Dr. Jose Etcheverry, SEI Co-Chair & Professor
Dr. Jose Etcheverry is particularly interested in strategies to develop all renewable energy sources to their full potential and in finding new ways to communicate effectively about solutions to climate change and energy problems. Prior to working at York, Jose held positions at the David Suzuki Foundation and the climate change team of the Global Environment Facility in Washington DC. For more information about Dr. Etcheverry click here
Dr. Mark Winfield, SEI Co-Chair & Professor
Dr. Mark Winfield currently focuses his research on electricity, energy efficiency and climate change policy in Ontario.
Before joining FES in 2007, Dr. Winfield was a Program Director with the Pembina Institute, and prior to that Director of Research with the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy. For more information about Dr. Winfield click here
Peter Love, Adjunct Professor
Peter Love is the former Ontario Chief Energy Conservation Officer and is the President of the newly formed Energy Services Association of Canada. He is also a member of a number of corporate Boards and teaches the 4th year course on energy efficiency at York University.
Farid Bensebaa, Adjunct Professor
Farid Bensebaa is a project leader at the National Research Council of Canada since 1997. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Sherbrooke, and at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. His main areas of expertise include nanotechnologies, solar energy, fuel cell and distributed power generation.
Dr. Karen Farbridge, Adjunct Professor and Urban Connector
Dr. Karen Farbridge, adjunct faculty with the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, is President of Karen Farbridge and Associates. Her practice focuses on community energy planning and the role of municipalities in the low carbon energy transition. She sits on several boards and spent 17 years in municipal politics.
Link to more information: www.karenfarbridge.ca
Dr. Laura Taylor, Associate Professor
Laura Taylor is an associate professor in environmental planning in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University. She is a registered professional planner with the Ontario Professional Planners Institute. She is a member of Lambda Alpha International and the Urban Land Institute’s Women’s Leadership Team. She is a member of the Council for Canadian Urbanism’s Resiliency Committee. She was also a long-time member of the Ontario Greenbelt Council.
Taylor has worked on a consulting basis with several Ontario municipalities to reduce energy and emissions through planning policy. She focuses on linkages between land-use planning and actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change, including barriers to implementation, and identification of key gaps in land-use planning frameworks:
- Town of Caledon, Bolton Secondary Plans Review: Energy Conservation and Sustainability Study with Hemson Consulting Ltd.
- City of Brampton, Heritage Heights Community Energy Plan, with Garforth International and Farbridge & Associates
- Simcoe County Municipal Comprehensive Review: Climate Change Strategy, with Hemson Consulting Ltd.
- Region of Halton, climate advisor on official plan review
- Region of Peel Municipal Comprehensive Review: Energy and Emissions Technical Report with Hemson Consulting Ltd.
- Ontario Ministry of Environment & Energy, Research and Information Gathering on Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation with the Ontario Climate Consortium, Toronto & Region Conservation Authority, and ZZ Allan.
Taylor also studies exurbia—the rural residential countryside at (and beyond) the urban-rural fringe, and is co-editor of two books on exurbia: A Comparative Political Ecology of Exurbia and Landscape: Planning, Environmental Management and Landscape Change (2016) and Landscape and the Ideology of Nature: Green Sprawl (2013).
