Green Profile: Conor Tapp, Executive Director

Posted on November 3, 2017

Green Calgary is part of so many amazing communities in Calgary: the green and sustainable community, the non-profit community, and our own community of members, volunteers, and donors. We want to get to know these communities even better, so we want you to know more about us, too! Here is the first of our Green Profile series!

Name: Conor Tapp

Role: Executive Director

Hobbies: Biking, hiking, listening to a great album while writing. Today, I was switching between Queen, David Gray, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Shad while writing for our upcoming campaign.

Authors or Books: I’m a big fan of almost everything Coupland has done, and also quite enjoyed Andrew Potter’s “The Authenticity Hoax.” I’ve been called a boring reader because most of my reading is essays, position papers, and policies - I love learning new things. (I actually found Kevin Page’s book to be a page turner.)

TV and Movies: I love a good documentary, but honestly get more joy from The Simpsons.

Favourite place to be: I love riding my bike and hiking in the mountains. Riding from Banff to Canmore and back is a favourite half-day trip for me, and my favourite hike this year so far is Ptarmigan Cirque.

What’s your big environmental issue and why? For me, literacy is the biggest environmental challenge. A lack of understanding leads to apathy, which leads to the incredibly negative impacts that humans have had on the earth. That’s why I am so proud of our team at Green Calgary who are tackling this issue head on.

What is your #GreenGoal? I had a few this year. The first was to do away with straws, which I was able to do a lot faster and easier than I expected. I also wanted to ride my bike more this year than last, and wasn’t able to achieve this goal - next year, though! And lastly, I wanted to reduce my household energy consumption by changing out our light bulbs to the most efficient LED bulbs I could find. I thought that I had replaced them all until my front porch light went dark, and I realized that I had been using this one incandescent bulb all this time.

Please share one Green Calgary Association memory. I have quite a few great memories from my first year with Green Calgary, but the one memory that stands out is when I finished stocking the shelves in the Little Green Library. I had focussed so much energy on this project early in my time with Green Calgary, and with the support of our board of directors and IKEA (who graciously donated the shelving) we were able to see the project realized right around Earth Week 2017. I spent the better part of a day moving things around in the EcoStore and building shelves with team members. The next day I started unpacking boxes from book sellers and donors. When I was done and I stepped back to look at the full shelves for the first time, knowing what we have just accomplished, I was speechless. I am such a fan of libraries that to now have one in my office was an incredible feeling - it’s such a unique learning space for Calgarians.

Thanks Conor!

Don't forget that right now we want every Calgarian to set a #GreenGoal and remember that #EveryActionCounts! Post your green goals on Twitter or Facebook, and make a donation to Green Calgary! Thank you!