Rob Kerr
Garforth International Canada Inc. | Managing Director
Speaker
Track C: Decarbonization and Electrification
Session C2: Successfully Scaling-Up Decarbonization
September 18, 2025 | 10:00 am - 10:30 am
City of Brampton- Creating a Road Map for Community Scale Energy Transitions
This presentation is an update on the City of Brampton’s decade-long and continuing decarbonization journey. Brampton is one of the fastest growing cities in North America, with over 700,000 residents and thriving commercial and industrial sectors. The breakthrough energy transformation of Sheridan College’s Brampton, and other two campuses served as a catalyst for collaboration with the wider community, resulting in comprehensive energy-oriented community planning and preparation for scale implementation. This includes detailed energy guidelines in a recent Secondary Plan and preparing for the creation of a new district energy utility.
Speaker Bio
Rob Kerr is currently the Managing Director of Garforth International Canada Inc. Over a long career in both the public and private sectors, Rob’s primary focus has been in the municipal/community area, having worked with the cities of Guelph and Mississauga, Honeywell, Hydro Quebec, Toronto Hydro Energy Services Inc., and Energy Advantage. For 10 years between 1995 and 2005, Rob held senior positions at ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability where he provided policy and program support to cities around the world committed to energy management at the community level, as well as mitigation and adaptation activities related to climate change. Throughout his career, Rob developed expertise in managing inter-governmental relationships to the benefit of local governments and communities, from his advocacy work at the global level (starting with the UN Climate Conference in Kyoto, Japan in 1997) to advisory relationships with federal and provincial governments and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
In his role as Community Energy Manager with the City of Guelph and subsequently as the Principal of a municipal and community energy consultancy (and full-time associate to Garforth International), Rob managed projects including the development of strategic plans, feasibility studies, analytical analysis, and risk assessments for many Ontario municipal and community clients.
Kerr is also a Senior Associate with QUEST (Quality Urban Energy Systems of Tomorrow). Currently, he is managing a project that is researching and analyzing the local economic impact of implementing community energy plans in support of QUEST’s Net-Zero Community Accelerator Program.