Judges: 2020 Sustainable Communities Awards

Allister Brown
Founder, Chemis Environmental Solutions Inc.

Allister Brown is the founder of Chemis Environmental Solutions Inc. He has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Toronto. He has over 40 years of experience assisting clients in developing sustainable solutions for a variety of waste management and contaminated sites issues. He is an expert in all aspects of sustainable solid waste management. This includes: planning and program implementation for cost-effective hierarchical reduction, re-use, recycling, recovery and residual management, and conducting waste composition studies. Allister also audits hazardous waste and solid waste facilities. He helps his clients significantly reduce landfill-destined waste and improve resource recovery and recycling. He also develops management systems to maintain regulatory compliance, protecting environment and human health.

Chris Fonseca
Councillor, Ward 3, City of Mississauga
FCM Board Member

Chris Fonseca was elected in October 2010 as Councillor for Ward 3 in Mississauga. She currently sits on the FCM Standing Committees on Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development, Increasing Women's Participation in Municipal Government and Social-Economic Development. She is involved in regional committees such as the Intergovernmental Relations Advisory Committee, Enterprise Programs and Services Section of the Debt Issuance Committee and she chairs the Audit and Risk Committee. She also sits on the Community Environment & Noise Advisory Committee at Toronto Pearson as well as Partners In Project Green at the TRCA.

Previously Chris ran her own successful business in the Health and Wellness sector. She has also worked extensively with not for profit organizations that understand the importance of responsible fiscal planning and management. While an Undergraduate and Medicine and Physiology Studies Masters student at the University of Toronto, Chris volunteered with many local charities throughout Mississauga.

Today Chris lives in Ward 3 with her husband and twin boys. She enjoys running, walking and cycling on the many trails in Ward 3, Mississauga.

Yves Hennekens
President, YHC Environnement

Yves Hennekens has nearly 30 years of experience in the fields of environment, economy and policy analysis. Prior to creating YHC Environnement in 1998, Yves worked for Quebec's environment minister and held a senior role with a Crown corporation. A pioneer in advancing renewable energy and sustainable urban development, he advises more than 50 municipalities in Canada. As an expert in energy analysis, he has directed and collaborated on more than 50 papers and studies for the Quebec Energy Board and other governmental bodies. Yves has been a peer reviewer for FCM's Green Municipal Fund since 2008.

Sharon Lewinson
President, ACT Canada

Sharon Lewinson is a registered professional transportation engineer with over 25 years of experience in urban transportation and sustainable mobility. She is the president of ACT Canada, a national association that fosters sustainable mobility; a member of the international Transportation Research Board's committee on transportation demand management; and an active member of international sustainable mobility organizations. Sharon has extensive experience in urban transportation and is the president of her own consulting firm, Commuting Solutions. She owns the RideShark mobility management software system, which is used by cities and corporations globally to promote, track and monitor sustainable travel modes.

Dale Littlejohn
Executive Director, Community Energy Association

Dale Littlejohn is the executive director for the Community Energy Association (CEA) of British Columbia. CEA is a non-profit society formed by energy providers, governments and institutions to build capacity and accelerate climate action with local governments in BC. Dale helps local governments build capacity and accelerate climate action by delivering education, developing guidance documents, and delivering consulting engagements in the areas of community energy planning, carbon-neutral strategies, green economic development and district energy.

Pious Maposa
Manager, Asset Planning, Regional Municipality of Halton / Director at Large, Canadian Network of Asset Management

Pious Maposa is an asset management practitioner with over 24 years of financial and strategic management experience in the private and public sector. He has led the Asset Management Program in the Public Works Department of the Regional Municipality of Halton, ON, for the last nine years. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor, and has an IAM Certificate from the Institute of Asset Management. He also has a Master's in Business Administration from Laurentian University. As Director of the Canadian Network of Asset Managers, Pious has led the development and delivery of asset management workshops and presentations with numerous organizations, including the Municipal Finance Officers Association of Ontario.

Monique Punt
Principal, MPunt Environmental Consulting

Monique Punt is a professional engineer with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Queen's University and an M.Sc. in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering from McGill University. As a consultant, she focuses on technical, policy and sustainability aspects of environmental issues including contaminated sites and brownfields. She is a peer reviewer for FCM's Green Municipal Fund, for which she has developed several guidance documents and resources, including a series of brownfield roadmaps for each province and territory. Monique is a member of the Canadian Brownfields Network Technical Advisory Committee and is registered with Ontario's Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change as a brownfields environmental site registry qualified person.

John Purkis
Senior Associate, The Natural Step Canada

John Purkis is a sustainability expert, facilitator and systems change specialist with 25 years of experience. He has a degree in environmental science from Brock University and a graduate degree in business from Concordia University. As a senior associate with The Natural Step Canada, John works with municipalities, businesses and others in Canada and globally to generate and implement bold visions for a sustainable future. John is currently leading a national multi-stakeholder collaboration to address how we account for nature and ecosystem services. Prior to joining The Natural Step Canada, John worked with FCM, where he helped lay the foundation for the Green Municipal Fund and oversaw many innovative municipal planning and infrastructure projects.

Edgar Rouleau
Mayor, City of Dorval, QC
FCM Board Member

Edgar Rouleau served as a city councillor for over 23 years in the City of Dorval, QC, and has been mayor since 2005. He graduated from l'École des HEC affiliated with the Université de Montréal; is a member of the CPA-CMA Order; and was a long-time sales director for a large international submersible pump company. He has held positions as vice-chair of the Montreal Urban Agglomeration Council Committee on Public Safety; as a delegate to the Standing Committee on Municipal Infrastructure and Transport Policy; as director of FCM; and as vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development at FCM.

Roland Richard
Former president of Canadian Water and Wastewater Association

Roland P. Richard P Eng., FEC, has a career that spans over 40 years’ as a registered Professional Engineer in the province of New Brunswick with municipal engineering experience in both the private and public sectors’. He is currently active in standardization through Standards Council of Canada participating in the development of ISO standards in the areas of: water reuse; sludge recovery; recycling; treatment and disposal including biosolids; service activities relating to drinking water supply systems and wastewater systems; sustainable non-sewered sanitation systems, and community scale resource oriented sanitation treatment systems. He volunteers and serves on numerous water and wastewater associations including having served as President of the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA).

Russell Walker
Councillor, Halifax Regional Municipality, NS
FCM Board Member

Russell Walker has served as councillor since he was first elected to the Halifax Regional Council in 1994. He served as deputy mayor from November 2005 to November 2006. He also taught for 30 years at Clayton Park Junior High School, retiring from his teaching career in June 1998. Russell has served as president of the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities Board twice, and has also served on FCM's Board of Directors. He has been a resident of District 10 in Halifax for more than 40 years.