Events
Overview: The need to begin the transition towards clean energy and low carbon strategies are on the horizon for downtowns, city centers and neighborhood districts. Meanwhile rising temperatures and more severe weather rains increase flooding and create new challenges to ensure cities remain livable and vibrant. Place management professionals are working with local government and private stakeholders to put programs in place that will achieve energy savings, reverse rising heat and reduce risks from global warming – steps that will benefit generations to come. Hear from three panelists across North America that have successfully advocated for and implemented sustainable initiatives in their field.
Learning Objectives:
- Formulate clear reasons and possible solutions for environmental sustainability.
- Understand the risking risks from climate change and learn what solutions can be cost efficiently deployed to improve comfort
- Learn from successful programs that have implemented effective strategies.
February 26, 2021 | 11:15am ET (8:15am PT)
Domain: Planning, Design and Infrastructure
Pricing: IDA Members: Free | Nonmembers: $40
Advancing Places is an online series aimed at empowering IDA members with the solutions needed to address the most critical urban issues of the day. This session will include a moderated Q&A and will be recorded for member and nonmember use in the future.
Speakers:
- Nick Brown, Energy Manager, Toronto ABIA (Toronto, ON)
- Greg Kats, Founder & CEO, Smart Surfaces Coalition (Washington, DC)
- Johanna Lauyanto, Manager, Communications & Sustainability, Strathcona BIA (Vancouver, BC)
Moderator:
- David Downey, President & CEO, International Downtown Association
Speakers
Nick Brown
Energy Manager, Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (Toronto, ON)
Nick Brown is a Certified Energy Manager and Certified Measurement and Verification Professional and has over extensive experience in energy management. He has helped clients achieve over $4 million in incentives for energy savings projects, aided commercial clients with energy management policies and initiatives as well as providing advisory services to 6 First Nations communities. Most recently, he has endeavored to provide energy management services to Toronto’s 85 BIAs and over 90,000 member businesses. This has included education and capacity building as well as energy auditing services which provide businesses with the tools they need to make good energy management decisions at no charge to the BIA member business.
Greg Kats
Founder & CEO, Smart Surfaces Coalition (Washington, DC)
Greg has played a substantial role in developing the clean energy, green building and decarbonization industries as a long-time thought leader and impact investor. He founded the Smart Surface Coalition in 2019 to slow global warming, redress social inequity and build urban resilience. He is also President of Capital E which invests in clean energy startups and works with governments, corporations and financial institutions to design, scale and implement clean energy and decarbonization.
Prior to this, he served as Managing Director of Good Energies, a global clean energy fund investing in clean energy and low carbon companies. He served for 5 years as the Director of Financing for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the US Department of Energy. Greg played a large role in designing and developing LEED, the green building standard, and received the first US Green Building Council Lifetime Achievement Award.
Johanna Lauyanto
Manager, Communications & Sustainability, Strathcona BIA (Vancouver, BC)
Johanna is the Manager for Communications & Sustainability at the Strathcona BIA, where she develops sustainability, marketing, and public realm programming as it relates to the diverse business membership and community in the district. She directly supports the organization with strategic development of the organization’s sustainability and marketing priorities and creates, implements, and manages programs based on those priorities.
More Information
Registration information: When registering for a webinar, please complete the sign-up as yourself and not your organization. If additional staff would like to attend the same webinar, each individual must register as themselves to receive their unique login link. Questions? Email registration@downtown.org.
IDA is committed to making our educational sessions accessible to everyone, regardless of ability, and to reasonably accommodating the assistive needs of our members, attendees and partners. We are actively working to increase the accessibility of our offerings. In so doing, we strive to comply with the available standards and guidelines under the Americans with Disabilities Act and related laws to the greatest extent possible. If you are having trouble accessing an IDA offering, or have a question regarding session accessibility features, please contact IDA at registration@downtown.org for assistance.
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