Save energy, make money: MaRS advisor shares Planet Traveler story at TEDxTO

Toronto, September 9, 2009 – MaRS advisor Tom Rand was among 13 sharp-shooting speakers to take the stage today at Toronto’s inaugural TEDxTO event. His own mini-TEDTalk on Planet Traveler: The Green Hotel was delivered with trademark energy and enthusiasm to a select audience of 100 and streamed live via webcast to many more – including gatherings of viewers at the MaRS Centre and locations across the city.

Rand is co-developer of Planet Traveler, North America’s greenest hotel, located in downtown Toronto. The goal is to build a cutting-edge ‘green’ hotel that uses roughly 80% less carbon than traditional commercial buildings, and to make public every decision along the way. “I intend to make a clear and quantified economic and engineering case that we can reduce our carbon use in buildings by enormous amounts, we can do it today, and we can do it using existing technologies,” says Rand, noting that geothermal, solar and heat recovery technology are at the core of the energy-saving strategies at work at Planet Traveler.

In addition to developing this super-green urban hotel, Rand is an entrepreneur, author of the soon-to-be-released book Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit: 10 Clean Technologies to Save Their World, and lead advisor to MaRS’ growing roster of cleantech clients. He has a BASc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, an MSc from the University of London and MA and PhD from the University of Toronto. Recently, he was appointed an Action Canada fellow.

TEDxTO is a local, self-organized event that brings people together to share a TED-like experience. TED – Technology, Education and Design – is an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. The x in TEDx indicates an independently organized event; live speakers and TEDTalks video are brought together to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group.

The theme of TEDxTO was “What’s Next?” What are the new and as-of-yet discovered ideas, projects and people that will shape the future of Toronto, and ultimately the world? See more of TEDxTO at www.tedxto.com

About MaRS
MaRS Discovery District (www.marsdd.com) is a large scale, mission driven innovation centre located in Toronto and networked across Ontario, focused on building Canada’s next generation of technology companies. MaRS works closely with entrepreneurs to grow and scale their ventures into global market leaders in life sciences and health care, information, communications and digital media technologies, cleantech, advanced materials and engineering, as well as innovative social purpose business.

For more information, contact:
Linda Quattrin
Director Communications
MaRS Discovery District
416.673.8104
lquattrin@marsdd.com