From the curators of the popular TED Talks, TED Countdown is an urgent new global initiative designed to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. The goal is to turn ideas into action and build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 in the race to a zero-carbon world.

To achieve this, TEDx is partnering with, among others, The Canadian Association for Heritage Professionals (CAHP). The reuse of existing and historic buildings plays an important role in combating climate change, creating a better world for future generations. Cultural agencies are now turning their focus to facilitating de-carbonization. CAHP has made this commitment as well. TEDxCAHP will be focused on the reuse and rehabilitation of existing buildings, which:

• already have inherently sustainable features and spent embodied carbon;
• can, with sensitivity, be further decarbonized;
• can be more sustainable and emission-reduced over time than a new ”green” building.

Mark Thompson Brandt and MTBA will be playing a key role in this conversation. Brandt is one of the invited speakers for the TEDx event. His talk will discuss building reuse as a key climate action that is urgently required to be scaled up across the entire building design & construction/real estate/ cultural sectors. Brandt will outline some actions that are practical and scalable.

TED Countdown programming will run as an accelerated collaboration process over a single year, beginning with the Global Launch in October 2020, and building towards the Final Countdown Summit in October 2021, in time for COP 26 in Glasgow. The launch will take place as a virtual conversation between leading thinkers and doers followed by a week of related worldwide TEDx events, aimed at providing a framework for discussion and facilitating real change.

TEDxCAHP Event Details:

TEDxCAHP on October 13 and 15, 2020 is an affiliated event of Countdown. It was created to start a dialogue about the importance our existing and historic buildings play in creating a sustainable future.  This requires a rethinking of how our world approaches existing buildings.  We encourage people to join the conversation in these free webinars.  Speakers to cover a range of topics related to our roles in fighting climate change, and include audience Q&A.

TED Countdown is an urgent new initiative run by the curators of TED Talks.  The global event on 2020­-10-10 will start one year of cross disciplinary collaboration to provide solutions to the 2021 UN Climate Conference.  These TED and TEDx events will frame the discussion.