District’s Climate Leadership Team announced

The District of Squamish has selected eight Sea to Sky residents to serve on its Climate Leadership Team. Working closely with the project consultants, Whistler Centre for Sustainability and the Community Energy Association, as well as District staff, the team will guide the District’s efforts to develop an inventory of community energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, and identify bold actions to reduce these emissions through the Community Climate Action Plan. 

“We are fortunate to have an incredible amount of expertise in our community. The collective leadership, passion and knowledge of this team will help us determine some of the critical changes we need to make, in line with the targets set by the International Panel on Climate change, in order to rise to the climate challenge,” says District of Squamish Mayor Karen Elliott. “We thank everyone who responded to our call for members and we look forward to engaging with every Squamish resident on how we can all work together to combat climate change.  This is a complex issue that will require creativity, ingenuity and courage, and we will provide additional opportunities for our community to help us put ideas into action.”

The Climate Leadership Team are volunteering their time, and while they are bringing their personal and professional expertise, they are not representing their companies or organizational affiliations. The participants on the team are as follows, listed alphabetically:

Meredith Adler – Executive Director, Student Energy
Ian Bruce – Director of Science and Policy, David Suzuki Foundation
Luisa Burhenne – Sustainability Strategist and Renewable Energy Specialist, GHG Accounting Services
Bob Deeks – President, RDC Fine Homes
Fred Ghatala – Director for Carbon and Sustainability, Advanced Biofuels Canada
Emma Jarrett – Manager, Management Systems and Training (Health, Safety, Environment and Quality), Squamish Terminals
Ian Picketts – Faculty member, Quest University Canada
Doug Rae – Business Development, Carbon Engineering

The Team will be joined by Mayor Karen Elliott and one member of District of Squamish Council. The District is also seeking one youth (under age 25) to join the team and provide key perspectives to the project.

Squamish joins 26 B.C. municipalities and over 400 municipalities across the country in pursuit of emergency climate action. A Community Climate Action Plan outlining actions that the community can take to significantly reduce local GHG emissions by 2030 is expected to be complete by early 2020. Public engagement on the plan is expected to launch in the coming months.

For more information on the project, visit https://squamish.ca/ccap/.

October 10, 2019