waste (including used oil), waste tires, extended producer responsibility, and lifecycle-driven policy-making. Robert has professional experience as a wildlife biologist, specializing in migratory songbirds of the Sierra Nevada foothills, as well as California water rights issues.
Robert was previously a professional chef and ran a successful business teaching people how to brew their own beer and make their own cheese at home.
Sabine Weber
Sustainable Strategies & Solutions
Sabine worked for nearly twenty years in Europe as product manager/head of design in the fashion industry and international buyer/team leader in retail for different brands before she came to Canada six years ago. She worked as a college instructor and taught courses in fashion marketing, product knowledge, sustainable fashion, product management, and international trade. While teaching at Humber College, she discovered her passion for ethical and sustainable fashion and decided to go back to university to earn a Master’s degree in Environment and Resource Studies at U Waterloo with a focus in waste management and social marketing. In her thesis she examined textile waste and studied the ways consumers manage their unwanted garments in order to developed strategies to change behaviour. In December 2015, she founded Sustainable Strategies & Solutions, for which she currently works on different consultant projects. In September 2016, Sabine will go back to U Waterloo for a PhD in Social Innovation.
Scott Fraser
Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation
Scott Fraser is the Marketing & Communications Officer for Granville Island. He is a founding member of Granville Island’s Green Team Committee and has been active in the Island’s Zero Waste initiatives including: The introduction of compostable coffee cups; the cessation of EPS use in fast food services; the banning of single-use plastic shopping bags; and many other environmental activities. Recently, Scott has led the push to encourage more bicycle access for Granville Island, encouraging a more sustainable transportation footprint for the community.
Scott has worked for Granville Island for more than 10 years. In his spare time, he enjoys the outdoors with his wife Janice and his dog Foxy.
Sharon Howland
Recycling Council of Alberta
Sharon Howland is the President of the Recycling Council of Alberta. In her day-job, she is Leader, Program Management for the City of Calgary Waste & Recycling Services, prior to that she spent almost 7 years as the Waste and Recycling Manager for the Town of Cochrane. Sharon completed a Bachelors of Environmental Studies and Political Science at the University of Northern British Columbia. During her years at university, Sharon’s passion for waste and recycling issues was ignited through her work with the Edson & District Recycling Society and the Recycling Council of Alberta as a summer student and Recycling Ambassador.
Sharon has continued to work with various municipal governments operating waste management programs and facilities including collection systems, recycling depots, transfer station, landfills and special waste programs. Sharon continues to focus her efforts on the important role that municipalities can play in developing strategic waste management plans and programming based on the waste hierarchy.
Stefan Michalski
Lethbridge Biogas LP
Stefan Michalski holds a Masters of Science/Engineering degree from the Technical
University of Berlin, Germany.He has almost 20 years of experience in business development, business management
and consulting in the area of renewable energies and bioenergy in particular. Stefan
worked internationally on project and business development for many years with a focus
on Japan and China.Stefan started working as a consultant and project manager for ECB Enviro North
America Inc. in 2004 and has over 10 years experience with the emerging Bioenergy
markets in Canada. His main focus was the development of ECB’s biogas/cogeneration
project in Lethbridge. The Lethbridge facility started construction in August of 2011 and
is in commercial operation since December of 2013.Stefan currently is a Director with Lethbridge Biogas and has the overall responsibility
for the operation of the Lethbridge facility.
Tamara Shulman
Tetra Tech EBA
Tamara Shulman is Team Lead for Tetra Tech’s waste planning team. She has 20 years of experience in waste reduction and diversion program planning, implementation and assessment, with expertise in organics management and food waste prevention. Building from her decade of experience at the San Francisco Department of the Environment and StopWaste.Org, Ms. Shulman returned to Metro Vancouver in 2008 where she has actively supported the development of organics management and waste reduction programs for public and private sector clients in western Canada and California. Her commercial sector planning experience using a “four pillar” approach to address policy, management tools, operations and infrastructure, and behaviour change has culminated in a waste diversion technical training designed and executed in partnership with the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence.
Tom Moore
Westlock Regional Waste Management Commission
Tom Moore is the Commission Manager for the Westlock Regional Waste Management Commission in Westlock, Alberta, and owner of Tom Moore Consulting. Tom has over 14 years of experience in Policy Development, Bylaw Development, H&S program development in addition to 8 years of experience in the waste management field.
Tom was the landfill manager during the 2011 wildfire that took out a third of the residences in the Town of Slave Lake and Municipal District of Lesser Slave River. During the cleanup, Tom’s initiative was to recycle as much material as possible as well as be as environmentally responsible as possible. Tom received the Alberta Emerald Award for his efforts in this challenge.
Tom is active in Alberta Coordinated Action for Recycling Enterprises (CARE) as chairman, a board member with the Northern Lights Chapter of Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), and a board member of the Alberta Wood Waste Recycling Association. As a SWANA member, Tom has been a SWANA Landfill Operator and Transfer Station instructor since 2013 and the chairman for the Chapters Critical Incident team.
Tom Moore is committed to protecting our environment.
Tracey Boutilier
Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
A graduate of St. FX and Dalhousie Universities, Tracey holds two science degrees, first in Biology and the second Honouring in Environmental Microbiology. She has worked in the Waste Management Industry for over 18 years, ranging from the municipal, non-profit, provincial and industrial sectors. Prior to joining the RMWB four years ago, Tracey held the position of Waste Management Specialist for Shell Albian Sands. She has also had various waste management positions across Eastern Canada, including her home province of Nova Scotia.
Tracey has returned to the municipal sector where she holds the position as Supervisor of Waste Processing with the RMWB. Within her current position, some of the projects Tracey has been instrumental with are: the biosolid composting, regulatory compliance, recyclables marketing, special waste management, leachate monitoring and landfill gas management.
From her recent involvement with the Regional Emergency Operations Committee during the 2016 Wildfire, where she oversaw the environmental testing, Tracey has been selected as a member of the Wood Buffalo Recovery Task Force as an Environmental Advisor.
Trevor Nickel
Innovative Reduction Solutions Inc.
Trevor is currently the President of the Alberta Bottle Depot Association, the industry association representing the more than 215 depots across Alberta. Trevor also sits as a director on the Recycling Council of Alberta. In addition, he is an Executive Advisor to Innovative Reduction Solutions Inc.
Trevor has a decade of experience in entrepreneurship in the waste-reduction industry. He helped found the Alternative Energy Technology program at NAIT and instructed Business Fundamentals to the first two classes to graduate from that program, many of whom have become successful entrepreneurs. Trevor combines a passion for environmental improvement with building profitable businesses and developing strong communities. He was involved with the development and implementation of the Hairy Hill anaerobic digester that operated using organics from the Metro-Edmonton region for several years.
Trevor has a Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Alberta and an MBA in Natural Resources and Energy from the Alberta School of Business.
Victor Cheng
Alberta Agriculture and Forestry
Victor is currently the Sr. Industry Development Officer – Clean Energy and Biorefining, for the Bio-Industrial Opportunities Section in Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. His interests include biomass, biofuels, biogas, renewable electricity, organic wastes, and water. Working with industry, academia, funding agencies, and other government officials, he helps to drive commercialization of bioenergy, biomaterials and bio-based chemicals in Alberta. Prior to his role in the Government of Alberta, Victor was part of the Biorefining Conversions Network at the University of Alberta where he helped foster academic-industrial collaborations focused on bioindustrial outcomes. He received his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Alberta in 2008.
Vivian De Giovanni
City of Guelph
Vivian has over 25 years’ experience in the waste management field and is currently the Supervisor of Program Development in Solid Waste Resources at the City of Guelph. Prior to Guelph, Vivian was the Executive Director of Ontario’s Municipal Waste Association for eleven years. Her other municipal experience includes planning special diversion projects at the City of Waterloo and implementing a Blue Box program in Woolwich Township. While at Woolwich, Vivian spearheaded the start-up of the first Habitat Re-Store in Ontario – the second one in Canada, after Winnipeg.
