LEED Accredited Professional

As Sustainable Development Program Manager with the City of Vancouver, I am responsible for facilitating sustainability in Vancouver's built form. This translates into three primary areas of focus: the development of green building codes and policy; providing green building expertise on city projects and infrastructure; and facilitating community engagement and staff training on sustainable development. The projects that I feel I are most relevant to the work I would perform as a member of the Cascadia Board are the implementation of the Vancouver Green Buildings Strategy (GBS), the development of the Vancouver Green Homes Program and project management of Vancouver's Net Zero Housing Demonstration Project. The implementation of Vancouver GBS has provided me with a working knowledge of a wide range of sustainable design criteria, performance measures and strategies, applicable to all facets of building design and construction. The development of the Green Homes Program has provided me with the opportunity to learn through the development of the most progressive green building code in North America. Finally, being the client project manager through the design and development of the 'Net Zero Housing Demo' has provided me with first hand knowledge in dealing with the challenges posed by building 'carbon neutral' developments.

As mentioned previously, I am currently leading the City of Vancouver through the implementation of the its Comprehensive Green Building Strategy. This has been a challenging task as change does not come easy to large civic institutions. However, I have successfully facilitated 12 code revisions on ranging from rain water harvesting, waste diversion, energy efficiency, and transportation demand management. I have 17 more revisions in process for completion before the end of the 2008, in addition to the establishment of strategic directions for our next version of the strategy. In addition to policy work and strategic planning I am developing a performance targets system for energy efficiency based on energy intensity. This work is an effort to unlock more creative solutions to energy systems and building design in the Vancouver building community, and if successful it will be the only program of its kind in Canada..

My primary involvement has been focussed on trying to an find mutually beneficial ways that my organization, the City of Vancouver, can help Cascadia achieve its goals of professional development within the building community. I have made proposals to cost share the delivery of the Cascadia Transformational lecture series in in the City of Vancouver. I am currently working with Mona Lemone to further develop a strategy whereby the city can be involved in funding these events while maximizing the participation of City of Vancouver staff and elected officials. I have worked with staff from Cascadia to develop a pre-living futures workshop on carbon neutrality for cities within the region who have adopted a 2030 neutrality target. I initiated this proposal with staff and hope to continue to develop it further in time for the conference.

I have experience in strategic green building program development, community engagement and public education that I feel could be an asset to the board. I am a dynamic and engaging public speaker,

I feel I have more to offer my community than my current role as a public servant allows. I feel that acting as a Board member could help me to achieve more in the realm of green building initiatives. I am very supportive of the current initiatives being pursued by Cascadia including the Living Building Challenge, and the Pharos project, and I would like to be involved in developing them further. I also feel that I can also offer fresh energy and insight gained from working on a wide range of sustainability related projects from the civic perspective