Public Procurement

Jodi Houston has worked with the Circular Innovation Council (previously the Recycling Council of Ontario) since 2010. As the Program Manager for the organization, her focus has centred on educating and influencing the public sector to use buying power to shift markets towards circularity. Through her work, she has developed various learning and engagement tools on circular procurement, created CircularProcurement.ca, a national hub of tools, resources, and case studies for governments, and has authored multiple resources, including the recently developed Circular Procurement: Strategies for Circular Criteria resource for municipalities.

With extensive experience spanning over two decades in circular economy, sustainability, and environmental management, Marcos has led numerous initiatives across diverse sectors from chemistry to energy in Latin America, Europe, and Canada. Holding significant expertise in life cycle assessment, ESG, project management, design thinking, and systems thinking, Marcos has driven cross-cultural dialogue and stakeholder engagement towards sustainability and human development. As a lean six sigma expert, he has implemented EHS programs in manufacturing industries and local governments. Currently serving as the Program Manager, Circular Economy at the City of Richmond and an Associate Professor at Institución Badra, Marcos continually strives to promote innovative circular economy practices.

As the Sustainable Supply Chain lead for the City of Edmonton Hieu manages the implementation of the City’s Sustainable Procurement Program. At the City of Edmonton, Sustainable Procurement considers both Social and Environmental outcomes through the leveraging of City spend, influencing suppliers to provide social and environmental benefits to the community.

Maike Althaus is the Executive Director of Canada Cleantech Alliance as well as of the Ontario Clean Technology Industry Association (OCTIA). In this double role, she advocates for Canada’s cleantech companies to address the sector’s key challenges: access to capital, markets and customers. Maike has a background in global brand building and growth communications and extensive experience leading and managing integrated communications initiatives in North America and Europe. Through her work, Maike mitigates risk for all parties whether it is reputational, financial or political. Maike has been working in the global cleantech sector for over 15 years. In 2011, she joined a global wind energy company that had just set up their North American operations in Montreal. As their Communications Director, she built the company’s brand across North America and supported its growth. Maike is fluent in French, English and German. She has been communicating in Germany, Canada and the U.S. for global companies such as Senvion, Veolia Water, Viessmann, E.ON and BNP Paribas Cardif as well as for governments, politicians and not-for-profits.

Mike Layton is a former Toronto City Councillor, with a backgorund in urban planning, climate action, & long-time champion of sustainability inside and outside government.

Mike is a Certified Electrical Technologist (CET) and holds a diploma in Electrical Engineering Technology from the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC). He has been working in the clean technology sector for over 5 years, with a focus in smart city sensing and data collection, smart grid technology, renewable energy and storage systems. Mike joined Liveable Cities and LED Roadway Lighting Ltd. in 2019 and is responsible for leading and providing technical sales support on smart cities and connected lighting projects.

Peter McArthur is a seasoned commercial/corporate banker and an environmentalist. He is a keen supporter of the cleantech sector in Canada in his role as VP, National Cleantech Lead with RBCx. Peter is a subject matter expert within the Bank and is a speaker and advocate for the sector broadly. Peter works with a wide variety of cleantech companies ranging from early stage commercializing businesses to public companies. Peter supports a wide variety of cleantech companies coast to coast in Canada, working with a team of 10 specialists. Peter was recognized as a cleantech leader by the Clean 50 in Canada, for 2019. He has also been recognized by RBC in both 2017 and 2020 as a Conference Award winner for the top 1% of performers at the Bank and in 2021 was recognized as a Leo Award winner for the top .1% of performers. Peter is founding Chair of the Ontario Clean Technology Industry Association (OCTIA) and is on the Board of the CanadaCleantech Alliance.

Myrna Bittner is the CEO and Co-Founder of RUNWITHIT Synthetics, an advanced synthetic modelling, data and 3D visualization company working in decarbonization, sustainability, equity and resilience growth initiatives globally. Myrna is passionate about connecting technology, policy and infrastructure design to human impacts and outcomes through modelling imaginable and unimaginable “what ifs” and producing the data from the future required for decision support today. RUNWITHIT’s Synthetic Twin Futures platform continues to win international awards for technology and its applications including the United Nations Global Call, Taiwan’s Top Technology Gold Medal, Toyota Mobility Foundation’s City Architecture of Tomorrow and SET100 EU Certification for Top 100 in Energy Transition. RUNWITHIT is a Certified Indigenous Business, women-led and committed to representing in building futures that are better for all.

Brenda is a business growth enabler with experience in B2B marketing in the private sector, as well as many years as an economic development professional helping local companies to expand and grow, and promoting investment opportunities in Richmond Hill. Brenda is on the board of directors of two not-for-profit organizations and has been actively involved in the Richmond Hill Board of Trade, including as a judge for the Business Achievement Awards.

At the City of Toronto, we drive sustainability with a triple bottom line motive to create economic activity, environmental & energy resilience, and social equality through strategic partnerships and innovative business models for sustainable urbanization.

With close to two decades of experience, Sarah is deeply versed in climate mitigation policy-with specific expertise in all aspects of industrial decarbonization. Using the tools of relationship building and facilitation, Sarah is known for her collaborative approach with industry and business leaders to advocate for policy change. A frequent spokesperson and public speaker, Sarah has testified before legislative committees, and provides regular commentary for media. She is a sought-after participant advisory boards and committees, providing advice on topics such as carbon accounting, procurement, the scale up of clean technology. She is the recipient of the 2018 Clean 50 Emerging Leader Award, in recognition for her leadership in clean capitalism.

Remi Desa is a technology entrepreneur. Born in Canada and raised in Kenya, he returned to Canada to study electrical engineering and management science at University of Waterloo. Remi’s focus on improving public transit stems from his own life experience which has showed him how integral quality transportation is to leading a productive and satisfying life. He has a passion for finding efficiencies and has over 20 years of experience working in operations and logistics.

With a passion for creating change, Sam leads the BrainBox AI team in their mission to make an impact on climate change using world-first autonomous AI technology applied to the built environment. Prior to joing BrainBox AI, Sam was focused on private equity investing, holding several senior executive roles in mid-sized companies and accumulating significant experience identifying investment opportunities and supporting management teams in developing and executing growth-oriented business plans.

John Downey, Senior Director of Procurement at BGIS Global Integrated Solutions, boasts 35+ years of global procurement expertise. Having overseen procurement teams across Asia, Europe, and the Americas, he has managed contracted spend exceeding $10 billion. With a strong Six Sigma background, John has held significant procurement roles at Bell-Northern Research, Nortel Networks, and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA).

Ollie is a Program Manager at Clean Energy Canada where he works to develop and advance policies that reduce industrial emissions while promoting clean growth. Before joining Clean Energy Canada, Ollie worked as a research consultant focused on human capital and the innovation economy with an environmental and sustainability lens. Prior to his move to Canada, Ollie worked in policy and research for think tanks and non-profits in the U.K. He holds an MSc in Urban Studies from University College London, and a BSc in Human and Physical Geography from the University of Reading.

Bob is a leading expert on quantifying the business value of sustainability strategies. He has given over 1,500 presentations, has authored six books, and has published two white papers. He provides extensive free, open-source resources for sustainability champions. For the last few years, Bob has focused on Sustainable Procurement and Net-Zero Procurement as market forces to incentivize the transition to more sustainable business models and to mobilize businesses in the race to net-zero GHGs.

He serves on the Future-Fit Foundation board, the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC) board, and the B Corp Standards Advisory Council. He was one of the first five inductees into the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) Hall of Fame in 2011, has received two Clean50 awards, and earned 11 “Best of the World” awards as a Certified B Corp. He is an ISSP Sustainability Excellence Professional, a Future-Fit Certified Professional and Accredited Partner, and received a PhD in sustainability from the University of Toronto.
More information about Bob and his resources for sustainability champions can be found at www.sustainabilityadvantage.com.

Donald Grant was born and raised in Calgary, and came to Ottawa to study at Carleton University and fell in love with the region. His career of over thirty years includes time in the private sector and the not-for-profit world before joining PSPC. Donald is also a part time professor at the University of Ottawa.