As the climate crisis intensifies, engineers increasingly need to navigate complex challenges that span environmental, social, and ethical dimensions. Join the next session in our Exchanges webinar series as we discuss the ethical responsibility of engineers in addressing the climate crisis and its environmental impacts.
The panel of speakers features diverse voices sharing perspectives from climate stewardship through Indigenous lenses, exploring the code of ethics in engineering regulation, and highlighting how obtaining a licence demonstrates your willingness to be accountable to designing for the future.
Whether you're a student, early-career professional, educator, or climate enthusiast, this webinar offers insight into shared and ethical responsibility towards addressing one of the greatest challenges of our time and how you can be part of that change.
When: Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 12 – 1:30 pm ET
Where: Zoom (register here)
Opening remarks: Jeanette Southwood, FCAE, FEC, LL.D. (honoris causa), P.Eng., IntPE (she/her/elle), Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Strategic Partnerships, Engineers Canada
Closing remarks: Philip Rizcallah, P.Eng. (he/him/il), Chief Executive Officer, Engineers Canada
About the panellists
Alexa Bates is an Environmental Engineering student at the University of Guelph, passionate about advancing sustainability through student leadership and action. Recently named a Top 25 Environmentalist Under 25, she serves as President of Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW), where she leads multiple projects tackling campus and community environmental challenges. Under her leadership, ESW has become a hub for innovative, student-driven solutions that inspire meaningful change.
At a national level, Alexa served as Co-Chair of the 2025 National Conference on Sustainability in Engineering (CSE), where she developed the theme “The Impactful Engineer”: a call to move beyond surface-level sustainability and empower students to create lasting impact through grassroots initiatives. She is dedicated to showing engineering students that they have the power to address pressing climate-related challenges and lead their communities toward a more sustainable future.
Nicole MacDonald, P.Eng., M.Eng., PMP (she/her) is a Senior Project Manager, Advisor and Indigenous Inclusion Lead at Colliers Project Leaders, representing Project Owners on capital and infrastructure projects. As a PMP-certified Professional Engineer, she has guided not-for-profit, healthcare, public sector, Indigenous clients, and more through the completion of complex building, infrastructure and environmental projects. A holistic view that goes beyond scope, budget and schedule results in projects that support the achievement of clients’ organizational goals and align with their cultures, values and needs.
A key part of Nicole’s mission is to drive impactful project delivery while championing diversity, inclusion and Indigenous initiatives. She has supported clients in introducing diversity, equity and inclusion into procurement and contracts, and in meeting their goals with respect to Indigenous participation, economic reconciliation and supplier diversity. Within Colliers, she leads many reconciliation activities, champions recruitment and retention initiatives, and supports Indigenous employees within the company. In 2022 Nicole was awarded the Colliers International Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award for this work, among other efforts.
Prior to joining Colliers, Nicole worked in environmental consulting and completed both Bachelor’s and Master's degrees in Environmental Engineering at Carleton University. She continues to advise on environmental, heritage and sustainability matters for clients and colleagues.
Nicole grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia and has roots in the Mi’kmaw community of Wasoqopa’q First Nation, as well as other mixed ancestry. She currently lives in Ottawa, Ontario. Nicole is also passionate about health and fitness, takes care of her vegetable garden and chickens, and enjoys the outdoors and riding bikes with family.
Harshan Radhakrishnan, P.Eng. (he/him), is Manager of Climate Change and Sustainability Initiatives at Engineers and Geoscientists BC. He has considerable experience in infrastructure and climate resilience, regulation of engineering and geoscience professions, professional development, policy development, and sustainability. At EGBC, Harshan has helped integrate the consideration of climate change into its Strategic Plan, spearhead the development of the Organizational Climate Change Strategy, and mainstream climate risk management practices into various engineering and geoscience practice guidelines.
Jody Rechenmacher, P.Eng., CMC, works with public sector clients to develop policy, strategy, planning, design, and management programs for sustainable delivery of infrastructure-intensive services. Jody draws on her nearly 20 years of practical experience to help clients discern and focus on what matters most for making progress in their unique context. She is sought out to create training, resources, and best practices for industry associations. She was the lead author on public infrastructure asset management resources for Asset Management BC (including the BC Asset Management Framework), the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Assembly of First Nations, and the Association of Urban Municipalities of Alberta (now called Alberta Municipalities (ABmunis)) and Rural Municipalities of Alberta.
Jody is a Community Consultant and Principal with Urban Systems Ltd. She is also an associate with the Climate Risk Institute, where she is the lead instructor for their Asset Management and Climate Resilience course as part of the Infrastructure Resilience Professional program.
