Speaker: Tom Rand, MaRS Cleantech Practice Lead

Buildings are responsible for more than half of urban carbon emissions. Greening our buildings is clearly a cleantech priority - but what does "green" mean? Which technologies work, and which are window-dressing? What's possible by economic argument alone? This talk will take you through the technologies, decisions and problems of transforming a derelict building on our very own College Street into a modern, clean and green hotel. By "green" we mean an 80 per cent reduction of carbon emissions from business as usual. Planet Traveler will be "North America's Greenest Hotel." Planet Traveler: green, or green-washed?

Generously supported by:

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Tom Rand leads MaRS' role in the Canadian cleantech ecosystem and works with our Advisory Services group to support our growing portfolio of cleantech ventures. He has a strong and successful entrepreneurial background, including the founding of Voice Courier Inc.

in 1991 and leading its expansion to 100 employees in three countries.  He founded VCi Green Funds, a private venture fund to provide angel and venture capital to companies developing emission-reduction technologies.  This included taking hands-on leadership roles in cleantech companies ranging from geothermal to wind to green buildings to hydrogen.   He has Board experience on leading cleantech organizations and was the manager for the Green Bonds public policy team, a high profile initiative that was part of the Federal Liberal party's platform in the last election.  Recently Tom was appointed an Action Canada fellow and is in the final stages of writing a book called "Ten Technologies to Save the World: Kicking the Fossil Fuel Habit", which is scheduled to be released this fall. Tom is also a co-developer of the Planet Traveler development project at 357 College.