Chris Turner
Expert on Sustainability, Climate Change, Cleantech and the Global Energy Transition
Chris Turner is one of Canada’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.
A two-time National Business Book Award finalist, his latest book is The Patch: The People, Pipelines and Politics of the Oil Sands. He is also the author of the bestsellers The Leap: How to Survive and Thrive in the Sustainable Economy and The Geography of Hope: A Tour of the World We Need, (both of which were National Business Book Award finalists). His 2014 book, How to Breathe Underwater, a collection of his award-winning essays and feature writing, won the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. His reporting on energy, climate and sustainability issues has appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Globe & Mail, The Walrus, Canadian Geographic, and many other publications.
Turner’s speaking and strategic communications clients have included Shaw Industries, the Pembina Institute, the Smart Prosperity Institute, Clean Energy Canada, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design, the Canadian Insitute of Planners, and the Prime Minister’s Office.
Turner was a 2013 Berton House writer-in-residence in Dawson City, Yukon, and he has served as guest faculty on environmental issues at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and the University of Calgary. He was named one of Alberta’s “Next 10” Most Influential People by Alberta Venture, and was one of Avenue Magazine’s “Top 40 Under 40” Calgarians in 2009.