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Chris Turner    

Author, Sustainability & Global Cleantech Expert

Chris Turner is an authoritative voice on climate solutions with more than 20 years of experience tracking the global energy transition. His latest book is "HOW TO BE A CLIMATE OPTIMIST," a survey of the first two decades of progress on solutions to the climate crisis. His previous books on climate, energy and technology include multiple bestsellers and winners of Canada's National Business Book Award. His essays and features on energy, climate and technology have appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Vox, the MIT Technology Review, and many other publications, and won 10 Canadian National Magazine Awards.

As a speaker and communications strategist, Turner's recent clients have included Nexans, Compugen, Shaw Industries, TD Bank, the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., the Canadian Climate Institute, Natural Resources Canada and Siemens Energy. He was a 2019 media fellow at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue, a 2013 writer-in-residence at the Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon, and a 2010 Paul D. Fleck Fellow at the Banff Centre. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, with his wife, the author Ashley Bristowe, and their two children.

Speech Topics


The Leap in the City

We are living in the first truly urban century, and the way we build cities today will determine whether we survive and thrive in the sustainable economy. “The Urban Leap” shows how the Copenhagen and other cutting-edge urban models of livable urban design can help us build our brightest possible future and how “tactical urbanism” provides the quick and inexpensive toolkit of to get started. The Urban Leap surveys the state of the art in urban sustainability from Melbourne to Montreal and Dallas to Dawson City.

Taking the Leap: Embracing the Sustainable Economy

Chris Turner is one of the world’s leading voices on climate change solutions and the global energy transition, who draws on recent breakthroughs in state-of-the-art renewable energy and urban design to paint a vivid portrait of a new, sustainable world order that will allow individuals and businesses alike not only to survive but to thrive in the twenty-first century economy. Come and hear Mr. Turner as he speaks about ways that we can embrace the challenge of climate change and develop a more sustainable local economy.

Tracking the Global Energy Transition

The global economy is undergoing the greatest transformation since the dawn of the industrial age as it shifts from an energy regime built on fossil fuels to one run by clean, renewable power. Award-winning author and sustainability strategist Chris Turner has been documenting this energy transition for more than a decade, and his presentation combines insights from his bestselling books on the cleantech revolution, The Leap and The Geography of Hope, as well as analysis of the transition’s impact on the conventional energy economy drawn from his most recent book, The Patch. Turner explains where the energy transition leads, what our energy future looks like, and what it means for the strategic decisions businesses and organizations need to make to survive and thrive in the new energy economy.

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