Saturday, March 28th
John Warner, one of the co-founders of the entire field of “Green Chemistry” who co-authored its defining text and co-articulated its core principles, works to create commercial technologies inspired by nature. An inventor with over 300 patents who has received countless prestigious awards, he has also been, with his wife, Amy Cannon, a thought leader and prime mover of green chemistry education. In this talk, he will share his vision of how we can draw from the molecular design genius of nature, which has been running countless rigorous chemistry experiments for nearly 4 billion years, to create benign products and technologies that provide for human needs without contaminating the biosphere and endangering our health.
March 28th | 9:38 am to 10:00 am | Zellerbach Hall
Introduced by
Kenny Ausubel
CEO and Co-Founder | Bioneers
Kenny Ausubel, CEO and co-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.
John Warner
Inventor and Co-Founder of the Field of Green Chemistry
John Warner, Ph.D., one of the founders of the field of Green Chemistry who co-authored its defining text “Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice” (with Paul Anastas), is a chemistry inventor and entrepreneur who works to create commercial technologies inspired by nature consistent with the principles of green chemistry. He holds over 350 industrial chemistry patents, and his inventions have served as the basis for several new companies in photovoltaics, neurochemistry, construction materials, water harvesting, and cosmetics. John, who has received many prestigious awards from within the chemistry industry, government, academia and civil society organizations, has had a distinguished academic career, including as a tenured full-professor at UMASS Boston and Lowell. In 2007 he co-founded (with Amy Cannon) Beyond Benign, a non-profit dedicated to sustainability and green chemistry education. He holds academic appointments at Monash University in Australia, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, Somaiya University in India, University of Birmingham in the UK, Rochester Institute of Technology in the US, and Technical University of Berlin in Germany where they have named the “John Warner Center for Start Ups in Green Chemistry.” John also currently serves as CEO and CTO of Technology Greenhouse.
A growing body of evidence clearly shows that the health of urban dwellers and the health of the natural systems they live within are directly linked. Historically, privileged parts of urban landscapes have been managed primarily for aesthetic beauty and property value, not for their integral ecological role in the more-than-human world, and disenfranchised communities have been burdened with toxic sites and deprived of parks and tree cover. How can we create cooler, far less polluted and far healthier, safer and fairer urban spaces? In this session, three visionary urban activists and thought leaders from different parts of the country will share their stories and strategies that reveal how we can marshal biodiversity, social diversity, and human/nature collaborations to protect, enliven and empower our cities. Hosted by Brett KenCairn, founding Director of the Center for Regenerative Solutions and Senior Division Manager for Nature-based Climate Solutions for the City of Boulder. With: Elliott J. Royal, Executive Director of Charlotte, North Carolina’s West Blvd Neighborhood Coalition (WBNC); Tanner Yess, a co-founder of Groundwork Ohio River Valley who led the creation of one of the nation’s largest youth green workforce programs.
March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Golden Bear Room, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Panelists
Brett KenCairn
Founding Director | Center for Regenerative Solutions
Brett KenCairn, founding Director of the Center for Regenerative Solutions and Senior Division Manager for Nature-based Climate Solutions for the City of Boulder’s Climate Initiatives Department, has throughout his career supported community-based initiatives across the western U.S., particularly in rural, Native American, and other marginalized communities. He also co-founded several organizations, including: the Rogue River Institute for Ecology and Economy; Indigenous Community Enterprises; Veterans Green Jobs; and Community Energy Systems.
Elliott Royal
Executive Director | West Blvd Neighborhood Coalition
Elliott J. Royal, Executive Director of Charlotte, North Carolina’s West Blvd Neighborhood Coalition (WBNC), spearheads initiatives aimed at advancing equity, education, and economic mobility along Charlotte’s West Boulevard Corridor. She has long been deeply engaged in her community, working to strengthen resident involvement and build partnerships. Among other projects, Elliott oversees the Seeds for Change farm and its youth honey enterprise, is establishing a Youth Advisory Council, and is leading the launch of Three Sisters Market, a community-owned food cooperative designed to improve food access and health equity for the Black community, which has been without a full-service grocery store for 36+ years.
Tanner Yess
Youth and Workforce Officer | Groundwork USA
Tanner Yess, a co-founder of Groundwork Ohio River Valley and Groundwork USA’s Youth and Workforce Officer, has led the creation of one of the nation’s largest youth green workforce programs and brought Climate Safe Neighborhoods to Cincinnati. An alumnus of the Peace Corps who worked on a fishing vessel in the Bering Sea after earning a degree in ecology and co-founded Cincinnati’s Tri-State Trails Coalition, he is also a National Park Service “Mountains to Main Street” Ambassador; SHIFT Emerging Leader; and recipient of the 2018 Murie Center Rising Leader Award.
Bioneers is delighted to be able to bring together two groundbreaking figures in the struggle for an equitable and healthy food system, one working on the global architecture of that system, the other a hands-on farmer and educator exemplifying how solidarity can empower dispossessed communities to reclaim their food sovereignty. Raj Patel is one of the world’s leading experts on sustainable food systems and a tireless activist against neocolonial, extractive agriculture; Leah Penniman is the visionary founder of Soul Fire Farm and author of Farming While Black. In this fascinating conversation, they will explore how, even in this reactionary period, we can build effective movements to regenerate our soils, ecosystems, ancestral cultures, and communities, and nourish our bodies and souls. Moderated by Naomi Starkman, founder and Executive Director of Civil Eats.
March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Freight & Salvage
Panelists
Raj Patel
Activist, Journalist, and Filmmaker
Raj Patel, an award-winning author, film-maker and academic, is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin who has worked for the World Bank and WTO but also protested against them around the world and testified about the causes of the global food crisis to the US, UK and EU governments. A member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems and of the council of Progressive International, he has written extensively for a range of scholarly journals in economics, philosophy, politics and public health and also contributes frequently to a range of other publications, including The Guardian, Financial Times, New York Times, and Scientific American. He is the author of: Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and The Value of Nothing, and co-author of: A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things and (with Rupa Marya) of: Inflamed: Deep Medicine and The Anatomy of Injustice. His first film, co-directed with Zak Piper, is the award-winning documentary The Ants & The Grasshopper. He also co-hosted the food politics podcast The Secret Ingredient.
Leah Penniman
Farmer, Food Sovereignty Activist and Educator
Leah Penniman, a Black Kreyol farmer, author, mother, and food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for 25 years, currently serves as founding Co-Executive Director of Farm Operations at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a Black & Brown-led project that works toward food and land justice. She is the author of: Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land (2018) and Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists (2023).
Naomi Starkman
Founder and Executive Director | Civil Eats
Naomi Starkman, the founder and Executive Director of Civil Eats, the award-winning, nonprofit newsroom focused on the U.S. food system, was the site’s Editor-in-Chief until 2024. A John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. Naomi has worked at Newsweek, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, GQ, WIRED, and Consumer Reports magazines. After graduating from law school, she served as the Deputy Executive Director of the City of San Francisco’s Ethics Commission.
Chemistry underpins 96% of all manufactured goods, but most materials and products are designed using processes that generate excess waste, rely on hazardous substances, generate carbon emissions, and cause long-term damage to human and environmental health. The root cause is upstream: sustainability has not been prioritized in the design of chemical and material products. Our educational systems need to be transformed to prepare chemists and scientists to design more sustainable products. John Warner, world-renowned inventor of green chemistry technologies, and Amy Cannon, a leading voice for systemic change in chemistry education will share their work on such key initiatives as the Green Chemistry Commitment, which equips universities to integrate green chemistry across curricula, research and training. These initiatives and more are enabling a new generation of scientists to create breakthrough technologies that will enable a more sustainable, circular and regenerative economy and society.
March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Golden Bear Room, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Panelists
John Warner
Inventor and Co-Founder of the Field of Green Chemistry
John Warner, Ph.D., one of the founders of the field of Green Chemistry who co-authored its defining text “Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice” (with Paul Anastas), is a chemistry inventor and entrepreneur who works to create commercial technologies inspired by nature consistent with the principles of green chemistry. He holds over 350 industrial chemistry patents, and his inventions have served as the basis for several new companies in photovoltaics, neurochemistry, construction materials, water harvesting, and cosmetics. John, who has received many prestigious awards from within the chemistry industry, government, academia and civil society organizations, has had a distinguished academic career, including as a tenured full-professor at UMASS Boston and Lowell. In 2007 he co-founded (with Amy Cannon) Beyond Benign, a non-profit dedicated to sustainability and green chemistry education. He holds academic appointments at Monash University in Australia, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, Somaiya University in India, University of Birmingham in the UK, Rochester Institute of Technology in the US, and Technical University of Berlin in Germany where they have named the “John Warner Center for Start Ups in Green Chemistry.” John also currently serves as CEO and CTO of Technology Greenhouse.
Amy Cannon
Co-Founder and Executive Director | Beyond Benign
Amy Cannon, Ph.D., co-founder and Executive Director of Beyond Benign, a global non-profit dedicated to green chemistry education, was the world’s first person to earn a doctorate in green chemistry and is a leading voice for systemic change in chemistry education to better prepare students and scientists to address global sustainability challenges. Prior to founding Beyond Benign, Amy worked in industry, including for Gillette and Rohm and Haas, and was an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Amy is also very active in community-based work, including the global higher education program, the Green Chemistry Commitment, comprised of over 260 Universities worldwide; and the on-line teaching and learning community platform, the Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community (GCTLC).
One might think, in this reactionary era in which slews of corporations that formerly claimed to be concerned about climate and equity race to ditch their ESG and DEI departments and flaunt their regression to amoral greed, that the heyday of eco and socially conscious business is long behind us, but that would be far too hasty a conclusion. In fact, there are a few long-standing, exemplary, mission-driven, independent enterprises that have held on to their values and commitments and have, while remaining eminently profitable, kept refining and strengthening their ethical performance over the years, and one of the boldest new models of a path forward in this domain is Dr. Bronner’s Purpose Pledge. In this panel, Les Szabo, Chief Strategy & Impact Officer at Dr. Bronner’s, will host a session with two other groundbreaking business leaders who work in the domain of food or agricultural supply chains, as they share their philosophies, initiatives and approaches. With: Ben Mand, CEO, Yerba Madre; and Lara Dickinson, co-founder/Executive Director of One Step Closer (OSC).
March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Crystal Ballroom, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Panelists
Les Szabo
Chief Strategy & Impact Officer | Dr. Bronner’s
Les Szabo, Chief Strategy & Impact Officer at Dr. Bronner’s, the top-selling natural brand of soap in North America, joined the company in 2013. He leads its strategic planning, supports key business initiatives that enhance organizational capabilities and drive growth, and oversees Dr. Bronner’s Planning, Philanthropy & Impact Investing, International Markets, and E-Commerce departments, as well as serving on Dr. Bronner’s Executive Council and Board of Directors. His work is informed by over twenty years’ experience working in the natural products and apparel industries, including as a co-founder of the Living Harvest, Dunderdon, and Infinity Sport brands.
Lara Dickinson
Co-Founder and Executive Director | One Step Closer (OSC)
Lara Dickinson, a thought leader in the natural products industry for some 30 years, has catalyzed many collaborations that have reshaped that sector and continue to do so. As co-founder and Executive Director of One Step Closer (OSC), Lara has helped a number of purpose-driven CEOs build and refine regenerative business models. Lara’s long career has included many multiple executive leadership roles, including with the Climate Collaborative, J.E.D.I. Collaborative, OSC Packaging Collaborative, OSC Women’s Circles, and the Purpose Pledge.
Ben Mand
CEO | Yerba Madre
Ben Mand, the CEO of Yerba Madre, is the driving force behind Yerba Madre’s regenerative mission, leading initiatives to certify more of their products and ingredients to the ROC Gold level, conserve and restore Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, and improve the livelihoods of producers and harvesters. Previously, as the CEO of Harmless Harvest, Ben restructured the company’s supply chain, achieving 100% zero waste, converting to 100% rPET bottles, and implemented regenerative agricultural practices across 50% of their farms. Prior to Harmless Harvest, Ben worked in various brand-marketing and innovation roles at leading companies including Plum Organics, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, and Interbrand.
