October Breakfast Session - Building for Tomorrow: A Broad Perspective on Sustainability in Construction

On Thursday, October 26th, the British Columbia Construction Roundtable will host a panel discussion on Building for Tomorrow: A Broad Perspective on Sustainability in Construction. 

To set the stage for the forthcoming Sustainability Roundtable, which aims to address the obstacles hindering the construction industry's journey towards greater sustainability, this breakfast session will offer an introduction to three key sustainability topics that hold significant relevance in today's construction market. 

The three sustainable topics chosen by those who responded to our poll include:

Sustainable Infrastructure

Lourette Swanepoel, RPP, MCIP, ENV SP is the Envision® Canada Program Manager. The program is a partnership between the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) and the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) to advance the use of the Envision framework in Canada.

Lourette serves on the ISI Technical Envision Review Board (ERB) and played a pivotal role as one of the early adopters and market leaders of the Envision® Sustainable Infrastructure framework and rating system. She has been an Envision Sustainability Professional since 2013 and has been engaged in more than a dozen projects seeking third-party verification, in addition to many more using the framework to improve sustainability and resilience performance outcomes. Lourette is an ISI-approved third-party verifier, ISI reviewer, and Envision trainer. She is also Principal and Owner of Calibrate Collaborative Inc. in Vancouver.

Decarbonization

Anthony Pak is the Principal at Priopta, a firm with deep expertise in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for buildings. Priopta empowers design teams with the data and knowledge to reduce embodied carbon. He has also worked with leading jurisdictions such as the City of Vancouver, the Province of BC, and the Canadian Federal Government to develop effective embodied carbon policies. 

Anthony is also the founder of CLF British Columbia (formerly CLF Vancouver)—the first local hub of the Carbon Leadership Forum—which organizes local events that empower industry professionals to radically reduce embodied carbon from buildings and infrastructure. Since 2019, CLF British Columbia has inspired over 30 other cities to start CLF local hubs. He now also serves as the CLF Global Hub Director, working to support the growth and impact of CLF hubs worldwide.

Resiliency

Dorit Mason is TransLink's Director of Safety, Environment, and Emergency Management. She is a senior emergency management and resiliency leader and has over 25 years of experience working in the local government, provincial, post-secondary, and transportation sectors. Dorit frequently speaks on various topics at conferences and other organizations, including the Conference Board of Canada, industry associations, and post-secondary institutions. She has co-written numerous articles for magazines and teaches on interagency disaster management. Dorit was also invited as an international expert to evaluate the Canterbury Civil Defence's (Christchurch, New Zealand) participation in a nationwide tsunami exercise. Her additional environmental management and health & safety background allows her to bring a unique perspective to the sustainability, climate adaptation, and resiliency fields. She lives with her family in North Vancouver.

Moderator for this event will be BCCR Board member Jesse Unke, P.Eng., PE, PMP, ENV SP, CCIP. Jesse is President & CEO of Maven Consulting and an engineering and construction executive with a focus on leading with emotional intelligence as a responsible leader while utilizing strong relationship-building, operational, strategic planning, finance and analytical skills.

Jesse is experienced with setting business direction, purpose, and goals in alignment with his organization's strategy while communicating and ensuring the successful execution of those goals. Jesse's passion is developing and empowering high-performing teams and leaders while providing a healthy and safe working environment incorporating an equitable, diverse, inclusive, and trustworthy approach to leadership.

Thank you Mott Macdonald for sponsoring this event.