Green Building Ottawa
Conference

Closing Plenary Friday, May 14th, 2010

3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

We will close out our conference with a discussion on the policies and programs needed to encourage more sustainable building projects, retrofits and housing with an emphasis on the City of Ottawa.  This closing session will help you to:

• Identify the current barriers and the opportunities to sustainable building in Ontario and Ottawa in particular
• Learn what another municipality in Ontario is doing to encourage more sustainable building
• Contribute to the discussion on next steps (for both policy and practice) to build momentum for sustainable building in Ottawa
• Determine the linkages between sustainable building and the City of Ottawa’s other programs and objectives

Our panel includes:

• David Miller, City of Ottawa
• Jane Welsh, City of Toronto
• Matthew Sachs, Urbandale
• Dan Leeming

David Miller, City of Ottawa

David is the Manager of the Environmental Sustainability Branch in the Community Sustainability Department at the City of Ottawa. The Branch is responsible for the City Environmental Strategy and moving corporate and community actions towards environmental sustainability in areas such as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, brownfield, green buildings, and community energy planning. He initiated the Green Building Promotion Pilot Program in 2009 and continues to work within the City on measures to promote green building in the community sector. He has worked in environmental policy in the City for 17 years and has a Masters in Resource Management from UBC and a Urban and Regional Planning Degree from Waterloo.

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Jane Welsh, City of Toronto

Jane Welsh is Acting Project Manager for Environmental Planning with the City of Toronto’s City Planning Division. She has a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Guelph and a Masters of Science in Planning from the University of Toronto.  Her 20 years of municipal experience in environmental planning have included preparing environmental policies for the official plans of Metro Toronto and Toronto, and the Ravine Protection and private Tree by-laws. More recently she has been a key player in developing the City’s new Green Roof Bylaw and the Toronto Green Standard, which requires new development meet minimum sustainable performance measures. Her interest in green roofs dates back to 1983 when she visited a green roof of heather in Edinburgh, Scotland when researching the work of landscape architect Dame Sylvia Crowe.

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Matthew Sachs, B. Eng
General Manager, Urbandale Construction Ltd.

Matthew Sachs is the General Manager of Urbandale Construction Ltd., an Ottawa homebuilder.  Urbandale was recognized in 2009 by EnerQuality as the R-2000 Builder of the Year for Ontario, and more recently Sachs was awarded the R-2000 Builder of the Year award from the Canadian Homebuilder’s Association for his personal commitment to promoting the R-2000 program.  Sachs is the Vice Chair of the R-2000 Standard Renewal Committee, and a participant in Natural Resources Canada’s Technology Roadmap for Sustainable Housing.  Sachs also works closely with Carleton University’s High-Performance Housing Undergraduate Project as an industry liaison.  Prior to working for Urbandale, Sachs worked as an Energy Consultant with Marbek Resource Consultants where he analysed the effectiveness of policies to support renewable energy technologies for utilities and the government.

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Daniel H. Leeming
BA, Dip CP, MES, FCIP, RPP

Dan is a founding partner of The Planning Partnership and has worked on the design and development of new towns and various sizes of planned communities for private and public agencies throughout Ontario and
the United States over his 35 years of experience.  His areas of expertise include community planning, from
regional to neighbourhood scale with the application of urban design, sustainable initiatives and facilitation
to create meaningful and complete communities while satisfying the needs of the marketplace. Many of his
projects have received awards not only from Provincial and National Planning Associations, but from private
sector building and development organizations.

Dan also works with various universities, is an adjunct professor at the University of Guelph, and teaches
Urban Design at the University of Toronto. He has also authored several articles for the Ontario Planning
Journal on topics such as changing energy needs, public health and urban design, our aging society and
sustainable innovation in community design. 

Dan is an active a founding member of the Urban Design Working Group within the Ontario Professional Planners Institute, and a Board Member with the Council on Canadian Urbansim (CanU) as well as Active Healthy Kids Canada.  As the former Vice Chair of the Toronto Design Review Board, he is currently a member of the Mississauga Urban Design Advisory Panel, and co-chairs the Canadian LEED-ND review committee.

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