The program is in the process of being finalized/confirmed. Check back regularly for updates.
Applying Ancient Knowledge: The Path Towards Better Collaboration and Sustainable Design Through Indigenous Ways of Knowing
Barbara Martin, Senior Partner, Han Martin Associates
Barb Martin will share her perspectives as a facilitator of the Indigenous engagement process incorporated into the design, a state-of the-art research facility that will be built in Moncton, New Brunswick. This new facility will serve as a science hub for understanding and protecting Atlantic ecosystems and sustainable use of resources in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Atlantic Ocean regions. The Indigenous engagement process with Indigenous community representatives, Indigenous federal employees, Elders, and others is informing the design process through the incorporation of traditional knowledge while leading to the building of sustainable, long-term relationships between clients, scientists and stakeholders and contributing to efforts to rebalance the relationship with First Nations and also with the natural world. The incorporation of Indigenous world views is also contributing to ancient yet new perspectives on our relationships with the built and natural worlds, and for a sustainable future.
Barb Martin is the Senior Partner in Han Martin Associates, a majority Indigenous-led consulting company that was formed in 1995. Han Martin Associates is part of the Diamond Schmitt team for the Atlantic Science Enterprise Centre (ASEC) project and is involved in facilitating Indigenous engagement in the design process for that multi-year initiative in Moncton, New Brunswick. Barb has over 30 years of experience working in Indigenous, women’s, equity, and organizational development issues. She designs training, facilitation and strategic planning processes that bring people together, create effective working relationships, and enable diverse parties to develop mutual goals. Barb is also known for her expertise in holistic models and their personal, organizational and governance applications. Barb is Mi’kmaq and originally from the Esgenoôpetitj (Burnt Church) First Nation in northeastern New Brunswick.
This presentation has been sponsored by:
Leadership in Sustainability and Indigenous Reconciliation
Erika Wagner, Director General, Science Delivery, Science and Parliamentary Infrastructure Branch, Public Services and Procurement Canada
Sustainable laboratory designs require consideration of an evolving list of environmental, indigenous, social, and economic factors. How we build collaborative, adaptable, technology embracing and secure spaces that that will meet the needs of the next generation of scientists and communities is critical for our collective success. Join this session to hear Erika share her applied and executive experience in embedding sustainability and Indigenous principles into projects, through repeatable, achievable steps that not only help projects succeed, but also ensure that the design and delivery process is as cohesive as the expected outcome and operations of the facility.
Erika Wagner is the Director General for the Science Project Delivery sector within Public Services and Procurement Canada. In this role, she oversees the teams delivering new labs under the Laboratories Canada program as well as the Digital Enablement, Security and Equipment collaboration requirements for science into the future. Erika’s public service career has spanned more than 25 years with 15 years in the Environmental and Sustainability sector of PSPC and the past decade as an executive in the areas of client relationship management and complex project leadership. Erika holds a Bachelor of Science, Masters of Business Administration, is a LEED AP and lives in Halifax with her husband and two children.
A Discussion on Climate Change Resiliency
Rochelle Owens, Office of Sustainability, Dalhousie University
Shannon Fernandes, Municipality of Halifax
Moderator: Erika Toby-Wagner, Public Services and Procurement Canada
Climate change is not new. It is ever evolving and continues to do so, and now at increasingly rapid pace. There is an inherent tension between mitigation and climate adaptation. Join our panel of experts as they discuss the current climate change impacts, how their institutions are adapting their buildings to be more climate resilient and sustainable and what their vision for climate resilient laboratory buildings looks like.
Does Your Lab Building Measure Up? A New Pilot Labs2Zero Energy Score and Other Efforts to Decarbonize Labs.
Gordon Sharp, President, International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories
2023 has already gone into the record books as the hottest year in modern history with devastating affects globally including the unprecedented Canadian wildfires. I2SL announced its Labs2Zero Program a year ago to accelerate the decarbonization of the world’s laboratories to fight climate change. One year later, with 30 founding sponsors and the involvement of about 100 Aircuity Advisor volunteers, including support from SLCan and members of the Canadian Lab community, the program has begun to introduce new tools and capabilities to help decarbonize labs with more on the way in 2024.
Gordon Sharp is the President of the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL), a non-profit organization dedicated to decarbonizing and making laboratories more sustainable across the world. Gordon is also the inventor of many important, widely applied technologies that have had a significant impact on lab sustainability and energy efficiency such as sash sensing VAV fume hood and laboratory airflow controls, the electronic venturi airflow valve, and demand based control of lab ventilation. He is also the founder of two major companies in the lab sustainability field: Phoenix Controls, a well-respected laboratory airflow controls company, and Aircuity, a leader in healthy and energy-efficient ventilation for laboratory and commercial buildings. The many technologies invented by Gordon at Phoenix Controls and Aircuity are today saving well over $2.5 billion annually in energy use and cutting over 7.5 million metric tons annually in carbon emissions from thousands of commercial and laboratory facilities around the world.
Gordon has over 35 years of experience and over 35 patents covering energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, laboratory controls, and even airflow-based kinetic artwork. Along with his efforts to decarbonize lab buildings, Gordon also founded and is the President of Airflow Kinetics, which creates large, airflow-based kinetic sculptures that are mesmerizing, educational, and designed to increase the public’s understanding and appreciation of airflow and building ventilation.
Gordon is an MIT graduate with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering. He has been an ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer, and has served as a voting member of the ASHRAE Standard 170 on Healthcare Ventilation, the ANSI Standard Z9.5 on Laboratory Ventilation, the ASHRAE TC9.10 committee on Laboratories and the TC9.11 committee on Clean Spaces. He has also testified before the U.S. Congress on the topics of climate change and energy efficiency.
Moving Forward into a Sustainable Science Future Together
Christina Greever, Senior Program Manager, My Green Lab
The first fifteen years of the green lab movement have been driven by grassroots efforts – passionate scientists taking action at the bench to reduce the resource consumption of their research and inspiring their colleagues to follow suit. My Green Lab was formed as a non-profit organization in 2013 with a mission to build a global culture of sustainability in science and unite academia and industry in a movement to transform the research enterprise fundamentally and permanently through sustainability. Since our founding, over 2,000 labs have engaged in our program in 45 countries, and tens of thousands of sustainable scientists are making real changes in their labs. While these grassroots efforts have been powerful and effective in spreading awareness, there remain systemic challenges that are preventing large-scale, rapid transformation of the scientific sector due to the way that research is funded, and how commercial labs are incentivized. This presentation will focus on My Green Lab’s global impact accelerators that each have the potential to transform the scientific enterprise by targeting key leverage points. These campaigns include the Million Advocates for Sustainable Science targeting the funders of research, the United Nations Race to Zero Campaign where My Green Lab serves as the Healthcare Sector Lead, and Converge – an initiative that leverages the collective buying power of the largest pharmaceutical companies to drive supply chain transformation. While continuing to foster, support, and celebrate laboratory sustainability actions within labs and institutions, it is time for our community to seize the opportunity to reach beyond the four walls of our labs and inspire the necessary structural changes that will ensure a fundamental and permanent transformation of science through sustainability.
Christina Greever has been in the laboratory sustainability field since 2015, first at the University of Colorado Boulder and since 2019 with My Green Lab. As a Senior Programs Manager, she leads the International Laboratory Freezer Challenge and supports the My Green Lab Certification program. In 2022 she was involved in the launch of Million Advocates for Sustainable Science in collaboration with the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories. Her specialty is a broad knowledge of engagement strategies to help leaders and organizations motivate behavior change among their scientists. She has written and spoken on the topic of bringing equity and social justice to the laboratory sustainability conversation. Along with colleague Star Scott from the University of Georgia, she was recognized with an Emerging Leaders Award by I2SL in 2022. Christina holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and resides in Salt Lake City, Utah.
This presentation has been sponsored by:
Green Lab Programs
Raymond Carrigan, Office of Sustainability, Dalhousie University
Dr. Laurette Geldenhuys, Dalhousie University and Nova Scotia Health
Kimberly John, Office of Sustainability, McGill University
Alexa Goodman, Office of Sustainability, Dalhousie University
Moderator: Christina Greever, Senior Program Manager, My Green Labs
Some North American academic institutions have estimated that labs take up 20-25% of the campus square footage but make up 40-50% of the institution’s energy usage. Researchers can influence about 35% of the energy consumption within laboratory buildings, primarily through decisions related to laboratory plug loads as well as lighting. Green Labs Programs help support researchers to implement sustainable best practices within their laboratories, tackling energy usage but also water consumption, waste produced, green chemistry, and more. This panel discussion of leaders from Canadian academic institutions will share recent successes of their green labs programs, how they are leveraging the My Green Lab Certification Program to drive sustainability with their labs, challenges they’ve faced with motivating behavior change among their scientists, and their vision for the future. Join us for this dynamic discussion.
A Fireside Chat with SLCan
John Alberico and Yvon Lachance
Sustainable Labs Canada
Moderator: Kevin Shea, Sustainable Labs Canada
Join Sustainable Labs Canada’s President and Past President as they share an update on SLCan’s current activities and their vision for the future of the association. They will also provide an overview of the initiatives that the SLCan will be working on collaboratively with I2SL as both associations work towards the goal of strengthening the sustainable laboratory community across North America.
This discussion will be moderated by Kevin Shea, President, SLCan Vancouver Chapter.