JANUARY 29, 2020
Climate Change:What Can You Do?
IMPACT SALON: A modern salon featuring interactive and engaging discussions by attendees and experts on a myriad of topics which impact our everyday lives including: the future of digital media, climate change, and the future of healthcare.
Climate Change: What Can You Do?
Climate Change continues to be a monolithic force impacting the ways we think about how we live, work, and plan for the future. But what can we do - individually or as a global community - about it? The second installment of the Impact Salon invited our experts and attendees to discuss, debate, and exchange ideas about actionable steps to combat, mitigate, legislate, and talk about climate change.
David Rutherford is VP, ESG Services at NEI Investments. He originally joined NEI as VP Marketing in August 2016 with a mandate to lead the re-positioning of the organization around Responsible Investing (RI). In his current role since May 2019, David is leading NEI’s ESG team and program helping reinforce the company’s leadership position in the rapidly changing investment landscape and increasingly competitive RI space.
A highly versatile leader with 30+ years’ experience in corporate, government, agency and non-profit organizations, David holds an undergraduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Ryerson University, and earned a master’s degree in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics, where he examined the impact of digital technology on human behaviour and interaction.
He has also earned his living as an abstract oil painter, cartoonist, writer and journalist.
Economics & Public Policy Student, University of Toronto
Aliénor (Allie) Rougeot is a third-year economics and public policy student at the University of Toronto (“UofT”). Her early interest in human rights and the environment began at the age of 10, inspiring her to become a climate justice activist in high school. She started as a fierce advocate for wildlife protection and biodiversity laws but began focusing her efforts on the climate crisis once it became apparent that crucial emission reduction targets were not being met. Since then, her dedication to the cause has led to her recognition in Toronto Post Magazine’s '20 Under 20', and Corporate Knights’ '30 Under 30'. In addition, she received the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace’s (“VOW”) Kim Phuc Youth Award, and the 2019 Climate Arts Awards’ Youth Climate Award. VOW is Canada’s longest-standing feminist peace group, and the 2,000-member, non-partisan group holds consultative status at the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council.
Stefan Hostetter is a Toronto-based climate expert, storyteller, and community builder. Stefan works with the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) in Toronto as the Community Manager of CSI Spadina and Project Coordinator for the Agents of Change: Climate Solutions program. CSI's vision is a world where people and the planet come first, building a movement of nonprofits, for-profits, entrepreneurs, artists, and activists working across sectors to build a better world. They are a co-working space, community, and launchpad with locations in Toronto and New York City, providing members with the tools to accelerate their success and amplify their impact.
Outside of CSI, Stefan is the Co-Chair of the Toronto Climate Action Network (TCAN), an action-oriented outreach organization working towards addressing the threat of climate change via public awareness, education and support alongside other organizations with similar objectives and goals. In addition, he co-hosts the ‘Green Majority’, a nationally-syndicated radio show focused on environmental topics. He also co-produces the 'Stories We Don't Tell', a monthly storytelling series and podcast that dives into the parts of people's lives that society often leaves untold.
Michael’s work has included a mission to convince retailers that plastic bags weren’t environmentally conscious. His suggestion was that they should be replaced with hard rigid containers made of plastic that consumers could purchase and bring back to the store instead of plastic bags, saving millions of bags from ending up in landfill.
The Greenbox System became a success with retailers like Loblaw’s in Canada and Safeway in England stepping up and embracing the system. His efforts didn’t stop there he worked with manufactures around the world developing and making his products better and more cost effective. His keen eye for detail and relentless pursuit of perfection made manufactures revisit their technologies and practices to share his dream of a new retail world. He has invented, patented, and reshaped many ways that retailers do business today.
Today, Michael is President and CEO of InStore Group of Companies based in Toronto comprising of 5 inter companies that support and service the North American retail market. In addition, he is President of Indeed Laboratories, a cosmetics company that is changing the way every day consumers purchase affordable anti-aging products that really work.