In this episode my guest is Patrick Crabbe. Patrick is the Director of Mass Timber at Bird Construction, North America’s first general contractor to dedicate full-time expertise, and a create a national centre of excellence, for sustainable mass timber construction. “We have to start managing infrastructure from a starting point of carbon. Carbon is the universal language. Maybe we need to stop looking at chasing points in certain building accreditation programmes, and really starting to focus o...
Jun 21, 2022•48 min•Ep. 36
In this episode my guest is Ben Gibbons. Ben is the Founder and Managing Partner of Waterpoint Lane , a venture capital firm focused on investing in growth stage companies centered in primary production, technology and services, and consumer products, that promote sustainable practices throughout our food system. In our conversation Ben and I talk about the really big challenges facing the world in creating and maintaining a sustainable food system in the face of escalating climate change impact...
Mar 21, 2022•57 min•Ep. 35
In this podcast I talk with Geoff Smith, CEO and President of EllisDon . Geoff is the President & Chief Executive Officer of EllisDon, an employee-owned, $5 billion-a-year construction services and technology company. In the world of Climate Change mitigation, Geoff Smith is probably best known for his leadership of the Carbon Impact Initiative – A Building Industry-Led Action Plan in Support of Canada’s International Climate Change Commitments. In our conversation, Geoff and I talk about ho...
Jan 21, 2022•39 min•Ep. 34
In this episode I talk with Alex Lukachko. In our conversation, Alex talks about the rapid change that we face within the design and construction industry as we try to move the entire industry towards the goal of zero-carbon (and perhaps restorative construction) that we need to address the climate crisis. He talks about the challenges of designing buildings for the long-term, but he also talks about opportunities to help this effort if we look to the past. We also talked about what gives Alex h...
Nov 21, 2021•46 min•Ep. 33
In this episode our Twenty First Century Cleantech contributor, Connor Reed, talks with Matthew Tokarik, President of Subterra Renewables, a renewable energy developer who designs, builds, owns, and operates geothermal heating and cooling systems across North America, with the goal of significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately reaching Net-Zero building operation. Matt has previous experience working as a Building Energy Consultant developing whole building energy models, con...
Oct 21, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 32
In this episode I talk with Sayjel Vijay Patel. Sayjel is an MIT-trained architect, technologist and the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Digital Blue Foam. Sayjel’s past work bridges across the scales of software, materials, and cities, often mashing-up industrial technologies in new and provocative collaborations; From a Bartending System using Kuka Robots for Google I/O; to developing an award-winning Mars 3D printing concept for NASA, to designing a fleet of emotion-sensing robots ...
Sep 21, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 31
Mike Andrade is the CEO of Morgan Solar and a real veteran of the solar industry. In this episode, Mike talks about everything from his start at IBM, to his views on hydrogen, carbon capture, and of course what he’s doing to promote Canadian cleantech and manufacturing. This is our first episode in a new series that we are calling Twenty-First Century Cleantech. For regular listeners, you’ll remember that we introduced Connor Reed a couple of episodes ago in episode 27. In this new series, Conno...
Aug 21, 2021•41 min•Ep. 30
In this podcast I talk with Michelle Xuereb, an architect and the Director of Innovation at BDP Quadrangle. In our podcast Michelle and I talk about some of the important strategies for mitigating carbon emissions – both operational and embodied carbon – but also about how we can design to improve our social infrastructure in order to increase climate change resilience, exploring some of the ideas she outlined in her TEDX talk. Michelle’s passion for the environment and her desire to positively ...
Jul 21, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 29
In this episode I talk with Connor Reed, about the launch of a new segment on this podcast that we’re calling “Twenty First Century CleanTech.” In this segment, that will air every other month, Connor will be interviewing leading entrepreneurs, researchers, and business leaders who are breaking fresh ground with innovative new Clean Technologies that could be important tools for helping us to transition to a zero-carbon economy. This is a project that Connor and I are very excited to be launchin...
May 21, 2021•46 min•Ep. 28
This is a slightly different kind of podcast. Typically I interview guests who are in some way making a difference through their efforts to deal with the causes or effects of climate change and other environment-related challenges. This podcast is no different, but the approach is very different: In today’s podcast, I interview Mario Vasilescu about “information pollution.” “What does “information pollution” have to do with climate change and the Twenty First Century Imperative?” Well, as you wi...
Mar 21, 2021•59 min•Ep. 27
In this podcast I talk with Taylor Davis about being a green entrepreneur and how he sees "conscious capitalism" as a means to make much needed environmental changes in the world, and his belief that we will be able to solve the key challenges posed by climate change. We also talk about Taylor’s plans for launching a podcast, what gives Taylor hope and keeps him going when things look dark, and what advice he would offer listeners about what they can do to be part of making a difference in meeti...
Jan 21, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 26
In this podcast I talk with Martin Nielsen about his design philosophy, his belief that sustainable design is no longer enough, that we must now be designing to create truly regenerative buildings - buildings that improve the ecosystems they are part of. We also talk about what gives Martin hope when things are looking dark. Martin is one of those truly inspiring individuals whose energy and enthusiasm for green design is contagious, and he is a magnet to all of the young DIALOGers passionate ab...
Nov 21, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 25
In this episode, I talked with Lliam Hildebrand about his inspiration and reasons for founding Iron+Earth ; the huge opportunities to transform the dying fossil fuel industry workforce into a renewable energy workforce; the opportunities and challenges for policy to drive large-scale social change; and about the “ Prosperous Transition Plan ” that Iron+Earth is now rolling out, that, if implemented, could transform Canada’s workforce, businesses, infrastructure, and environment to meet the deman...
Sep 21, 2020•51 min•Ep. 24
In this episode I talk with Dr. Afton Halloran about global food security and sustainability; and the link between climate-induced food insecurity and climate refugees; the reality that there are no silver bullets to the critical environmental challenges we face; but at the same time there are still a number of positive solutions to our problems that are “lights at the end of the tunnel”, and that it’s not all “gloom and doom”. We also talk about what gives Afton hope and keeps her going when th...
Jul 20, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 23
In this podcast I spoke with Henry Gordon-Smith, the founder and CEO of Agritecture an urban agriculture consulting firm. Henry has become the world’s go-to expert in urban agriculture: from community gardens to high-rise high-intensity hydroponic agriculture. I thought Henry would be a good person to talk with about the Twenty First Century Imperative, and specifically about the importance of developing local food supplies to counter the increasing impacts that climate change is having on our i...
May 21, 2020•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 21
In this podcast interview, I spoke with Ryan Zizzo, the Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Mantle, an interdisciplinary climate change consultancy based in Toronto, about the challenges and opportunities for reducing both operating and embodied carbon in new buildings as well his thoughts on climate change adaptation. Ryan is doing some really exciting work in the quantification of carbon and developing strategies to reduce both operating and embodied carbon. I first met Ryan when we were bo...
Mar 21, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 22
In this podcast episode, in place of our typical interview format, you will hear the keynote presentation I gave to the American Institute of Architecture Students Conference in December 2019.This presentation sums up the key ideas that I have been exploring with our podcast guests over the past two years, as well as background research for those interviews. For all of you who have been following the science of climate change, you will know that this will be no ordinary decade! It will most prob...
Jan 21, 2020•54 min•Ep. 21
In this podcast I speak with Jeff Ranson, the Regional Director of the Canadian Green Building Council (for the Greater Toronto Area). For as long as I have known Jeff (going on ten years now) he has been passionate about exploring and developing transformative policies that improve the environment, people’s living conditions, and sustainable, economic prosperity. After receiving an Honours BA in Business Administration from the Ivey Business School at Western University in 2002, Jeff has held a...
Dec 21, 2019•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 20
Aaron Myran is the founder and director of Future Majority, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to amplifying the collective voice of young Canadians, and through Future Majority, it’s pretty clear to me that Aaron is going to have a BIG impact on Canada’s future! In this episode I talked with Aaron about how he ended up as a political organizer; the role he sees for the Future Majority organization in helping to engage the youth vote in the upcoming Canadian Federal Election; the ...
Sep 21, 2019•56 min•Ep. 19
If you are at all familiar with the building and design sector in Canada you will know that Sustainable Architecture and Building Magazine (SABmag) is the go-to source for green design news and commentary. Our podcast guest today, Jim Taggart, is its editor and founder. In this podcast I talked with Jim about what he wants to do with the SABmag ideas platform he has created, and his thoughts on how we might design buildings to be more effective in addressing the impacts of climate change; what t...
Jul 21, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 18
Eric Davies is one of the Canadian media’s most sought-after experts when it comes to trees, urban forests, and ravine ecology. Whether it is the plight of indigenous trees in our ravines, or the propagation of resilient heritage trees to help mitigate climate change, Eric is the guy the media goes to for information and insight. In this podcast, I spoke with Eric about his thoughts on how forests can be an important part of how we will address the impacts of climate change; and how he sees his ...
May 21, 2019•53 min•Ep. 17
In this episode I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Wendy Pentland, a personal coach, and a recently retired professor of occupational therapy at Queens University. I’d been thinking for some time that it would be worthwhile doing a podcast that explores the anxieties and fears that so many listeners are telling me they are experiencing around the emerging realities of Climate Change, and how they might better cope with them or channel them in a positive direction. Wendy has worked as a profe...
Mar 21, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 16
The theme of Episode 013 is hope. There are clearly no easy answers, and no easy fixes to the terrible environmental and social problems ahead of us. But I continue to believe that however dark the future may seem, pessimism and defeatism are not going to help. So, I thought it might be worthwhile for us to recall some of the thoughts our previous podcast guests had about hope and optimism in the face of the tremendous challenges we now face. This episode is a compilation of excerpts of some of ...
Jan 21, 2019•32 min•Ep. 15
It’s been a real pleasure producing this series! I’ve learned a lot, as I hope you have! So thanks very much for tuning in! Instead of trying to summarize all of the ideas explored over the year, I have instead focused on three themes that really seemed to resonate with listeners, and have pulled excerpts from the podcasts that best exemplified these themes. I also thought it would be appropriate to close this year’s podcast series with excerpts of the answers to the question that I typically as...
Dec 21, 2018•48 min•Ep. 14
In this podcast I had the great pleasure of interviewing Rahul Mehrotra. Rahul is a practicing architect and educator, splitting his time between his professional practice in Mumbai, and teaching at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, where he is a professor and Director of Urban Design program. Rahul has executed a wide range of projects across India, and has also written, co-authored and edited dozens of books on Mumbai, its urban history, its historic buildings, public spaces...
Nov 21, 2018•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 13
In this episode, I speak with Peter Howard, an expert on sustainability and climate change policy, and more recently, carbon sequestration. Peter and I discuss how to develop effective climate and carbon policy, as well delving into how biological carbon emissions sequestration technology works, including how it might be scaled to address ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions. His career to date has included a combination of both public and private sector experience, including positions as an...
Oct 21, 2018•51 min•Ep. 12
In this podcast I spoke with Dale Prest, CEO of the Climate Forest Company (CFC). We talked about the global carbon cycle and our future ability to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and existing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide through more effective forest management practices. As the CEO of CFC Dale explores and devises strategies to fight climate change through sustainable forest management, for example, by incenting maritime woodlot owners to manage their forests to store carb...
Sep 21, 2018•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 11
In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Brad Bradford. I first met Brad in 2011 when he was the President of the Canadian Association of Planning Students, and I was speaking about Resilience in the face of Climate Change Impacts at the annual CAPS conference he had helped organize. I distinctly remember being very impressed when I first met Brad, especially by his keen awareness of the planning issues associated with Climate Change, as well as complex realities of trying to address...
Aug 21, 2018•41 min•Ep. 10
In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Pamela Robinson. Pamela is the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Strategic Initiatives for the Faculty of Community Services at Ryerson University, an Associate Professor for the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Ryerson, and a registered professional planner. Her areas of expertise include urban sustainability, environmental design and planning, urban governance, and public engagement. I have admired Pamela’s work in the urban sust...
Jul 21, 2018•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 9
In this episode I had the pleasure of speaking with Eric Corey Freed, an award-winning architect, author, and global speaker. His role and title at Morrison Hershfield, an international Building Science firm, is “Sustainability Disruptor,” a role that has him identifying solutions to problems most teams didn't know were holding them back. If you’ve ever seen him present or watched one his TEDx talks, you will know that he is as much a stand-up comedian as a sustainability thought-leader, so I wa...
Jun 21, 2018•48 min•Ep. 8
