Keynote Speakers
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Spencer Beach
Spencer Beach, a third-generation floor technician, was involved in all types of commercial and residential construction as a labourer, supervisor, and manager. He is a Construction Safety Officer and has completed the Occupational Health & Safety certificate program through the University of Alberta Faculty of Extension. Spencer was a member of Toastmasters and is also a certified WHMIS trainer.
https://spencerspeaks.ca -
Lorina Keery
Lorina Keery is currently a PhD student at University of Idaho studying Wildlife Sciences. She completed her MSc at Royal Roads University, conducting her research in partnership with Parks Canada to study the impacts of reintroduced bison. She spent the last 2.5 years studying deer, elk and moose population dynamics in Idaho and most recently has started to work with the Blackfeet Nation in Montana on to support their bison restoration initiative.
Speakers
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Adriana Mailloux
Adriana Mailloux is the Manager of Solid Waste & Recycling at the TNRD and led the implementation of the STRONG Data Automation system at solid waste facilities in 2021. She has a Bachelor of Environment and Resource Studies from the University of Waterloo in Ontario and has been working in the solid waste field for the last 12 years. She lives in Kamloops, British Columbia now and enjoys spending time with her family and gardening.
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Alastair Handley
FOUNDER & BOARD MEMBER
Clean-tech innovator, environmental market pioneer, and temporarily landlocked surfer.Alastair’s personal mission is to help governments implement environmental market frameworks that stimulate green innovation and employment opportunities. Once successful in this, we can all expect to see (and benefit from) lasting reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Lofty goals, but then again, he’s already racked up some pretty impressive achievements.
Over his career, Alastair has become an uncontested leader in the worldwide environmental markets space. He designed and developed one of the world’s first software platforms for aggregating and quantifying large-scale emission reductions in Alberta in 2008. From there he founded multiple businesses. Their success proves that emission reduction markets can simultaneously build wealth, generate jobs, create export opportunities, and protect the environment for future generations.
Environmental foresight is the foundation on which Alastair builds companies. This former teen paper route tycoon leveraged his geographic information systems and software design experience to generate $40 million dollars in documented carbon credits for Alberta farmers in a single decade. At the same time saving emitters $30 million and creating an excess of another $30 million in company equity for what would go on to become Radicle.
– World Bank Group Advisor on the Paris Agreement
– United Nations Climate Change Conference speaker, Spain, 2019
– National Carbon Farming Conference & Expo, Australia, 2019
– Energy Disruptors, Food Security Moderator, Canada, 2019
– SPARK: From Global to Local – Lessons Learned from Carbon Positive Policies and Programs, Canada, 2019QUOTE: “There is no time for pessimism when it comes to climate change. Let’s transform our reality.”
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André Joseph
André is a senior project manager and civil engineer with over 14 years of experience in the design, permitting, construction, operation, and management of large-scale capital projects; particularly industrial projects involving solid waste, renewable energy, regulatory approvals and environmental engineering. In successfully leading many multidisciplinary teams for various industrial facility projects, he has developed a collaborative approach towards working with project teams, clients, government agencies, industry leaders, the public and other stakeholders to deliver successful projects. Currently, he is collaborating with both private and public sector clients, utility companies, and organics management technology providers to deliver energy from waste and zero-waste solutions. A cornerstone of these solutions is the integration of solid waste, and other municipal master planning practices into capital projects that generate landfill and biogas that can be upgraded to RNG within client facilities and sold into regional and North American energy markets.
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Ann Gibbs-Vander Vliet
Ms. Gibbs has conducted community outreach for recycling programs and participated in social marketing research projects. She has conducted set out surveys and waste characterization studies. She manages many of SERA’s databases and models, including those focused on equipment in MRFs and curbside collection costs.
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Annette Synowiec
Annette Synowiec is the Director of Policy, Planning & Outreach in the Solid Waste Management Services Division of the City of Toronto. As part of its Long Term Waste Management Strategy, the City of Toronto is working towards an aspirational goal of zero waste and a Circular Economy.
Annette leads a number of cross-cutting integrated waste system portfolios including extended producer responsibility transition which will financially and operationally hand-over the City’s residential recycling program to producers; stakeholder and community outreach which works to build meaningful relationships, value community engagement and seek partnerships to achieve long-term sustainability; advancement of circular economy & innovation in service delivery; future-planning solid waste programs/policies including intergovernmental advocacy and supporting environmental and health and safety compliance in the City’s Solid Waste Division.Annette loves working in the public service and has greatly enjoyed her experiences in all aspects of municipal solid waste management. She is on the Board of Directors of the Ontario Chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America.
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Annie Ironmonger
Annie Ironmonger leads the business development team in North America to strategically drive growth objectives in the organic waste processing industry. Annie has eight years of sales leadership experience within the waste management sector. Annie oversees sales disciplines and works closely with Canadian facilities to increase efficiency of operations through unique market partnerships. She directs Design, Build, Operate, Maintain contracts for new customers and works alongside the Canadian leadership team, while championing the values and integrity of Convertus Group.
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Avery Johnson
Avery Johnson started Kaden Ave Communications with her partner Kady Hobbins in 2017 because there was a gap in the marketing community in Edmonton for social media services for small businesses. Their boutique social media marketing agency provides social media management, strategy, content creation, copywriting and consulting services to more than 75 clients from multiple industries in Alberta.
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Barbara Swartzentruber
Barbara Swartzentruber is currently the Executive Director of the Smart Cities Office at the City of Guelph. As winners’ of the Canada’s Smart City Challenge, the City and County of Wellington, are collaborating with public and private sector partners to create a data and technology enabled Circular Food Economy. Building on the principles of a circular economy and leveraging the power of data and technology, they are re-imagining a sustainable regional food system that increases access to healthy nutritious food for all, prevents food loss and waste and creates circular businesses for a regenerative economy.
Barbara is a public sector innovator with work at the local, provincial and national levels in the areas of public policy, smart cities, citizen engagement, digital economy, rural broadband, open government, data and technology. She has taught public policy, community development and advocacy at several Canadian universities. She was appointed to the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on the Circular Economy in Canada.
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Bob Jardine
Bob is a Landfill Specialist at Associated Engineering with over eighteen years of experience, with particular expertise in landfill planning, design, and construction. He is registered with APEGA as a Professional Licensee (Eng.), which along with his drafting background uniquely positions him to bring landfill planning and design modelling into real world applications.
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Bob Kenney
Bob Kenney has worked for the past 22 years for Nova Scotia Environment in the resource management group. Bob’s current work is focused on the circular economy of waste/resource management with particular emphasis on:
– Supporting the development of
* new EPR programs and;
* new and existing waste diversion programs in the private and municipal sectors; and– Coordinating research and development projects in the private, public and academic sectors for waste materials that are challenging to effectively and efficiently collect and recycle.
Bob also co-chairs the Canadian Council of Ministers of Environment ‘Waste Resource Recovery Committee’.
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Brent Boss
Brent is a Partner with Dillon Consulting Limited and brings a wide variety of experience in solid waste resources and process engineering in developing innovative solutions to the waste management industry. He has an intimate knowledge base of organics facilities across Canada and the challenges posed by current processing technical constraints. Brent has supported a variety of anaerobic digestion installations and operations through feasibility/concept development, detailed design, operational reviews, and commissioning/operations support. He is one of the tallest organics consultants out there, and continually benefits from people in his office hiding snacks up high in cupboards…or as he calls it “eye level”.
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Brian Van Opstal
Brian is a Waste Management Consultant with extensive management, planning and engineering experience across the municipal and private sectors. He has an in-depth knowledge of solid waste management technologies, practices and regulations, project planning and management. Resource recovery has been a consistent theme through Brian’s career beginning with his role in the earliest residential recycling and organics diversion programs continuing through to one of the first successful applications of aerobic digestion as a solid waste management technology in North America. Through his work in the municipal sector Brian has acquired particular expertise in planning, procurement, contract negotiation and management for large capital projects most notably Toronto’s two anaerobic digestion facilities.
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Bryan Staley
Dr. Bryan Staley currently serves as President and CEO of the Environmental Research and Education Foundation (EREF), one of the largest sources of industry data, research funding, and scholarships related to solid waste management. He joined the EREF in 2008, where he started as vice-president of environmental programs, and has 28 years of experience in the environmental engineering field. Prior to EREF, Dr. Staley held key positions in consulting firms where he managed projects ranging from wastewater treatment system design, to retail/commercial land development and environmental management of large-scale livestock operations. He is licensed Professional Engineer and holds degrees from N.C. State University (PhD, B.S.) and the University of Tennessee (M.S.).
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Caitlin Rodger
As Climate and Energy Planner with ICLEI Canada, Caitlin provides consulting support to municipalities working to advance climate and energy initiatives in their communities. Caitlin also acts as a technical advisor on greenhouse gas emission inventories and modelling to members of the Partners for Climate Protection Program. Caitlin holds a Master of Climate Change from the University of Waterloo, a Master of Fine Arts from Ryerson University, and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Environmental Science from Queen’s University. Some of the most recent Community Energy and Climate Actions Plans she has worked on are with the District of Muskoka, the City of Barrie, the Town of Aurora, and Grey County, all of which are in Ontario.
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Carey McIver
Carey McIver, formerly Manager of Solid Waste for the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN), is a solid waste management specialist with over thirty years of hands-on experience designing, delivering, and evaluating plans, policies, programs and facilities for waste diversion, recovery and disposal. Under her leadership the RDN implemented an award-winning Zero Waste Program that reduced waste disposal from all sectors to 350 kg per capita. Organic diversion was integral to this success and at the RDN Carey directed: the development of supporting policies (waste stream management licensing, disposal bans); the implementation of residential collection programs; the construction of a food waste transfer station; and the negotiation of a long-term processing agreement with a private sector facility operator. Since starting her own consulting firm, Carey has built on this experience to develop solid waste management plans and organic diversion strategies for numerous regional districts in BC as they strive to meet their waste diversion and climate change mitigation targets.
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Carol Nelson
Carol Nelson started in the waste industry as a summer student and landfill scale operator. She has 14 years experience working with municipal solid waste and industrial waste landfill sites in many different aspects of operations including but not limited to open houses, to OHS training, environmental monitoring, landfill gas emissions modelling and reporting.
Carol is a Professional Engineer and has worked for Alberta Environment and Parks for about 10 years.
Carol now works with various stakeholders, regional offices and members of the public on waste related issues, regulatory requirements, industry practices, waste measurement, hazardous waste manifesting, setbacks and most recently the Code of Practice for Hydrovac Facilities.
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David McKenna
Currently David is the Director of the Waste Policy Section, Water and Waste Policy Branch, Policy Division with Alberta Environment and Parks. He has been employed with the Government of Alberta since May 2000, having served in a number of different Director roles during that time. He is a Registered Professional Biologist and holds a BA in Environmental Geography and BSc in Animal Behaviour, both from the University of Western Ontario.
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Decklun McBride
Decklun McBride is based out of Calgary, Alberta and provides consultative solutions for municipalities and private waste management companies to successfully run their operations on a daily basis with Routeware Global’s suite of offerings. With over five years of enterprise sales experience in technology and SaaS, Decklun has worked closely with a range of clients, including solid waste leaders to develop scalable, sustainable return-on-investment solutions for their fleets. Decklun provides a specific understanding of the waste industry from safety, fleet management, scheduling, routing while driving revenue and scalability for clients’ growth.
Routeware is industry-leading for fleet automation, management, and analytics firm including many services and products such as on-board computers, workflow automation, route planning and metrics, billing backhouse and client-facing offerings, service verification, driver productivity analytics, photo and video capture, RFID tag management, and much more.
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Fabrizio Bertolo
Fabrizio has over 20 years of progressive solid waste management and project communication development experience in the public and private sectors. He worked on integrated waste management programs for several municipalities in Italy and Alberta. Oversaw plants for domestic waste disposal, treatment and recovery in Italy and developed strategies for reducing residential waste generation and maximizing recycling for several municipalities in Alberta.
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Gena Alderson
Gena is the Communications and Marketing Manager at Eco360 in Southeastern New Brunswick and has been working in the solid waste industry since 2010. She is a Regional Director on the SWANA Board representing Region 13 (Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada) and is an officer on the SWANA Atlantic Chapter Executive. Gena is passionate about her work and excited to be a part of this ever evolving, and impactful industry.
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Hanna Waller
Hanna Waller is a Marketing Coordinator for the City of Edmonton, supporting the municipality’s Waste Services branch. Hanna was heavily involved in the marketing and communications strategy for the 2021 Edmonton Cart Rollout, which saw over 250,000 homes transitioned to separating their food scraps and using carts for waste collection. The strategy used advertising, social media, earned media, digital tools, videos and more to raise awareness and set up residents for success with the new system. Hanna has a Bachelor of Commerce degree and over 5 years of combined experience in the public and private sector.
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Jacomien van Tonder
Jacomien van Tonder is the Project Coordinator for Metal Tech Alley, a successful regional marketing strategy from the Lower Columbia Initiatives Corporation (LCIC) based in Trail BC. After 4 years running the Metal Tech Alley program, the LCIC is considered a leader in economic development best practices through creating a circular economy hub in small rural area. The considerable success of Metal Tech Alley rests on embracing industry of all sectors and supporting innovation for companies that are engaging with circular practices and doughnut economics.
Jacomien was born in South Africa and emigrated to Canada 12 years ago. She got a Baccalaureus Procurationis degree and practiced as a lawyer and CEO of a Top 500 South African Company. Since moving to Canada, she has branched out to take her career in new direction to include Economic Development and Project Management.
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James Mickle
James Mickle is a Senior Geophysicist and UAV Operations Manager with Tetra Tech Canada, based in Calgary. Having spent a significant amount of time and effort over his 16 year career developing software-based methods of representing increasingly sophisticated 3D geospatial/geophysical data on traditional 2D media such as report figures, in 2017, James began development of an immersive 3D visualisation and collaborative analysis environment for complex multi-discipline geospatial data. James has continued to develop and adapt this amazing technology for use across many of Tetra Tech’s diverse scientific and engineering disciplines. A lover of most things technological, James often can’t believe he actually gets paid to do this.
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Jesse Maxwell
Jesse Maxwell is the Advocacy & Safety Senior Manager for the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA). Jesse regularly tracks and reports on legislative and regulatory issues in the municipal solid waste industry and directs safety-related programming.
Prior to working at SWANA, Jesse received an M.A. in liberal arts from St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland, in 2010. He graduated with a B.A. in English and political science from Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2007.
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Jodi Tomchyshyn London
Jodi has 20 years’ experience managing projects, researching, developing, consulting with stakeholders, and implementing waste management, recycling and waste minimization legislation, regulation, policies, and programs. This includes: 10 years’ government experience designing regulations and policies to support recycling systems; four years’ experience overseeing EPR program implementation at Waste Diversion Ontario; two years’ experience as an Executive Director operating Alberta’s Used Oil Materials recycling program.
Over the past four years, Jodi has operated her own company, JTL Squared Consulting Inc., where she has provided consulting services to various clients, such as: AECOM, Canada Plastics Pact, Beverage Container Management Board and the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation; Ocean Legacy Foundation; the Alberta Bottle Depot Association; Fisheries & Oceans Canada (as a sub-consultant); the Solid Waste Association of North America; the BC Bottle and Recycling Depot Association; Nova Scotia’s Municipal Priorities Group (as a sub-contractor to AECOM); CCME (as a sub-contractor to sonnevera international Inc.); Canadian Electrical Stewardship Association; Cleanfarms; and the Alberta Used Oil Management Association.
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Kim Bartch
I am an Industry Specialist at WCB-Alberta. I’ve worked at WCB-Alberta for 13 years, the past two working directly with employers providing education on our legislation, policies and best practices for disability management.
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Klaryssa Lawrie
Klaryssa Lawrie is a Solid Waste Practioner with Dillon Consulting Limited. She has worked across Canada on solid waste management strategies and studies for over seven years. Her focus includes multiresidential, ICI and public spaces receptacles monitoring and performance reviews. Her waste management experience includes technical and management roles for waste composition studies, visual waste audits, emerging technology review, and the development of waste reduction and diversion strategies. Klaryssa has played a leading role in the development and rollout of various waste pilot programs for Canadian municipalities. These projects have included the design and execution of field programs, management of field teams, data management and analysis, and the preparation of technical documents and other work products. Klaryssa was Dillon Consulting’s Project Manager for the Smart Bin Pilot.
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Kristy Anderson
Kristy Anderson is a Research Associate with the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources. She is located in Pine Creek First Nation: Treaty 4 territory.
Kristy studied environmental science and graduated with a Masters of Soil Science from the University of Manitoba in 2020.
At the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources Kristy assists Indigenous communities in taking action to solve environmental problems affecting their lands and waters. Today, Kristy will speak about the tools she uses when supporting First Nations in Manitoba through climate change adaptation planning.
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Lauren Quan
Lauren leads Tetra Tech’s Solid Waste Management Practice in Manitoba but works across North America on finding solutions to interesting challenges in the solid waste world. She has worked in the industry for over 9 years. Lauren most enjoys helping communities and organizations to make good decisions about the future of their solid waste systems.
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Leland (Lee) Jackson
Lee Jackson is a professor in the Faculty of Science (Department of Biological Sciences) at the University of Calgary. His research focusses on relationships between the physical, chemical and biological structure of aquatic ecosystems and how that structure affects rates of processes (including the structuring role of submerged aquatic plants in shallow prairie lakes, the impacts of endocrine disrupting compounds on native fish populations, the impacts of invasive and nuisance species on southern Alberta freshwater systems, microplastics and antimicrobial resistance in environmental reservoirs).
Dr. Jackson completed his degrees at Queen’s University (BSc), University of British Columbia (MSc) and McGill University (PhD). He held an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where his research involved modelling organochlorine flows in Great Lakes food webs.
He currently serves on the editorial board of Aquatic Conservation: Freshwater and Marine Ecosystems, and is the Scientific Director of Advancing Canadian Wastewater Assets (ACWA).
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Luke Dixon
Luke Dixon is Geomatics Engineer and Professional Land Surveyor. He founded Civil Tracker in 2018 to empower a whole new generation of drone mappers.
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Maria Lo
Maria Lo graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering. She began her career at the City of Vancouver, where she discovered her love for solving waste and recycling problems. Maria then moved to Metro Vancouver’s Solid Waste Services department as a project engineer to work on region‐wide waste priorities. She enjoys applying scientific principles, critical thinking, and business acumen to research, develop, and implement solid waste policies and programs aimed at encouraging residents and businesses to use resources more effectively.
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Marie Dussault
Holding a masters’ degree in socio-economic geography, Marie Dussault has been with the Quebec Environment and Fight against Climate Change Department for over 32 years, 25 of which within the Waste Management Branch where she is currently Coordinator of the Division on Reduction, Recovery and Recycling.
Marie has been involved in the establishment of Quebec’ Waste Management Policy and subsequent Action Plans, and more specifically with matters pertaining to Extended Producer Responsibility, the Compensation Regime for municipal curbside recycling, the Deposit and Refund systems, Disposal levies and CRD wastes and with plastics related issues.
She is currently coordinating the revision of the Regulation respecting the recovery and reclamation of products by enterprises and the development of two new EPR regulations for packaging and printed paper and beverage containers.
She has been the Quebec representative on the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) Waste Recovery and Recycling Committee for most of the past 18 years.
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Meegan Armstrong
Meegan has worked in the area of environmental protection since 1995, and with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy in British Columbia, Canada, since 2008. As Unit Head in the Extended Producer Responsibility Section of The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, Meegan is proud to have had a role in the regulating and implementation of many of B.C.’s nationally recognized Extended Producer Responsibility Programs, including the expansion to the electronics product category in 2012, and North America’s first EPR program for packaging and printed products, in 2014. Currently Meegan and her team are implementing B.C.’s EPR Five-Year Action Plan which will expand the product categories captured un B.C.’s Recycling Regulation to include mattresses, electric vehicle batteries and more moderately hazardous waste, among other products. Meegan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Concordia University in Montreal, and a Diploma in Environmental Protection Technology from Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Vancouver, BC.
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Michael Cant
Michael is a Principal at GHD working out of the Peterborough, Ontario office. He has been actively involved in the waste management industry for a few years. Today Mike wants to start a discussion on certified compostable products and packaging and their integration into the current waste management system.
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Mike Fernandes
Mike Fernandes owns and operates StrategyMakers Consulting Inc. providing strategic advisory and project management support services to governments, public sector agencies, non-profit organizations and small and medium-sized businesses primarily in two areas of specialty:
– environmental sustainability;
– organizational strategy, management and leadership.Over his 25+ year career, Mike has successfully completed numerous projects in a wide range of sectors both within Manitoba and across Canada.
Particularly relevant to this event, Mike has extensive experience working in the areas of product stewardship, Extended Producer Responsibility, Circular Economy and waste recycling and diversion.
Mike holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Economics from the University of Winnipeg and an M.B.A. from the IH Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba.
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Parvin Berenjkar
Parvin Berenjkar received her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Manitoba in March 2022. During her Ph.D., she did various laboratory experiments and had two years of fieldwork experience in the BRRMF landfill in Winnipeg, Manitoba, working on a pilot bio-cover to mitigate methane emissions throughout the year. She received 12 Scholarships and Engineering Awards from the University of Manitoba, Mitacs, Gerry Price Industry, and Petro Canada and has 7 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She also had different volunteer and leadership positions in the University of Manitoba associations. Before coming to Canada, she did her M.Sc. on contaminated sediments disposal scenarios and had job experience as a design engineer on excavation sites. Currently, she is actively seeking a job position in the environmental engineering field.
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Peter Hargreave
Peter Hargreave is a proud member of the SWANA and the President of Policy Integrity Inc. He has over 16 years’ experience in providing strategic advice in the development, implementation, and oversight of public policy. Over his professional career, he has developed a strong network of relationships with regulators, public and private organizations, and other key stakeholders involved in environmental issues across Canada, the United States and abroad.
He has extensive experience in assessing waste management policies at the federal, provincial, and municipal level across the country. He has also played a key role in leading major research efforts in the waste management sector including data capture & analysis and understanding the economic and environmental impacts of various waste management activities.
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Robin Bussiere
Worked with the Alberta Workers’ Compensation Board since September of 2002. I have been working as Supervisor in Customer Service for the past 16 yeas and have been involved in Occupational Disease Claims for the past 6 years. During the past 2 years I have been mainly working with all the COVID files that have been submitted to Alberta, along with my team of staff, of Adjudicators and fatality Case Managers.
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Rocky Strong
Rocky, studied Mechanical Engineering at Memorial University. After his studies he moved to Norway to work in the oil industry. He moved back to Newfoundland and Labrador where he has led Strong Data for the past 6 years with a focus on growth in the waste industry. Rocky is also involved with the Gander and Area Chamber of Commerce and SWANA Atlantic Canada Chapter as a director. In his free time he enjoys attending waste conferences to meet new people and listen to the needs of the industry. Sometimes these conferences are located near ski hills and bike parks.
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Scott Lambert
Scott Lambert joined SCS in 2002. He currently serves as a Regional Health and Safety Specialist who coordinates and provides Health and Safety training for all group employees in the Eastern Region, as well as SCS employee’s nationwide. He has also provided 8-hour HAZWOPER Refresher training for SCS. He has played a major role in developing SCS’s internal Health and Safety Training Program, including creating training materials/presentations, creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), conducting Job Task Safety Analysis (JTSA) for routine tasks performed by personnel and conducting Health and Safety field audits/inspection.
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Scott Theede
Scott Theede is a Senior Project Management Engineer with the City of Saskatoon. From 2012-2016 he was the project manager overseeing construction and initial operations of the City’s Landfill Waste Hauler Disposal Facility. Scott currently supports landfill operations and capital projects at the City’s landfill.
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Sam Dietrich
Sam Dietrich is the Co-founder and CEO of Prairie Robotics – a Canadian Clean-Tech startup focused on making recycling simple. He first started working in the Waste Industry at 16 as a driver for “To-D-Dump Disposal”. He continued employment until he began studying Engineering at the University of Regina where he majored in Industrial Systems Engineering and received a double minor in Software and Electronics Engineering.
Upon graduating Sam immediately started working for technology startups within Clean-Tech and Gov-Tech industries.
Since Co-founding Prairie Robotics, he’s lead the business development team, which works with municipal and hauling partners to provide recycling education. These solutions rely on Artificial Intelligence and “Internet-of-Things” (IoT) devices to drive consumer and business strategies. His role is focused on helping municipalities reach their diversion goals and move the world towards a Circular Economy.
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Shannan McGarr
Ms McGarr received her Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree from the University of Guelph. She has been practising in the environmental engineering field and more specifically in the area of landfill gas for twenty-six years and been involved in dozens of landfill gas projects across Canada. The projects include landfill gas utilization, gas collection and flaring, migration control, odour control, landfill gas reserve estimates as well as the testing, design, approvals, construction and operation and maintenance of gas control and utilization systems. Ms McGarr is responsible for the operation and monitoring of all landfill gas collection and flaring systems operated by Comcor. She has extensive experience operating, maintaining and monitoring temporary and permanent landfill gas migration and odour control systems, as well as analysis of large amounts of monitoring data.
Ms. McGarr is the Manager of Operations for Comcor Environmental Limited (Comcor), an environmental consulting engineering firm in Cambridge, Ontario, and its subsidiary Integrated Gas Recovery Services Inc. (IGRS) and has been extensively involved managing both wellfield and utilization plant operations now for many years. Comcor is a landfill gas engineering and services company which specializes in all aspects of design, construction and operation of landfill gas systems for both municipal and private sector landfill clients in Canada. IGRS is a landfill gas utilization development company that owns and/or operates five landfill gas utilization plants in Ontario and operates three flaring facilities in Ontario and Manitoba. IGRS’ plants produce approximately 18 MW of green power, supplies 2400 cubic feet per minute of landfill gas to GM for electricity generation and has also produced and sold emission reduction credits in some early voluntary carbon markets since the early 2000’s.
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Shannon Hildebrandt
Shannon has over 5 years of experience with GHD’s Innovative Waste Solutions, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Services, and Hydrogen and Future Energy teams. She has experience working on a variety of innovative projects for municipal and private organizations across North America, including hydrogen injection and blending for lowering the carbon intensity of natural gas systems, several waste-to-energy projects at landfills and organic waste processing facilities, advanced thermal treatment of waste-to-energy feasibility studies (gasification, plasma, pyrolysis), landfill gas management and utilization, and various GHG compliance and offset evaluations for emissions reductions projects including renewable energy facilities, low carbon fuel carbon intensity assessments, oil and gas facility compliance reporting, and more.
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Stan Lozecznik
Stan Lozecznik is an Environmental Engineer with over 12 years of consulting experience in the engineering field, primarily in the Solid Waste Management, Environment, Mining, Sanitary, Hydraulics and Construction disciplines in Canada and Chile. This experience includes coordinating environmental and multidisciplinary field programs and project management for different Solid Waste Management projects in Cities, Rural Municipalities and First Nations in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario. Mr. Lozecznik has extensive experience working and coordinating projects in remote areas, including communities with Winter Road Access only.
Mr. Lozecznik has a BSc. CE and Major in Environmental, Sanitary and hydraulics from the University of Chile, MSc. in GeoEnvironmental Engineering and PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University of Manitoba, both related to Solid Waste Management. For his work in Solid Waste Management, Mr. Lozecznik received multiple scholarships and awards in Canada and US, author and co-author of various Scientific and Conference publications, participated as technical reviewer in journal papers and external committee member on Thesis Defenses in SK and MB.
Mr. Lozecznik is also responsible for carrying out applied Research and Development (R&D) projects in Solid Waste Management, Agriculture and Mining. Mr. Lozecznik is currently serving as an adjunct professor (volunteer) for the Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Manitoba and collaborating with professors from the Faculties of Chemistry, Plant Science, Microbiology and Civil Engineering Department
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Stan Reimer
Stan graduated from the University of Calgary in 2009 and has since been involved in all stages of large earthworks projects from conceptual design through to construction and operations. He is a Professional Engineer with over ten years of experience , focusing on containment systems, principally landfills in the municipal and industrial sectors.
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Stephan Fourmont
Stephan Fourmont works for Afitex-Texel Geosynthetics as Business Development Manager Canada. He is in charge of the promotion and sales of geosynthetic drainage and reinforcement products. He is also responsible for providing technical support to customers, government officials and consulting engineers for soil related issues on their construction projects by offering efficient geosynthetics solutions.
Stephan has been working in the geosynthetics industry for more than 15 years. He is a member of SWANA, IGS, ASTM and is vice-chair of the Canadian Mirror Committee ISO/TC 221 on Geosynthetics.
Stephan has an Engineer’s degree in Geotechnical Engineering (Grenoble University, France) and a Master’s degree in Physics (Tours University, France).
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Stephen Dafoe
Stephen Dafoe is the Commissions Board Chair and Elected Official for the Town of Morinville
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Steve Johnson
Steve graduated from the University of Alberta with an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering and a Masters of Engineering in Environmental Engineering. He has worked for Alberta Environment, Waste Management of Canada Corporation, and AECOM throughout his career specializing in waste management over the past 27 years.
While at Alberta Environment he was an approval writer for landfills, water, and waste water treatment facilities and then the Provinces Landfill Specialist instrumental in the development of the Standards for Landfills in Alberta, the Guidelines for Landfills in Alberta, and initiating the Standards for Composting in Alberta. He also was the chair of the Alberta Landfill and Compost Operator Certification Committee, a member of the Technical Guidance for the Quantification of Specified Gas Emissions from Landfills, the Technical group for the Management of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials in Waste, and a variety of dead animal disposal committees.
While at Waste Management of Canada Corporation Steve was the Site Engineer responsible for landfill capping, developing and operating a leachate treatment plant, waste acceptance approvals, regulatory reporting, gull control, and the upgrade to a landfill gas collection and flaring system, and the siting and regulatory application for a new landfill.At AECOM he is involved in solid waste management studies, landfill siting studies, landfill design, transfer station feasibility and design, landfill master plans, operations plans, environmental monitoring plans, fill plans, compliance audits, the National Solid Waste Benchmarking Initiative, and related environmental studies and regulatory applications. He recently has been appointed to be the Waste Services Manager for Canada.
Steve is a SWANA Northern Lights Chapter instructor for the landfill operator basics course, Manager of Landfill Operations course, and the leachate management course.
In his off time, Steve is an avid curler, runs community gardens, and tries to keep up with his two young daughter’s activities
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Susan Antler
Susan Antler serves as the Executive Director of the Compost Council of Canada. As one of the founding members of the Council in 1991, she really thought that Canada would be fully recycling organics within 5 years – the logic of the action was so true. Thirty years later, there is more still to do than not. Her impatience is great.
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Susan Berry
Susan Berry has worked her entire career with Municipal Government. She has conducted many needs assessments and surveys throughout the years to gather feedback from users about programs and services. Susan has only been involved in 4 public engagement projects where the public was involved in the process to ensure concerns and aspirations were understood, considered and influenced the decision. Susan is currently the Manager of the Roseridge Waste Management Service Commission and is looking forward to serving the community with a convenient, safe and user friendly transfer facility.
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Susan Fraser
Sue has worked with Environment and Climate Change Canada since 2003, first in the field of chemicals risk management and now as Unit Head in the Waste Reduction and Management Division. In recent years, Sue has been involved in analysing opportunities for reducing methane emissions from the waste sector, providing policy advice and is now leading the development of new federal regulations focused on reducing methane emissions from landfills. Sue holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Geo-Environmental) from Queen’s University, and a Master of Engineering (Civil) from the University of British Columbia.
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Suzanne Sturgeon
Suzanne Sturgeon is the Health & Safety Program Manager for SCS OM&M Field Services. In this role, she is responsible for program development and implementation, including all operational and administrative policies and procedures. She monitors all field and administrative projects to be sure they are compliant with company, industry, and regulatory standards. She manages H&S training efforts for the group, and develops and conducts cultural-based training within the company to promote understanding and participation at all levels, while encouraging a behavior-based philosophy essential to eliminating unsafe practices and conditions. Ms. Sturgeon conducts on-site safety assessments and provides incident analysis and feedback of reported incidents and near misses as a means of promoting a proactive safety culture. She has over 16 years of industry experience managing safety programs and has been integral in SCS’s efforts to eliminate OSHA recordable incidents and lost work days, and ensuring that employees go home to their families each day in the same condition as when they arrived.
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Tannis Topolnisky
Tannis Topolnisky is a Certified Public Participation Professional (CP3). She supports organizations to make the best decisions possible by ensuring those impacted and interested have an opportunity to contribute, are heard and feel respected. She has managed over 300 projects aimed at bringing diverse audiences together to build relationships, establish trust and work together to make decisions. She is the owner of Topent Ltd, where she provides facilitation, engagement, coaching and training to organizations around the world. She is a licensed trainer for the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2). Tannis is passionate about bringing people together to make a difference in individuals, organizations, communities and their relationships; leaving everyone in a better place than where they started.
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Tom Kinnell
Tom is well known for his tendency to step up to solve problems and get things done with practical solutions. During his time at Waste & Recycling Centre Tom has overseen improvements to operations at the landfill, waste transfer, public and construction drop-offs, composting and the new hydro vac facility.
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Tooraj (TJ) Moulai
As Vice President at Bluesource, TJ oversees the development of carbon offset projects for clients and projects that span across North America and manages the Carbon Solutions Team that delivers these projects. With over 10 years of experience in carbon markets he has worked on a vast array of carbon offset projects including landfill gas destruction, wastewater treatment, composting, biomass to energy, biogas to energy, organic waste diversion, renewable energy, flare gas to power, energy efficiency, refrigerant management and more. TJ and his team have helped clients generate carbon revenues from 35 landfill gas destruction projects and 21 projects involving organic waste diversion (i.e. landfill methane avoidance) in Canadian and US markets resulting in over 25 million tCO2e emissions reductions. He is a Professional Engineer and holds a Master of Science in Sustainable Energy Development from the Haskayne School of Business.
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Vivian De Giovanni
Vivian De Giovanni is the Circular Economy Specialist in Solid Waste Resources at the City of Guelph. She has worked in the waste management field for over 30 years in both the municipal and non-profit sectors, with experience in both program and policy development.
She has been involved in collaborative projects with organizations and academic institutions on textile audits/recycling, food/loss waste, and C&D diversion. Vivian’s current role includes developing circular economy policy/roadmap and working with innovators and start-ups on civic accelerator challenges.
