As women and men around the world recognize International Women’s Day — reflecting on all the positive change while revisiting ongoing challenges — we are excited to share highlights of a recent fireside chat featuring Dr. Krista Barfoot, Sector Leader for Infrastructure at SLR Consulting.
As part of the Women’s Environmental Group (WEG) mandate, we welcome remarkable women to share their career journeys and provide insights to help empower females working in the industry. The WEG community, which was initiated in 2025, already includes more than 120 members from across the country, and there was a high level of interest in Krista’s story.
For almost three decades, Krista has been at the forefront of project excellence in the environment industry. She is known to have a remarkable enthusiasm for her work — and for paying it forward. Her leadership, integrity, and commitment to raising industry standards continue to shape the environmental profession.
As a Chartered Chemist and Qualified Person for Risk Assessment, she has shaped best practices in brownfield redevelopment, excess soil management, and environmental risk assessment. And her efforts have not gone unnoticed; she was recently recognized for winning a prestigious industry leadership award.
In this dynamic conversation, Environment Journal Editor Connie Vitello engaged Krista to provide an authentic account of her career experience so far. They explored everything from early inspiration to guiding principles, lessons learned and advice for the next gen.
Dr. Krista Barfoot and Environment Journal Editor Connie Vitello kick off the fireside chat for the Women’s Environmental Group event in February 2026.
The butterfly effect and becoming a scientist
Krista’s enthusiasm for the environmental industry stemmed from an outdoor upbringing in a rural community, leading to a fascination with the natural world, ecology, and interconnected systems. She found inspiration in concepts such as the “butterfly effect” — how complex ecosystems absorb even the smallest impacts and can lead to big consequences — which eventually led her to seek a career in environmental science.
While she has a demanding work schedule, Krista carves out time to incorporate involvement in industry organizations like the Ontario Environment Industry Association (ONEIA) and the Canadian Brownfields Network (CBN).
“My engagement in industry associations greatly complements my consulting work. They’re very directly connected and there’s been a lot of value in being part of those organizations in terms of getting insight into regulation and policy changes, having a seat at the table with the Ministry and being able to talk through gray areas of the regulation,” said Krista. “Being able to understand where industry trends are going and what are other people are seeing — all of that really helps you better manage risks on projects, better manage your clients’ risks better, and be a better consultant.”
She also emphasized the importance of seizing opportunities, even if outside one’s comfort zone. She recalled a pivotal point when she accepted an invitation to present a keynote address, and how that led to a cascade of opportunities, including leadership roles on both industry and government committees. She credits both female and male mentors for recruiting her.
However, she also advised on the importance of acknowledging limitations. Over the years she has learned to step out of one leadership role if taking on another to avoid being overwhelmed. “Be realistic about your commitments and choose the roles that best align with current career goals,” said Krista.
ONEIA recently presented Krista with the prestigious Skip Willis Memorial Award, which recognizes exceptional people working in the environment space in Ontario. The spirit of the award is to recognize those who, like the late Skip Willis, have gone above and beyond to promote collaboration between the industry and government with integrity, generosity, and tenacity.
Krista said receiving the award was a very touching and humbling privilege, while she also emphasized that accomplishments in the industry are not achieved alone and credited her amazing teams for their combined success.
Ontario Environment Industry Association (ONEIA) Board Chair Tim Murphy, Skip Willis Award recipient Dr. Krista Barfoot, and ONEIA Executive Director Michael Fagan. Credit: ONEIA
Advice for the Next Gen: Beware sticky floors
When asked about some principles to guide the next generation, Krista shared three key pieces of advice she received and lives by. The first is “beware of sticky floors” and allowing yourself to stay in lower-level jobs. Sometimes women hold themselves back by not applying for higher level jobs when they don’t meet 100 per cent of the qualifications.
The second key point was that “daily work life balance is a myth.” Achieving a balance means “the priorities in your life are getting addressed over the course of time. So, there will be days when work wins. There will be days when your kids win. There’ll be days where your aging parents win or your spouse wins or you win or your community wins or whatever it is.” For Krista, Work-life balance means the things that matter get addressed at some point, but perhaps not all at once.
The third piece of advice was to “ask for feedback,” especially after not receiving a promotion, to understand areas for improvement or to gain insight into whether the current workplace can support further advancement. Make sure you ask for constructive criticism and gauge what the company can provide in terms of next steps for growth.
Krista also advised young professionals to keep investing in themselves through various opportunities, such as free webinars, and not to rely solely on their employer for education. She also stressed the importance of being visible, equating it to Sheryl Sandberg’s advice in her book Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, to “sit at the table.” Krista encourages everyone to “turn on their cameras” in meetings when appropriate to build their brand and network.
Presenting an award at the 2025 Brownie Awards, presented by the Canadian Brownfields Network and SiteMedia. Krista is a member of the Brownie Awards selection committee.
Overcoming obstacles and advancing to the C suite
Women account for just over one-quarter (26.6 per cent) of management positions within the Canadian environment and cleantech sector — 12.6 percentage points below the share of women among all managers in Canada (39.2 per cent) — according to the most recent data available from Statistics Canada.
Krista acknowledged that the C-suite remains challenging for women in the environmental sector. To advance, she recommends identifying one’s strengths and weaknesses among the important executive skills — such as strategic thinking, data-driven decision-making, effective communication, business savvy, adaptability, risk management, relationship building, and cultural leadership.
She emphasized the necessity of actively vocalizing interest in these roles and progressively chasing them, noting that opportunities are not simply handed out. Interestingly, in addition to the individual effort, she remarked on the importance of teamwork.
“The beauty of teams is people bring different strengths to the table,” said Krista, who added that the best teams are built with diverse sets of strengths; someone who excels at the technical skills, another who is great at strategy, while another may be effective at sales. “No one person is good at everything but combining strengths leads to a stronger team that covers each other’s weaknesses and is better prepared to tackle challenges.”
She also advised having a four-to-five-year career plan and constantly evaluating if there is still room for growth, citing examples of organizational structure that can possibly limit progression.
What is the biggest form of bias she’s experienced? Krista identified salary as the most obvious form of direct gender bias she has faced, both personally and having witnessed this with female colleagues. She cited a case where a male colleague at a lower level was hired at a higher salary. “Time is money, and industry rates have to be respected,” said Krista, who raised the issue to management, and as a result salaries were adjusted. This experience highlighted the necessity of advocating for oneself, as no one was monitoring for this bias.
Paying it forward for other women
Recognizing that her own career growth was supported by individuals providing her with opportunities, Krista is intentional about monitoring and finding opportunities for other women to expand their skill sets.
“The big takeaway there is the importance of engaging new people, giving people opportunities to come and attend events and speak and present themselves and their work and to have that opportunity to build their network,” said Krista. “Looking back now, I see how very valuable that really was.”
This includes encouraging the next generation and emerging leaders to submit abstracts, present work, or take on different roles in project management or technical leadership to push them out of their comfort zone, as “no growth happens in your comfort zone.”
But it’s not all hustle and bustle for Dr. Barfoot. To maintain her holistic health and avoid burnout, she likes to unplug by enjoying fitness in the outdoors. She used to be a competitive field hockey player and runner, and currently enjoys activities like hiking, kayaking, skiing, and cycling. She believes that a “sound mind and a sound body go together,” so she makes physical self-care a guarded priority.
If she could, would she do anything differently? Her only career regret was that it was punctuated with frequent job instability, ups and downs marked by reductions in the workforce, due to economic and political instability. But the grass is not always greener elsewhere, said Krista.
“I am still completely fascinated by environmental systems and by how everything fits together and works. I do a lot of contaminated sites work, and I love the ability to take a site that was vacant and derelict and help it become something bigger and better that’s contributing to a community in some meaningful way.”
Mark your calendar
The next WEG event will be held virtually on Wednesday, April 15 at 2 p.m. ET. SiteMedia’s Corinne Lynds will moderate a fireside chat with Professional Coach Shauna Moran about how to tackle pay equity and compensation negotiations. To register for this event, reach out to [email protected].
Lynds and Moran are presenting an upcoming in-person event — called CALIBRATED — which will be held in Vancouver, B.C. on May 13. This new event will equip women leaders in industrial and technical sectors with tools to regulate stress, master executive presence, and lead teams sustainably, without burning out. For more information, click here.
WEG members also provided invitations to several events across the country, such as this: PWHL Game for our IWD Event on March 10, 2026 for EMA of BC Members Only! – EMA of BC
To view the recording of this fireside chat and WEG meeting, click here.
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