Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 9:00 am – 10:00 am PST
The construction sector is vital to our built environment. However, globally, the construction industry is the world’s largest consumer of resources and raw materials, and is estimated to generate almost half the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. In Canada, over three million tonnes of construction waste are sent to disposal each year, generated through new build, renovation, and demolition activity.
Local governments are looking for ways to drive down this waste — and are finding it in circular economy solutions ranging from deconstruction and adaptive reuse to design for disassembly.
Our speakers share policies and practices from Metro Vancouver, British Columbia; Grande-Rivière, Québec; and Portland, Oregon.
Featured speakers:
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Adrianna Velázquez, Senior Project Engineer, Metro Vancouver
Adriana is a Senior Project Engineer at Metro Vancouver Solid Waste Services. As part of her role, Adriana works collaboratively with member jurisdictions and industry stakeholders on programs and policies to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste.
Adriana has a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, and a Master of Engineering in Clean Energy Engineering, from the University of British Columbia. Before joining Metro Vancouver in 2016, Adriana worked in the private sector for eight years, in renewable energy consulting and the manufacturing industry.
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Nathalie Drapeau, Director General, Gaspésie Intermunicipal Waste Treatment Board
With training in water treatment and the environment, Nathalie has worked in the field of residual materials since 2003 and has served as director of the RITMRG since 2011. She puts her dynamism and determination to good use, developing a more autonomous and innovative management of residual materials in Gaspésie, in particular through the realization of deconstruction projects. These projects lead to reuse, the local transformation of glass, the establishment of a willow culture for the treatment of composting water, chips on all bins and incentive pricing.
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Lauren Zimmermann Onstad, Sustainable Building & Deconstruction Specialist, City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability
Lauren is the Sustainable Building and Deconstruction Specialist in the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability at City of Portland. She conducts research and collaborates with other cities, regional councils, and national coalitions to develop policy recommendations that will reduce the embodied carbon of building materials, construction practices, and construction waste management in Portland. She grew passionate about bio-based and re-used materials while learning to build a strawbale passive house in Moab, Utah in 2012. After years of building houses and managing sustainable practice at Ankrom Moisan Architects, she brings this practical and design background to low carbon construction from the policy side, focusing on promoting a thriving regional building materials economy.