Karen Haugen-Kozyra, President, Viresco Solutions

KAREN HAUGEN-KOZYRA (PRESIDENT) P.AG., M.SC.

Karen has over 20 years of experience in agricultural greenhouse gas measurement and modeling and climate change/environmental policy development – spanning her tenure at the provincial Department of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD), Climate Change Central and now in the private sector. During her tenure at ARD, Karen was part of the cross-governmental team who developed Alberta’s Bioenergy Policy Framework, which was approved by cabinet in 2008. This framework set the stage for Alberta’s Bioenergy Program administered by the Department of Energy. Karen also led ecosystem goods and service policy and program development, in concert with other federal, provincial and territorial governments under Canada’s Agriculture Policy Frameworks. In her earlier years with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, she conducted research and studies of environmental mitigation opportunities for agriculture in air, water, soil and biodiversity

Her most significant contribution while at ARD and beyond involved her work at a national level, with federal provincial and territorial governments on the Canadian National Offset Quantification Team (NOQT). Karen, through her capacity on the Team, designed the protocol development process, represented the agricultural sector in Canada, and coordinated the development of several agricultural quantification protocols. In 2007, Karen was seconded to Climate Change Central, a not-for-profit established by the Government of Alberta. There, Karen led the implementation of the necessary market processes, infrastructure and tools needed to get the Alberta Carbon Offset Market off the ground. In that role, Karen and her Team leveraged the previous NOQT work to help build sound rules, platforms, quantification protocols, tools and infrastructure (e.g. registry) needed to facilitate the development of a Carbon Offset Market in Alberta.

Currently, Karen is President of Viresco Solutions Inc. – a network of leading advisors making sustainability real for public and private clients in the agriculture, energy and food sectors across North America and globally. Our team of experts enables our clients to meet their environmental, social and economic sustainability objectives by leveraging our knowledge and experience in environmental policy, markets and economics. Viresco Solutions provides clients from across North America with support from strategy and policy development through to project implementation and Measuring, Reporting and Verification plaftorms.

Karen obtained a Biological Sciences Diploma from NAIT, BSc in Plant Sciences and MSc in Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry from the University of Alberta. Karen is also a registered Professional Agrologist with the Alberta Institute of Agrology.