Neal Livingston: Profile
Neal Livingston is an award winning independent documentary filmmaker. He has produced documentary films for television broadcast on a wide variety of topics, from the political to the personal to the humorous. He has made 40 films and has been producing films for more than 40 years since the age of twelve. Livingston lives on the west coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.
Neal Livingston is also a visual artist and photographer. His photo works since 2002 have been shown in five one person and five group shows in Nova Scotia, are held in private collections, and are for sale.
In 2009 his first sculptures, and edition of 32 pieces called Tree Art, were created from trees he selected from his eco-certified woodlot.
Livingston has a 30 year career as a leading Nova Scotian renewable energy practitioner, developer, and policy advocate for solar, water, and wind power. He owns Black River Hydro Ltd., a 220 kilowatt hydro-electric plant which was Nova Scotia's first new private company selling electricity to the grid since 1984. Since 1980 he has had a micro-hydro plant that runs his home, and was one of the first people to net meter domestically with NSPI since 1993. Beginning in 2003, Livingston began to work on starting developing commercial sized wind power projects in Nova Scotia. In 2005 he formed Black River Wind Limited with Peggy Cameron.
In 2008 and 2009 Neal Livingston began giving public lectures on his ideas for creating a solar energy revolution for Nova Scotia and Canada, a crash program to reduce pollution, lower energy costs to homeowners, and create jobs.
Livingston has a distinguished career as an environmental activist on issues related to energy and forestry practices - particularly against clearcutting and forest spraying, and promoting wilderness preservation. This included the famous 1993-5 battle to re-protect Jim Campbell's Barren, a political scandal Livingston assisted in bringing to national front-page media attention. Neal is the co-chair of the Margaree Environmental Association, which has fought successfully to preserve wilderness areas on Cape Breton. He is also the former chair of the National Conservation Committee of the Sierra Club of Canada. From his home province he has received a Nova Scotia Energy Award (1989) and the inaugural Creative Arts/Cultural Nova Scotia Environmental Award (1993).
Livingston was the recipient of the "Woodlot Owner of the Year-Eastern Region" award by the Nova Scotia Government in 2008. In 1984 Neal founded, and still runs since, Black River Maple Products, a maple syrup farm. Livingston was the first landowner on Cape Breton Island to have his woodlot FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified, a international green certification system. This was done with a group of Nova Scotia small woodlot owners called Nagaya. These woodlots use closed canopy, non-clearcut, non-chemical methods of forestry in the Acadian forests of Eastern Canada. Livingston offers FSC certified lumber for sale from his woodlot.
Since 2002 Livingston has been cultural and environment member of Stora Enso's New Page Corporation's Forest Advisory Committee, a volunteer position open to local community members in the company's area of operation.
Livingston is also on the Board of the "Right to Know Coalition of Nova Scotia," a group promoting freedom of information access. Neal is a research associate of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Nova Scotia Chapter.
Since 1978 Neal Livingston has produced a collection of award winning, hard hitting political documentaries on environmental issues:
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