About Dayle Laing
Transitioning from a passion for writing, speaking and practicing green interior design to volunteering for BikeBrampton, Dayle now shares her cycling passion for sustainable living. She does research, writes articles, and encourages others to use Active Transportation for health and the environment.
Dayle Laing, LEED AP, speaks and writes about sustainable design and motivates people to select the Coolest Shade of Green for beautiful sustainable interior design that enhances their body, mind and spirit and reduces their carbon footprint. Her blog has been enjoyed by over 2000 subscribers.
Dayle has an Honours Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Consumer Studies, Consumer Textile Major, and Business Minor from the University of Guelph, a 3 yr. Diploma in Interior Design from Sheridan College, and has earned her LEED Accredited Professional designation.
Her scientific paper in collaboration with Walter F. Kean, MD, Clinical Professor in Medicine (Rheumatology), McMaster University, “The_Greening_of_Healthcare: Fabrics used in Health Care Facilities” was published in the Journal of Green Building, Fall 2011, and the scientific_poster and abstract were presented at an Inflammopharmacology Conference at Cambridge University in July, 2011.
She presented this research at at EcoCare_Health_Care_Conference in London, Ontario in October, 2010. Dayle was keynote speaker at Earth_Matters_Day at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in 2011. Hospitals are increasingly making their facilities more environmentally friendly with ‘Green Teams’ and Dayle welcomes presentation requests and consulting engagements.
A Sheridan College Instructor of Interior Design, she prepared and delivered lectures on Material Finishes, Textiles, Historic Textiles, and Business Practices for 19 years. Using humour, excitement and extensive knowledge, she shared her 25 years of experience in residential and contract design practice with her eager students. From simple residential decorating consultations to complex commercial projects exceeding ½ million dollar budgets and requiring project management, Dayle displayed a broad ranging talent for the business and the creative side of design. Some of her clients have been with her over two decades. She spoke at Construct Canada in 2012 and 2013 about Sustainable Interior Design Trends. Her seminars have been accredited by IDCEC for continuing education for North American Interior Designers and Dayle has been invited to speak at design industry functions, sales meetings and to consult on matters of sustainability.
Dayle researched and wrote an undergraduate thesis in partnership with fellow student David Laing (who is now her husband and business partner). They studied “The Characteristics of Consumers who Recycle versus those who do not”. Recycling was in its infancy with volunteers who manned the collection of clear and green glass bottles, newspaper, and crushed food tins. The environment has been an underlying passion throughout Dayle’s life. She focuses on empowering the Conscious Consumer and feels that if we consciously protect our own health and safety, the planet benefits as well. Dayle spoke at Western University’s Staff and Leaders’ Conference on Conscious Consumer in February, 2012. She has routinely presented and consulted to corporations on sustainability messages for their staff and customers.
In her previous career, Dayle gained valuable experience in the Pharmaceutical industry as a Marketing Research Analyst, a Professional Sales Representative and District Sales Manager. She built a well motivated team of 11 sales representatives and achieved ‘District of the Year’. She left the industry after 12 successful years to pursue her creative side in the interior design field. This background has been invaluable for understanding the organic chemical side of sustainable design and her work in health care sustainability.
Dayle has travelled extensively around the globe with David. Their passion for adventure trekking has seen them climb Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, trek for 3 1/2 weeks in the Everest region of Nepal, sail in Greece and the British Virgin Islands, canoe down the Yukon River in northern Canada, canoe trip every year in the wilderness parks of north central Canada, and downhill ski annually in western Canada. For a decade, Dayle annually sea kayaked for a week with her sisters. Dayle knows what it is to sleep in tents on the mountain side, pump and purify water from a puddle and use open pit toilets. Four and Five-star travel does not give this experience, but she has enjoyed some of that too — Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, India, Africa, Europe, New Zealand, the Caribbean, Central and South America. The result has been international exposure with a more global perspective.
Dayle volunteers actively to promote cycling in her community. She sits on the Brampton Cycling Advisory Committee, and she is the Secretary and Web Editor of BikeBrampton.ca
About David Laing
David Laing, LEED AP, is an environmental management consultant, and an advocate for various environmental initiatives including Active Transportation.
He is an elder of the David Suzuki Foundation, a member of the Peel Chapter of Sierra Club, a citizen member of the Brampton Environmental and Planning Advisory Committee and also a Watershed Champion for the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. David has recently spearheaded an initiative to have Brampton recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the Share the Road Cycling Coalition.David has been a resident of Brampton for over 35 years, and a cycling for transportation enthusiast, and is the founder and chair of BikeBrampton.ca.
David has chosen this path because, for 35 years he worked in the corporate world, rising to Senior Vice President, eventually becoming a Management Consultant. Much of his career was spent helping organizations become more efficient and effective. He became very experienced at designing and implementing change management programs that dramatically affected the daily working lives of employees and altered the organizations’ relationships with their customers and suppliers.
Through this experience he learned that fundamental structural change is a difficult, yet virtually an inevitable part of business sustainability. When an organization faces one of these change points, it often represents a watershed moment. Those that step-up and make the transition are likely to continue prospering, those that don’t are unlikely to survive. There are many examples of companies that have been successful in making these transitions often despite strong internal opposition, aggressive competition, insufficient financing and/or questionable leadership.
David has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Consumer Business, and following corporate life, he studied for and received his LEED® Accredited Professional designation and became an environmental management consultant. He combines his passion and experience to write, speak, educate and motivate around the subject of sustainability.
David’s motivation is simple. Humanity is currently at a watershed moment in its relationship with the environment. The evidence is consistent and clear that collectively, we are living beyond the earth’s ability to sustain us. If we don’t choose how we alter the way in which we interact with it, the environment will force change upon us, in ways that could be very unpleasant. Those changes have already started. David remains optimistic and sees signs of positive change occurring in many places and at many levels. He is delighted to be part of the solution!