Ian Sinclair immigrated to Canada from the United Kingdom in 1997 with a Master’s degree in Engineering and Management from the University of Birmingham. His early career included volunteer-teaching science and math in a Kenyan high school, completing Ford Motor Company’s undergraduate training program, and working the depths of an open cut gold mine in outback Australia.
Once in Canada, Ian took on a role in the energy management field, focused on building energy retrofits and managing large scale multi-building projects for clients such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Parks Canada, York Region, and the University of Guelph. Ian then specialized in the renewable energy field and was responsible for implementing some of the largest solar thermal systems built in decades, including the Canadian Solar Industry Association’s project of the year at Toronto’s SickKids Hospital. He also implemented an award-winning ground mount solar energy system for the off-grid Wawakapewin First Nation in northwestern Ontario.
Since 2013, Ian has combined roles, acting dually as an educator and a consultant. He has developed and taught a number of courses, including Terrestrial Energy Systems in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Toronto, designed to teach graduating engineers the physics and energy systems at play on Earth and in our solar system. He has also developed and delivered a multitude of professional development programs for the School of the Environment, covering energy, water, and policy. He teaches a renewable energy integration course to Ryerson University’s Master of Building Science program.
Ian continues to provide consulting services to the building and renewable energy sectors, covering projects from utility-scale solar energy in the Caribbean, to electric vehicle charging infrastructure, to energy auditing in far northern Nunavut, the latter of which culminated in a trip to Grise Fjord, Canada’s most northerly community.
On the personal side of things, Ian has drastically reduced his own energy and water footprints of his 1905 Victorian row house, through a range of building envelope, energy reduction, renewable energy generation, and water conservation projects, bringing its energy footprint to only three equivalent kilo-watt hours (ekWh) per square foot per year.
Ian is a Professional Engineer certified in Ontario, Canada and a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in the United Kingdom. He also runs competitively, slowing gracefully with age, and plays the guitar in, quite frankly, a bit of a “dad band”.