Nancy Jack Todd is Vice President of Ocean Arks International and editor of its journal Annals of Earth; co-founder with John Todd of the New Alchemy Institute, which has been at the forefront of work in appropriate-scale technology; author and co-author of many works, including Bio-shelters, Ocean Arks and City Farming. Not only is Nancy Todd well acquainted with the technologies that would lead to a sustainable society in the new millennium, but she is versed in the cultural thinking that underlies and encourages the change in lifestyle necessary to apply those technologies. Trained as a dancer, she is also a perceptive writer and editor. She contributed all the introductory essays to People, Land, and Community: Collected E. F. Schumacher Society Lectures (Yale University Press).
Spencer Mann was born and raised in a solar and wind-powered home in the woods of Maine and was nourished on a strong sense of intentional community. His passion for sustainable design has inspired him to launch the MUCS Integrated Design Process and his commitment to the broader co-operative communities movement has led Spence to establish partnerships with communities and co-ops across North America.
Lindsay Cole was the Director of Research and Consulting for Windmill Development Group and BuildGreen Consulting from 2001-2005. She has five years of experience working on green building and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) consulting projects for a wide range of clients, including the Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympics (VANOC) and Dockside Green. She has played a leading or supporting role on over 20 different LEED projects and has a great deal of expertise on the application of LEED to many different project types, climates, and sites. Lindsay has also worked on sustainability management systems for campuses and other organizations, including the development of a sustainability assessment reporting framework for university campuses, green operations planning for a sustainable community development, and sustainability reporting for several organizations. Lindsay completed her Masters in Environment and Management at Royal Roads University, and is a LEED Accredited Professional.
Melissa Garcia Lamarca brings her knowledge from work in ecological economics and sustainability both in Canada and internationally with governments, universities, non-governmental and community organizations. Melissa is currently the Sustainability Coordinator at Concordia University where she has spearheaded a range of initiatives including a sustainability assessment, a transportation program, a waste management program and a greenhouse gas assessment. She is an accomplished presenter and workshop facilitator, and has made numerous presentations on sustainability at conferences and meetings throughout North America. Melissa studied economics, geography and international development at McGill University, and also has a diploma in Community Economic Development from Concordia University.
Jean-Marc Abela Cinematographer French Canadian/Lebanese Filmmaker Jean-Marc Abela has been exploring the world of documentary and experimental genres, alternating between classic 8 mm, to versatile video capturing the poetic nature of existence. Jean-Marc’s respect for natural resources and his belief in a more sustainable urban world led him into actively engaging himself into the international
community of sustainable living. Currently he is co-directing Diversidad, a documentary feature film raising questions about modern agricultural practices and the impact that these have on North-American communities.Other recent projects include directing a documentary about McGill University’s Making the Edible Landscape, about 4 cities that have chosen to maximize their green spaces. Shot in Kampala/ Uganda; Rosario/ Argentina;Columbo/ Sri Lanka, and Montreal Canada. Currently he is directing his second film on the organization of a Rooftop Garden project in Montreal
Canada. . In 2005 he won first prize at the 8mm Film Festival of Montreal for the short film Then, Now
David T. Suzuki PhD, the Chair of the David Suzuki Foundation, is an award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster. David has received consistently high acclaim for his thirty years of award-winning work in broadcasting, explaining the complexities of science in a compelling, easily understood way. He is well known to millions as the host of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's popular science television series, The Nature of Things. His eight part series, A Planet for the Taking won an award from the United Nations. His eight-part PBS series The Secret of Life was praised internationally, as was his five-part series The Brain for the Discovery Channel. For CBC Radio he founded the long running radio series, Quirks and Quarks and has presented two influential documentary series on the environment, From Naked Ape to Superspecies and It's a Matter of Survival. An internationally respected geneticist, David has been a full Professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver since 1969. From 1969 to 1972 he was the recipient of the prestigious E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship Award for the "Outstanding Canadian Research Scientist Under the Age of 35". David is currently with UBC's Sustainable Development Research Institute. David has received numerous awards for his work, including a UNESCO prize for science, a United Nations Environment Program medal and the Order of Canada. He has 15 honorary doctorates from universities in Canada, the US and Australia. For his work in support of Canada's First Nations people
Stefan Vera a graduate of Concordia University's Film Production program, stefan verna has been active in the Montreal film community for years as film journalist, video instructor and cameraman. As a director he has explored various forms of filmmaking: dance video, documentary and fiction. His love of hip hop culture has been frequently displayed through the stories he has covered for the TV show “Culture Shock” (CBC Newsworld). His previous efforts are: Broken Strings (1999) On the Corner (2001), Chocolate City (2003). He is presently completing the post-production of two feature length documentaries Diversidad [globalization of our food] and Nomad’s Land [the story of montreal hip hop group NOMADIC MASSIVE].
Daphne Ferguson spent her childhood in downtown Toronto, where she passed most of her free time discovering the amazing world of insects, birds and vegetation in her own backyard. Her love for the great outdoors eventually carried her to... another big city, Montreal, where she studied Latin American studies and environmental studies. After a stint working in a town near the megalopolis of Mexico City with an environmental organization to implement a pilot recycling program, Daphne finally understood that she didn’t need to choose between her two great loves: the city and the environment. She is now pursuing her Masters in Urban Planning at the Université de Montréal, with a focus on ecological urban planning. Her research for her thesis looks at ecological management of urban runoff, with an emphasis on the reuse of rainwater for domestic water supply and groundwater recharge.
John Todd is an internationally recognized biologist and the author of over two hundred technical and popular articles on biology and planetary stewardship. He was Assistant Professor of Ethology at San Diego State University and assistant Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and is now a professor at the University of Vermont. In 1969 he co-founded the New Alchemy Institute to create a science and practice based upon ecological precepts and was its President until 1981. In 1980, he co-founded Ocean Arks International. He also co-founded Living Technologies Inc., an ecological design, engineering, and construction firm in Burlington, Vermont, and Living Technologies in Findhorn, Scotland. He sits on a number of environmental and technical boards.
In October 1969, Paul Watson joined a Sierra Club protest against nuclear testing at Amchitka Island. The group which formed as a result of that protest was the Don't Make a Wave Committee, which evolved into the group known today as Greenpeace. There is some dispute over whether Paul Watson himself had any role in the actual founding of Greenpeace, despite Watson's signature on the organization's founding document. Watson was an early member and sailed as a crewmember aboard the Greenpeace Ship.In 1977, Watson resigned from the Greenpeace Foundation (some accounts say he was expelled), over disagreements over tactics. (Specifically, Paul picked up a sealer's club and tossed it into the sea) That same year, he founded his own group, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Percy Schmeiser is a farmer from Bruno, Saskatchewan Canada whose Canola fields were contaminated with Monsanto's Round-Up Ready Canola. Despite all of his efforts to work out an arrangement with Monsanto they have refused to remove the canola plants from his fields unless he signs an agreement that strips him from all his rights. The agreement that they wanted Schmeiser to sign was not only asking him but other family members to waive their rights. Their property (the RR canola plants) continues to sit on his field. Court battles continue!
Farley Mowat returning to Canada after the war, Mowat studied biology at the University of Toronto. During a field trip to the Arctic, Mowat became outraged at the plight of the Inuit people (which he attributed to misunderstanding by whites). His outrage led him to publish his first book, People of the Deer (1952). This book made Mowat into a literary celebrity and was largely responsible for a shift in the Canadian government's Inuit policy: the government began shipping meat and dry goods to a people they had previously denied existed.This work was followed by a Governor General's Award-winning children's book, Lost in the Barrens (1956), which was about two children — one white, one Cree — lost in the Arctic. The children are able to combine their skills to survive for part of the winter, but ultimately, they almost die before being saved by an Inuit boy whose knowledge of the Arctic supplements their skills.
Gloria Grow was a dog groomer for 15 years, during which time she met Dr. Richard Allan while renting space for her practice at his Taschereau Veterinary
Hospital.When the couple moved to a 103 acre farm, they became increasing involved in the grueling task of animal rescues and Gloria became a member of various animal rights movements. Gloria had decided that she and Richard would build Canada's first home for chimps who had been used in biomedical research. In particular, Gloria wanted to make a home for HIV-positive chimps.
As a result of her vision, determination and devotion, 15 chimps - some HIV-positive, others who were used in the research on Hepatitis C - now have much more than a 5 x 5 x 7 cage to live in. With the help of Drs.Fouts and Jim Mahoney from the now defunct Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) of New York University, Gloria constructed and filled the first retirement sanctuary for biomedical laboratory chimpanzees.
Elizabeth May is an environmentalist, writer, activist and lawyer. She has been active in the environmental movement since 1970. She has served on numerous boards of environmental groups and advisory bodies to universities and governments in Canada. Elizabeth is the recipient of many awards including the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Sierra Club in 1989, the International Conservation Award from the Friends of Nature, and the United Nations Global 500 Award in 1990. In 1996, she was presented with the award for Outstanding Leadership in Environmental Education by the Ontario Society for Environmental Education. In 1998, the “Elizabeth May Chair in Women’s Health and Environment” was created in her honour at Dalhousie University. In 2006, Elizabeth was presented with the prestigious Couchiching award for excellence in public policy. In March 2006, Elizabeth stepped down as Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada, a post she had held since 1989, to run for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada. She was successful in her bid, was elected the Green Party’s ninth leader at their national convention in August 2006.
Nadia a 30 ans et vit Montreal. Alors qu'elle complte son baccalaurat en sociologie l'Universit Concordia, elle s'engage dans des initiatives sociocommunautaires, Montreal, mais aussi en quateur et en Guyane. Confronte au manque de moyens conomiques et aux impratifs de rutilisation, elle prend conscience de l'impact cologique de la construction et de l'importance de la valorisation des ressources. Ces expriences la conduisent envisager une carrire mariant sa vision du dveloppement durable et le dsir de travailler de ses mains. Elle s'inscrit alors l'cole du Meuble de Montral, o elle obtient un diplme d'tudes collgiales en bnisterie, et poursuit son cheminement aux tats-Unis en suivant des formations dans le domaine de l'co-construction, de l'installation de systmes d'nergie renouvelable et d'ateliers spcialiss en constructions alternatives et en permaculture.
Julia Bourke, is an Architecture Professor at McGill, who is involved in teaching students sustainble design and ‘green’ building. she received her B.A. Harvard 81, M.Arch. Princeton 85. She also has her own firm in Montreal called Julia Bourke Architecture. She brings over 15 years of experience in the design, programming and management of projects of all types and scales in Montreal, New York, Paris, and India. Julia Bourke has designed, built and is currently living in a straw bale house in Montreal.
MICHAEL M’GONIGLE is the EcoResearch Professor in Environmental Law and Policy in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria. A lawyer and political ecologist, his work with Greenpeace in the 1970s led to the international moratorium on commercial whaling. During this time he co-founded Greenpeace International. In the 1980s, he worked on wilderness conservation and forestry reform in British Columbia, including leading the successful struggle to protect the Stein River Valley from industrial logging.. As Chair of the Board of Greenpeace Canada, he initiated its forests campaign in 1990. A cofounder in the late 1990s of SmartGrowth BC and Forest Futures (Dogwood Initiative), he recently founded the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at UVic. He is author, most recently, of Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University (with Justine Starke) (New Society Publishers) (2006).
Rune Kongshaug, the Founder and Principal of Ensemble Terre-Ciel, is a designer, social entrepreneur and author. Over the last 10 years, Rune Kongshaug has initiated projects in renovation, urban renewal and urban agricultural development in various parts of the world. He is interested in the provision of affordable popular housing, and the linkages between food production, living systems and responsible design. A native of Norway, Kongshaug has worked and traveled internationally in various disciplines, including finance, health & nutrition, human resources, development and design. He is fluent in Norwegian, French, English and Spanish. Rune Kongshaug holds a Masters degree in Architecture from McGill University, and a Bachelor of Science in International Relations and Quantitative Economics from Tufts University (1994). Rune Kongshaug worked as project coordinator of the Making the Edible Landscape project, a global five-year research and design project, led by the Minimum Cost Housing Group of McGill University and funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
Myrite and Nogah are sisters and partners in their practice, Tasty Life. They work as Holistic Health Counselors who inspire, empower and support their clients in their health and wellness goals. They do not believe that there is one right diet. Instead, they work one on one with their clients in a six month program to help them find the natural, individualized way of eating that works for them using whole foods. They also teach clients how to shop for and prepare delicious, easy and healthy recipes. More than just food itself, they incorporate what they call "primary foods" into peoples' lives necessary for overall balanced health: these are positive relationships, exercise, fulfilling work, and spirituality.They host monthly cooking class/dinner parties with the goal of forming a community of health minded fun loving people, and also cater event.
Holly Dressel is a well-traveled journalist and author, best-known for a fifteen-year collaboration on both radio and television programs with the well-known Canadian environmentalist and Nature of Things host David Suzuki. Over the past five years, she co-authored two best-selling books with Suzuki, From Naked Ape to Super-species and Good News for a Change. Her latest book, God
Save the Queen: God Save Us All, for McGill/Queen's Press, investigates the sustainability of the Canadian health system. She lives on an old farm outside of Montreal and works hard with local activist groups on water, industrial farm and wildlife issues.
