Workshop Facilitators
Don Fraser, Executive Director and Registrar for the Auditing Association of Canada
Don Fraser has over 40 years of experience in environmental and risk management. In his consulting work, he has assisted numerous organizations develop management systems focused on improving overall environment and health safety business performance. He has also assisted numerous organizations through the entire process of registration to ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.
Mr. Fraser has been an Advisory Committee member to the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development of Canada, on specific audits being conducted by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada.
He continues to play an influential role in shaping environmental and health and safety management and auditing in Canada and the United States, and has provided significant input to the ISO 14000 series and ISO 19011 documents.
Mr. Fraser is currently the Chair of the SCC Mirror Committee sub-committee on auditing for ISO Technical Committee 207, and is a member of the CSA Environmental Management Technical Committee. He also chairs the Certification Committee on environmental auditing for ECO Canada, which sets the standards for environmental auditor certification in Canada.
Melissa Creede, P.Eng., CPCC - President of Sapis Insight
Melissa Creede has engaged, informed, and inspired leaders and emerging leaders in local and broader communities for over 15 years. She enables individuals and organizations to activate their full potential through career, executive, and leadership coaching, as well as training, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement.
As a leadership and career coach, and a former Vice-President of a boutique environmental consultancy, Ms. Creede has an array of experience and tools to design and implement effective training programs that enhance participants’ participation and learning. Her 20-years of experience in the sustainability field has taken her from Board Rooms in the oil sands to non-electrified communities in rural Argentina. Ms. Creede is well-recognized in her field, and was honoured to be recognized by ECO Canada as one of the top 10 environmental leaders in Canada and was recently profiled in an ECO Success Story.
Luncheon Welcome Address
Tonya Lagrasta, BA, EP - Manager of Community Leadership, KPMG
Tonya Lagrasta is the National Manager of Community Leadership for KPMG Canada. In this role she is primarily responsible for developing the firm’s national Sustainability Strategy, supporting its integration, strengthening employee and broader stakeholder engagement, and reporting environmental performance. Her scope of work also includes providing direction to the firm’s national sustainability office champion network, as well as the development and deployment of programs, which support the firm’s Sustainability and Community Leader strategies at the national, local and personal level.
A certified Environmental Professional (EP), with more than eight years experience in the sustainability and environmental compliance sectors. Tonya’s educational background includes undergraduate work in Environmental Studies and Geography, as well as post-graduate studies in Corporate Communications.
A very passionate advocate for social and environmental sustainability, Tonya involves herself in the communities in which she lives and works. She is currently the Ontario Region Chapter Leader for ECO Canada, and sits on the Board of Directors for the not-for-profit organization Big Art For Little Minds.
Geoff Cafe - Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Evergreen
Geoff is a co-founder of Evergreen and has been its executive director since our inception in 1991. Selected in 1999 as one of Canada’s “Top 40 Under 40” by The Globe and Mail Report on Business magazine, Geoff has also been honoured with the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in recognition of “Canadians who have made outstanding and exemplary contributions to their communities or to Canada as a whole.”
In 2005, Cape was inducted into an International Fellowship by Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. In 2007, Cape won the prestigious Schwab Foundation’s “Canadian Social Entrepreneur of the Year” Award, Canada’s top social entrepreneurship honour. Cape is currently a board member of Parc Downsview Park, is on the Steering Committee of Lake Ontario Park, was founding Chair of the Sustainability Institute, and is a past member of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation Selection Committee.
Don Fraser - Executive Director and Registrar for the Auditing Association of Canada
See biography above.
Toby A. A. Heaps - Co-Founder and President of Corporate Knights Inc.
Toby is the president and co-founder of Corporate Knights. He is a current board member of Friends of the Earth Canada and chairman of E3 Canadian Roundtables, a series of roundtables to define a Canadian energy strategy that will catalyze the country’s clean energy superpower potential. He spearheaded the first global ranking of the world’s 100 most sustainable corporations in 2005. The rankings are now an annual staple of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and have also been published by Newsweek, BusinessWeek and Forbes.
In 2008, Toby served as press secretary to Ralph Nader. Toby is a regular contributor to public debates in Canada and beyond about public policy and business responsibility, particularly related to environmental and developmental challenges. He authored a policy manifesto on how Canada could meet its Kyoto obligations and founded Option 13, a campaign for just global climate policies in the post-2012 era.
After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree at McGill University in economics, with a minor in international development, Toby spent 1997-98 in the Belgrade Field Program (LLB in Management Studies) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has been published in the Globe and Mail, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Toronto Star, and is a regular guest speaker on CBC. Toby is committed to cleaning up capitalism with practical tools, intelligence, and insights so that markets work to make the world a better place.
Rob Watters - President and CEO, Watters Environmental Group
Dr. Robert Watters is the President & CEO of Watters Environmental Group, a national environmental company specializing in the strategic application of technical sciences.
Robert has over 20 years of consulting experience, specializing in environmental due diligence and corporate-level advice. He has coordinated thousands of environmental assessments across Canada, the United States and abroad, and is routinely asked by clients to participate in strategic planning sessions to address current and emerging environmental issues within their business.
Alex Wood - Senior Director of Policy and Markets, Sustainable Prosperity
Alexander Wood is Senior Director, Policy and Markets at Sustainable Prosperity. Sustainable Prosperity is a research network and policy think tank based at the University of Ottawa, with a mandate to support the development of a green economy in Canada.
Alex has spent the last twenty years working at the interface of the environment and the economy, with a particular focus on the development of market-based policies that contribute to a sustainable economy. He has worked in the non-profit (WWF), public (NRTEE), private (TD Bank Financial Group), and now academic sectors. Alex is a graduate of the University of Toronto (B.A.) and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (M.A.)