Innovation Anthology #731:
Blue is the new Green.
That is the central theme of a keynote speech that hydro geologist Dr. Lee Barbour gave to a recent gathering of Syncrude management and researchers.
Over the last two decades, Dr. Barbour’s own research has focused on water and the oil sands. In his talk, he outlines a changing mindset around sustainability – that it’s all about the water.
DR LEE BARBOUR: I would say the first decade of my work with Syncrude was really about “green”. It was about how do we ensure that we can restore the landscapes back to productive upland forests. And through that research, I realized that ultimately it’s all about the water. Can you track the water through the landscape? And then I showed how even in Syncrude’s research,we’ve seen this evolution from “green to blue” so to speak. From simply greening up the landscape to being a little more focused on the water moving through that landscape, whether it’s used by plants in terms of greening the landscape, wetlands, or ultimately released back to the Athabasca. This focus on “where is the water” became priority.
Dr. Barbour says this changing mindset must expand to integrate both corporate values and a personal value for water.
Thanks today to SYNCRUDE
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I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
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Sponsor
Syncrude
Program Date: 2015-11-10