Get to know the speakers!
Bryan Ho-Yan, Manager of Energy and Climate, City of Guelph
Bryan is passionate about working along side others in fighting climate change. He works at the City of Guelph as the Manager of the Energy and Climate Change team. The team work on a variety of projects such as electrifying transit, upgrading buildings with heat pumps, and generating renewable energy using solar and biofuels. The team also supports the community through the Guelph Greener Homes program and reporting progress on community-scale GHG emissions. Through these efforts, the City of
Guelph has significantly reduced GHG emissions and increased renewable energy generation capacity. Although there has been good progress, there’s still lots of work to do in the fight against climate change!
Gaby Kalapos, Executive Director, Clean Air Partnership
Gaby has been working to motivate and support local government action on clean air and climate change for over 20 years. Her passion has been on encouraging the uptake, transfer and implementation of clean air and climate change actions and the building of partnerships that enable collaboration and support between the community and all levels of government.
Tova Davidson, Executive Director, Sustainable Waterloo Region
Tova leads SWR under the Board of Directors, and is responsible for developing our strategic direction, supporting team members, and building key relationships throughout Waterloo Region. She brings her experience in public relations and communications to creatively approach sustainability opportunities. Paired with her business background, Tova is uniquely qualified to collaborate with organizations in Waterloo Region to help drive change locally and provincially. A former recipient of the City of Guelph
Mayor’s Award of Excellence and member of the Guelph Mercury’s Top 40 Under 40, Tova always leads by example while inspiring others to do the same.
Karishma Porwal, Climate Activist
Karishma is a climate storyteller, content creator, and educator who loves to bring nature and sustainability into everyday topics - bringing light and hope to an otherwise daunting conversation. Karishma guest lectures at institutions like Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Western Ontario on "how to talk about climate change" and how we can change a narrative of doom to a narrative of doing. She also features on CTV's Your Morning as their resident "Eco-expert", bringing tips and for her day job, she works as a Communications Manager at a climate-focused non-profit.