Theme: Ecological Design
Thursday, April 6th
3:00 pm: Plastic Pollution: Truths and Myths from Wellhead to Waste Incineration
Presented in collaboration with the Ecology Center
Plastic pollution is a humanitarian crisis that starts with oil and gas extraction and burdens communities at every point in its lifecycle. Come learn about its links to fracking, pipelines and petrochemical processes, the burgeoning consumer packaging industry, and why the oil industry is pushing this growth. We’ll share the truths and myths around plastic recycling, as well as exciting successes battling waste incineration. The focus will be on how attendees can engage in real solutions based on equity and accessibility. With: Yvette Arellano,Fenceline Watch; KT Morelli, Breathe Free Detroit; Martin Bourque, Ecology Center. Moderated by Shilpi Chhotray, People over Plastic.
April 6th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Magnes Museum
Panelists
Yvette Arellano
Founder and Director | Fenceline Watch
Yvette Arellano is the Houston, TX-based founder/Director of Fenceline Watch (USA) an environmental justice organization dedicated to the eradication of toxic multigenerational harm on communities living along the fence-line of industry. Yvette has testified before the EPA, federal, state, and intergovernmental bodies about public health impacts from toxic exposure and potential solutions; has aided in crisis response post-chemical disasters; contributed to efforts to stop fossil fuel infrastructure expansions; and has worked on achieving a global plastics treaty with the Break Free From Plastics Coalition.
Martin Bourque
Executive Director | Ecology Center
Martin Bourque, the Executive Director of the Ecology Center in Berkeley since 2000, has led that cutting-edge non-profit to become a high-impact engine for change locally, regionally and nationally, helping move progressive agendas in such domains as transparency in plastic recycling, pollution reduction, food and farming, access and equity, consumerism, and zero waste. A member of the Break Free from Plastics movement and a founding member of the Alliance of Mission-Based Recyclers (AMBR), Martin has appeared as a go-to source for the truth about recycling for many leading media outlets and in several documentaries, including: Bag It, The Story of Plastic, and Netflix’s Broken.
KT Morelli
Campaign Organizer | Breathe Free Detroit
KT Morelli, the Campaign Organizer for Breathe Free Detroit, is a seasoned activist who lived in the shadow of Detroit's incinerator for over a decade and helped lead the grassroots, community-powered campaign which was ultimately successful in shutting the incinerator down (in 2019). KT is also a member of GAIA's US Failing Incinerators Project, Break Free From Plastic’s US Environmental Justice delegation for the Global Plastics Treaty, and Michigan's Environmental Justice Caucus.
Shilpi Chhotray
Co-Founder and Executive Director | People over Plastic
Shilpi Chhotray, co-founder and Executive Director of People over Plastic (a media platform for multicultural changemakers to hear powerful, intergenerational, solutions-oriented conversations that center the intersection between environmental and racial justice), is a globally recognized communicator and thought leader on the plastic pollution crisis. She was formerly the Global Communications Lead at Break Free From Plastic.
The rapid increase of extreme heat events in cities is one of the stark indicators of global warming, and the effects of these events vividly expose the grotesque injustice caused by dramatic differences in neighborhood environments. In most major cities, historically “redlined” low-income communities and communities of color typically have less than half the amount of urban forest cover that wealthier communities possess. Lack of urban canopy contributes to an array of inequities including radically disparate outcomes in public health, economic opportunity, education and life expectancy. Today a coalition of NGOs, cities, scientists and community-centered initiatives has converged to create a moment of historic change, leading to massive public investment in urban forestry at 10X the scale ever before seen. Designed as equity-centered community development focusing on jobs and local enterprise creation, this new vision of urban forests will build climatic AND community resilience. Hear from four leaders in this dynamic emergent field: Julia Hillengas, co-founder and Executive Director of Philadelphia’s PowerCorpsPHL; Samira Malone, 27, first-ever Director of the Cleveland Tree Coalition; Amos White, founder and Chief Planting Officer of 100K Trees for Humanity; and moderator Brett KenCairn, Boulder, CO’s Senior Climate and Sustainability Coordinator.
April 6th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Campanile Room, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Panelists
Samira Malone
Director | The Cleveland Tree Coalition
Samira Malone is the Director of The Cleveland Tree Coalition, a collaborative of public, private and community stakeholders partnered with the City of Cleveland to create a healthy, vibrant, sustainable and equitable urban forest. Samira works to raise awareness of the critical need for a robust tree canopy in Cleveland and to generate financial support for the work of the Coalition. Her practice as an urban planner and environmental leader is rooted in racial and environmental restorative justice and holistic community development.
Julia Hillengas
Executive Director | PowerCorpsPHL
Julia Hillengas, co-founded (in 2013) and is Executive Director of PowerCorpsPHL, initially a City of Philadelphia workforce development initiative designed to help address youth disconnection and violence and promote urban environmental sustainability. Julia, who has extensive experience as an educator, coach, community organizer and public sector leader, currently leads PowerCorps’ strategy, partnerships, and expansion, seeking to work as a bridge-builder between young people and economic opportunities nationally.
Amos White
Founder and Chief Planting Officer | 100K Trees for Humanity
Amos White, founder and Chief Planting Officer of 100K Trees for Humanity, created 100K Trees in 2019 as a political and community action response to America's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. Since its founding, 100K Trees has formed partnerships with a number of organizations, including the Sierra Club and American Forests, and Amos was appointed to CALFIRE's Urban Forestry Advisory Committee in 2021 and to the Alameda County Agricultural Advisory Committee in 2022. He also authored the CA Urban Greenbelt Initiative to plant trees at scale for climate, for equity and for health in 433 CA communities by 2030.
Brett KenCairn
Senior Policy Advisor for Climate and Resilience | City of Boulder
Brett KenCairn, Boulder Colorado’s Senior Policy Advisor for Climate Action and leader of that town’s Natural Climate Solutions team, is the Director of the Center for Regenerative Solutions (CRS)—an initiative to expand natural climate solutions nationally that is co-sponsored by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network. He also is the founder or co-founder of four organizations including: the Rogue River Institute for Ecology and Economy, Veterans Green Jobs, and Community Energy Systems.
Friday, April 7th
11:17 am: John Warner – The Materials Metabolism – Rethinking our Molecular Relationship with Nature
Introduction by Kenny Ausubel, Bioneers CEO and Founder
For materials from nature to become human-designed products, they have to undergo multiple transformations in processes of assembly and disassembly. Atoms combine to make molecules; molecules combine to make materials; and we humans assemble and disassemble nature’s products to form molecules and materials that we then recombine to create our artifacts and products, but, unfortunately, most of what we produce is fundamentally unsustainable and dangerously incompatible with living systems. However, one of the founding progenitors of the entire field of “green chemistry,” John Warner, will explain that by using the principles and practices of the discipline he helped birth, we can embrace and emulate nature’s “materials metabolism” to create the products we need without endangering the web of life. By reimagining how we design and build, we can create a new materials economy that is truly in harmony with nature.
April 7th | 11:17 am to 11:38 am | Zellerbach Hall
Introduced by
Kenny Ausubel
CEO and Founder | Bioneers
Kenny Ausubel, CEO and founder (in 1990) of Bioneers, is an award-winning social entrepreneur, journalist, author and filmmaker. Co-founder and first CEO of the organic seed company, Seeds of Change, his film (and companion book) Hoxsey: When Healing Becomes a Crime helped influence national alternative medicine policy. He has edited several books and written four, including, most recently, Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature.
Keynote
John Warner
Co-Founder | Green Chemistry
John Warner, Ph.D. is a co-founder of the field of green chemistry. With 300+ patents and 100+ publications, he has designed and created technologies inspired by nature with the principles of green chemistry. After working at the Polaroid Corporation, John served as a tenured full professor at UMASS Boston and Lowell (in Chemistry and Plastics Engineering). In 2007 he co-founded (with Jim Babcock) the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry and (with Amy Cannon) Beyond Benign, a non-profit dedicated to sustainability and green chemistry education. John has won many prestigious awards for his research, inventions and policy advocacy and has served as a sustainability advisor for several major firms.
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” –Albert Einstein
This panel will explore the evolving field of Green Chemistry and explore ways in which chemistry education can become more adaptive so that new ideas can raise the level of consciousness in the entire field. Systemic change in chemistry education is essential if we are going to be able to better prepare scientists with the tools and understanding they will need to genuinely address sustainability at a molecular level, so that we can lay a solid foundation for a far healthier, much less toxic industry and economy. With the co-founder of the entire field of Green Chemistry, John Warner, Ph.D.; Amy Cannon, Ph.D., Executive Director, Beyond Benign; Meredith Williams, Director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC).
April 7th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Berkeley Ballroom, Residence Inn
Panelists
Amy Cannon
Executive Director | Beyond Benign
Amy Cannon, Ph.D., the Executive Director of Beyond Benign, was the world’s first recipient of a doctorate in Green Chemistry. After working in industry and academia, she co-founded (in 2007) Beyond Benign, a non-profit dedicated to advancing Green Chemistry education in K-12 through higher education. Amy has won many prestigious awards both for her work in research and her leadership in driving green chemistry education.
Meredith Williams
Director | California Department of Toxic Substances Control
Meredith Williams, Ph.D., Director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) since 2019, joined DTSC in 2013 as Deputy Director of the Department’s Safer Consumer Products Program to lead the implementation of California’s groundbreaking effort to reduce toxic chemicals in consumer products. She has extensive expertise in research and development, product management, and operations for Fortune 500 companies in the technology, consumer product, and chemical sectors, including 3M and Applied Materials, a leading semiconductor manufacturer. Following her work in the private sector, Meredith held a number of leadership positions at the nonprofit San Francisco Estuary Institute, a nationally recognized center for science in support of aquatic resource management. Meredith strives for collaborative solutions to complex problems and has a track record of championing interdisciplinary project management approaches.
John Warner
Co-Founder | Green Chemistry
John Warner, Ph.D. is a co-founder of the field of green chemistry. With 300+ patents and 100+ publications, he has designed and created technologies inspired by nature with the principles of green chemistry. After working at the Polaroid Corporation, John served as a tenured full professor at UMASS Boston and Lowell (in Chemistry and Plastics Engineering). In 2007 he co-founded (with Jim Babcock) the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry and (with Amy Cannon) Beyond Benign, a non-profit dedicated to sustainability and green chemistry education. John has won many prestigious awards for his research, inventions and policy advocacy and has served as a sustainability advisor for several major firms.
Design thinking offers a systematic process for creativity. It is popular in product design, education, wellness, and many other fields. In this workshop, we will learn how to perceive challenges differently as a step toward solving them. We’ll explore how to reframe problems, brainstorm ideas, and arrive at unexpected solutions. We’ll get a taste of what can be achieved in a time-efficient manner in a playful setting; and the tools we acquire in this session can be applied to our work on behalf of issues we care most passionately about. Facilitated by: Marilyn Cornelius, Ph.D., Alchemus Prime.
April 7th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | San Pablo Room, Residence Inn
Panelists
Marilyn Cornelius
Founder | Alchemus Prime
Marilyn Cornelius, Ph.D., a facilitator, coach, teacher, researcher, author and the founder of Alchemus Prime, integrates tools from behavioral sciences, design thinking, biomimicry and meditation to foster transformative change at the individual, team, organization, policy, and community levels. Among her many achievements, she has authored or co-authored 32 books whose topics span self-love, mindful reflection, trauma, leadership, food and wellness, spirituality, ethics, and poetry; and also hosts two shows on Facebook, Mornings with Marilyn and Beyond Medicine.
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