Watch Webinar: Pathways to Net Zero

Food in Canada is proud to present the second annual webinar series on Food Innovation in Canada. During the fourth and final part of the series on June 7, we turned our attention to “Pathways to Net Zero.”

This 1-hour web discussion focused on the different pathways to net-zero for food manufacturing companies and the challenges on the path. The panel shared insights on emerging ingredients that helped create net-zero pathways in the food industry and discuss the topics of energy sources, policy making and meat production.

Panelist: Christine Couvelier

Christine Couvelier is the President of Trendi, where the mission is to rescue food and feed the world. With over 40 years of experience, she is the past Executive Chef of President’s Choice, Director of Culinary and Beverage/Executive Chef at Cara Operations, and the Chair of The Chef School of George Brown College.

She worked on Global Innovation for Unilever and was the first Director of Culinary Strategy at Maple Leaf Foods, where she worked on the vision, design and construction of the ThinkFOOD! Centre. Additionally, she develops a Trend Watch Report focusing on emerging, developing and existing trends.

Couvelier is National Chair of the Board of Directors for Taste Canada and a member of the IWF (International Women’s Forum).

Panelist: Bruce Taylor  

Bruce Taylor, MRE, FCAE, P.Eng., President, Enviro-Stewards Inc., founded Enviro-Stewards, which is a Best for the World classified B Corporation and the only Canadian company to win a Global SDG award. Ten of their engineering projects have won national sustainability awards, including helping Maple Leaf Foods become the World’s First Major Carbon Neutral Food Company and helping 50 Canadian Food and Beverage processors to reduce food loss by $240,000/yr each (link).

He also founded the safe water social venture project that was featured in B the change magazine, MEDA magazine, and a TEDx talk.

Moderator: Leslie Ewing

Leslie Ewing, Executive Director at Plant-Based Foods of Canada has over twenty-five years of experience in the consumer-packaged goods sector, and has been instrumental in developing Canada’s rapidly growing plant-based foods industry. As Executive Director, she has assembled a unique organization that includes manufacturers, ingredient companies, VCs, brokers, distributors, and retailers in the mission of growing the plant-based segment in Canada.

In addition to leading PBFC in its advocacy and education work, she launched its first National Plant Based Food Week this year, building an impactful annual platform to showcase the industry in Canada. She is also a founding member of the International Plant Based Foods Working Group that collaborates with similar associations around the globe on common interests.

Ewing is also an Advisory Board member for The Road to $25 Billion for Canada’s Plant-Based Food & Ingredient Ecosystem and Algae-C, a plant-based active pharma ingredient (APIs) company.