Tom Berkhout Email & Phone Number

Victoria, Bc, Ca

British Columbia, Canada

Victoria, Brtish Columbia

Greater Victoria Area

Victoria, Bc

In this White Paper, commissioned by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, a number of recommendations are made to the Province of British Columbia about how to steer Advanced Energy Efficiency and Conservation in the built environment. The recommendations are drawn primarily from a comparative analysis of similar efforts being undertaken by the State's of California and Massachusetts. The White Paper will be published in the Fall of 2014.

Victoria, Bc

Bicycles Mean Business was launched by the Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition in September 2013. The objectives of the program are to to build networks and contacts in Victoria's diverse business community. As part of the program's first phase of work, I co-coordinated two transportation-related surveys in Victoria's downtown core. My roles in this work included survey development, volunteer coordination, analysis and report writing. The results from these surveys will be published in the Winter of 2014.

Vancouver, Canada Area

This research project was designed and carried out by myself and a colleague from the University of British Columbia. The purpose of this research was to explore how the role of different individuals and organizations and their interactions with one another effected the success of efforts to transition community energy systems throughout British Columbia. Over the course of the project we interviewed 22 individuals from 18 different organizations. The study revealed that while the existing network is providing important resources and information, leading local governments require specific forms of support to push innovative policies and actions further. In addition, though a shared vision of integrated local energy systems is emerging across the province, the lack of a systemic integration of goals across scales has created significant legislative barriers at the local scale.The study's methodology, analysis and findings were summarized in a paper titled "Local Energy Systems: Evaluating Network Effectiveness for Transformation in British Columbia, Canada" which is scheduled to be published soon in the academic journal Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy.

Vancouver, Canada Area

This research project was carried out for a large Canadian-based energy utility. The project compared and summarized the high-level strategies being pursued in four European countries – the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark – to sharply reduce their energy use in the built environment by 2020. The information from this study helped to inform the utility's demand-side management planning process.

Vancouver, Canada Area

This privately contracted research project was carried out for a large Canadian-based energy utility. The project was a collaboration between myself (project team leader) and three additional team members (two from the University of British Columbia and one from the University of Waterloo). The objectives of the research were to first answer eight questions posed by the organization regarding intentional societal level transitions toward sustainability and second to develop a practical framework to help the organization understand the process of intentional societal-level change toward sustainable energy use. Our findings were based on multiple case studies of intentional transitions toward sustainability. The case studies reviewed included: the ban on second-hand smoking in Woodstock Ontario, water conservation in Queensland, Australia, urban densification in Vancouver, B.C., waste recycling in Ontario, and district energy in Denmark.

Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada

This research project was led by Professor Ian Rowlands at the University of Waterloo and Joseph Doucet at the University of Alberta. The objective of the project was to investigate the motivation and methods of businesses for participating in green power markets and green power policies. My involvement in the project included developing the design for the first phase of the multi-year project, selecting an appropriate sampling frame for studies conducted in Alberta and Ontario, conducting interviews with over 40 business leaders in these same provinces and analyzing the data that was relevant to the Ontario portion of the study.

Ottawa, Canada Area

Storyland was a family-owned, small business located close to the town of Renfrew, Canada (about 100 kilometres northwest of Ottawa). In the role of General Manager, I was directly responsible for the business's operational oversight (managing a staff of 23 employees and an annual operating budget of $230,000), as well as its strategic planning, marketing, advertising, public relations, financing and accounting.Although the sector that this business is located in (i.e., tourism) is quite removed from the work and education that I have pursued since 2003, the practical experiences and knowledge gained through this role are invaluable to how I think about and work with different organizations.

Ph.D., Resource Management And Environmental Studies

Thesis title: Steering Transformative Energy Efficiency and Conservation in British Columbia, Canada. My research examined systems.

Master Of Environmental Studies, Environment And Resource Studies

Thesis title: The voluntary adoption of green electricity by business organizations in Ontario My Master's thesis focused.

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), Management Accounting