Jan Gehl

Jan Gehl is Professor of Urban Design at the School of Architecture at Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. He is also the founding partner of Gehl Architects - Urban Quality Consultants. His research on public spaces and public life began in Copenhagen, but was quickly applied to many other cities in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. His ideas and approaches to design for public spaces incorporate the cutting edge of technology without losing sight of what best supports and enhances people's experience of everyday life in the public realm.

His company, Gehl Architects - Urban Quality Consultants, focus strongly on the facilitation of public life in public spaces, often pushing the boundaries beyond common uses of the public realm. To Gehl, design always begins with an analysis of the spaces between buildings. Only after a vision has been established of what type of public life one wants to see flourishing, is attention given to the surrounding buildings and how they can work together to support public spaces.

Mr. Gehl's publications include Life between Buildings, Public Spaces- Public Life, and New Urban Spaces, which have been translated into multiple languages and published in various countries across Europe, North America, and Asia. These publications describe his intensive research on the social uses of public space and people's experiences and opinions about public spaces. They present a method for evaluating city quality, discuss how our sensory abilities affect our use of space, and make recommendations for how design techniques can encourage active use of outdoor space.

Andrew Weaver

Lead Author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Co-winner of Nobel Peace Prize)

Author of Keeping Our Cool: Climate Change: The Scale of the Problem, the Path to the Solution

Andrew Weaver is one of the world's foremost climate scientists. He was a lead author in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the group that, with Al Gore, won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Weaver's clear-eyed new book, Keeping Our Cool, has re-energized, so to speak, a new generation of discussions on climate change and sustainability. David Suzuki calls it "the final alarm that galvanizes us to move onto a different energy path of renewables and efficiency."

Larry Beasley

Larry Beasley is internationally acclaimed as one of the world's best urban planners.

His work was recognized among the "World's 100 Best Planning Practices" by the United Nations in 1996, while the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada presented him with its Medal of Excellence as Advocate for Architecture in 2003. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners and a regular advisor to cities around the world.

Beasley speaks about all aspects of city design and urban planning including managing urban development, the revitalization of cities, and efforts to evolve inner cities and suburbs. Well-versed in both the positive and negative trends that are shaping urban centres, he also offers his critique of contemporary cities and his commentary on American cities from a Canadian perspective.

Wade Davis

Wade Davis is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. Named by the NGS as one of the Explorers for the Millennium, he received his PhD in ethno botany from Harvard University and his work as an anthropologist and botanical explorer has taken him from the forests of the Amazon to the mountains of Tibet, from the high Arctic to the deserts of Africa. His lecture presentations, illustrated by exquisite photographs, are a wild and moving celebration of the wonder of humanity, and the diversity of the human spirit as expressed in the myriad cultures of the world.

Fatima Dia Touré

Fatima Dia Touré is the Director of l’Institut de l’énergie et de l’environnement de la Francophonie (IEPF) and she sheds light on the best kept secret of the Francophonie: expertise in energy and environment related to the OIF, based in Quebec for over 20 years. Of Senegalese origin, she has been Director of IEPF since September 2007. As an environmental lawyer, she specialized in administration and banking studies in Dakar, in the 80s.

Conference Rapporteurs

Holly Dressel

Adjunct Professor, McGill School of Environment

Holly Dressel a writer, producer and broadcaster for CBC radio since the1980’s, she is best known for her many collaborations with celebrated environmentalist David Suzuki on film and radio programs and books. Ms. Dressel continues to offer her expertise and research abilities to draw attention to controversial, current issues.

In addition to her extensive involvement with environmental subjects, her current projects include work with McGill University and the Wemindji Cree on the establishment of a major preservation project in northern Quebec, as well as ongoing activism on water and habitat preservation issues with the Traditional Council of the Kahnawake Mohawk and local grassroots groups in southern Quebec. She and Dr. Suzuki are just now finishing a new book on environmental solutions for Greystone press, More Good News, to be published in the spring of 2010.

Steven Guilbeault

Co-founder, Assistant Coordinator, spokesperson for the Climate and Energy campaign, Équiterre

Mr. Steven Guilbeault, a founding member of Équiterre, has been active in environmental issues, particularly climate change, since the early 1990s. He has coordinated the Greenpeace Canada Climate and Energy campaign for ten years, in addition to coordinating this same campaign for Greenpeace International.

In addition to his position as Équiterre assistant coordinator, Mr. Guilbeault co-chairs the international Climate Action Network and chairs the Special Committee on Renewable Energy of the Quebec department of natural resources (MRNF).

Nations meetings on international climate change. In 2009, he published his first book: Alerte! Le Québec à l'heure des changements climatiques [Warning! Quebec’s situation in the era of climate change], which dealt with his experience with international climate-related negotiations.

In 2009, he was named to the prestigious Quebec Cercle des Phénix de l’environnement and, also in 2009, French magazine Le Monde identified him as one of the world’s top 50 players in sustainable development.