Board of Directors

(Appointed 2011) Denis joined Green Action Centre’s board because its mission and programs aligned with his interests in sustainability, reducing car usage and combatting affluenza. A non-driver all of his life, Denis is now rewired and an avid volunteer, having coached soccer and basketball, has advocated for French Immersion schools, participated in church and school advisory councils, facilitated planning and organizational workshops for numerous NGOs and also serves on the Board of Directors of Save Our Seine and Trees Winnipeg. For many years, Denis taught a course in natural resource and environmental economics and sustainability at the Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba. He has spent much of his career working for InterGroup Consultants, assessing and finding ways to mitigate or enhance the socio-economic effects of infrastructure and resource development projects. His favourite activity is biking through the parks and trails of South St. Vital including the magical Bois-des-Esprit, the largest natural area area along the Seine River in Winnipeg.

(Appointed 2012) Ani works for Climate Change Connection, a project of the Manitoba Eco-Network, where she is responsible for coordinating outreach initiatives, delivering presentations, generating information and outreach pieces, and aiding in the delivery of anti-idling initiatives. Ani is also involved with the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, which is a united front of youth from across Canada tackling the biggest challenge of our generation: the climate crisis. She also attended the United Nations Climate Change Negotiations in Durban, South Africa, as a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation.

Prior to working with Climate Change Connection, she finished her Master’s thesis on Canadian climate change policy, and volunteered and worked at the Environmental Policy Research Centre in Berlin and the German Cultural Centre in Toronto. Ani is originally from Germany but adopted Canada as her new home over three years ago. Camping, cycling, kayaking and yoga are just some of her favourite things to do in her free time. Inspiring and empowering people is a theme that resonates through her personally, and something that she believes will become increasingly necessary in our modern society.

(Appointed 2013) James has worked in the financial industry, in policy positions with Canadian lawmakers, and in the communications industry as an editor. An Ecological Economist, James completed his MPhil in Economics at Cambridge University, where he studied the growth requirement imposed by the global banking system. He is interested in the institutional transition to a non-growing “steady state” economy through low-impact living, debt and carbon reduction strategies, and the use of entrepreneurship to ignite rapid change. He serves as the Canadian Director for the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE), as a lecturer in economics and politics with Canadian Mennonite University, and is a founding member of Transition Winnipeg’s Initiating Committee. His commentary has appeared in CASSE’s The Daly News, the Post Carbon Institute Energy Bulletin (now Resilience.org), as well as the Winnipeg Free Press.

(Appointed 2014) Darlene Johnson joined the board because she believes in environmental awareness and giving back to the community. She became involved with Green Action Centre through the University of Winnipeg, assisting them in building the Human Resource policy infrastructure. She loves the outdoors and participates in cycling, gardening, traveling and walking.  She regularly gives her time as a volunteer and has assisted organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Big Brother Big Sister, IRCOM, and Siloam Mission. Previously she has been on the Kiwanis Club of Casa Loma Board of Directors and the Kim Phuc Foundation Board of Directors. She has a obtained her certificate in Human Resources Management from the University of Winnipeg and is currently pursuing her CHRP designation.  Her aim is to assist the Green Action Centre to promote and accomplish their mission, and contribute her Human Resource knowledge to the organization.

(Appointed 2015) After thirty years of post-secondary teaching, Peter Denton brings a breadth of academic and practical experience to his role as Director. He has published five books, includingTechnology and Sustainability (2014) and Gift Ecology: Reimagining a Sustainable World (2012).  Founder and principal consultant (at greenethics.ca, inc.), he blogs at http://peterdenton.ca and can be followed on Twitter @green_ethics.

He was elected one of two Regional Representatives for Major Groups and Stakeholders in North America to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in December 2013. He is a Regional Lead Author in UNEP’s next planetary survey (GEO 6) and a member of the North American Working Group on Sustainable Production and Consumption (NARSPAC).  He is also involved in UNEP’s Ten Year Framework of Programs for Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP).

Peter is Adjunct Associate Professor of History at the Royal Military College of Canada and is an ordained minister of the United Church of Canada.  He has been a Research Associate at the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies (both at the University of Manitoba) since 2007.  He holds five degrees, including a Ph.D. in Religion and the Social Sciences (McMaster).