From licensure to leadership: Ethical responsibility in the era of climate crisis
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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)
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.
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 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.