Friday, March 27th
Outdoor learning and exposure to nature are not simply nice ideas: a cascade of physical, emotional and academic benefits accompany even basic outdoor activities such as recess. For purposefully built models of outdoor and experiential learning, the results are even greater. During the COVID-19 pandemic a long-simmering movement around green schoolyards and outdoor education went from niche to increasingly mainstream. Today, thousands of school districts are working to transform the modern schoolyard from a monoculture of lawns and asphalt to verdant and resilient environments. A movement that is both interdisciplinary and systemic, the goal is to leverage school communities, education systems and school properties in order to restore and regenerate urban ecological systems while transforming how students learn along the way. In this session, visionary movement leaders will share their insights and strategies as to how they are using nature-based solutions to build resilience and transform education. With: Sharon Gamson Danks, founder and CEO of Green Schoolyards America; Rosey A. Jencks, environmental planner and water management expert; Julia Gowin, Urban Forestry Supervisor at CAL FIRE.
March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Campanile Room, 6th Floor, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Panelists
Sharon Gamson Danks
Founder and CEO | Green Schoolyards America
Sharon Gamson Danks, MLA-MCP, an environmental city planner, social entrepreneur, and author, founded Green Schoolyards America in 2013 and is its CEO. She has been a leading figure in the “green schoolyard” field for 25+ years, helping build a movement to transform school grounds at scale into vibrant, nature-rich public spaces that engage the community and nurture children as they learn and play. Sharon is the author of Asphalt to Ecosystems and also co-founded the International School Grounds Alliance.
Rosey Jencks
Environmental Planner
Rosey A. Jencks, MLA/EP, an environmental planner with over two decades of experience, leads technical teams in developing community-centered programs and plans for stormwater, wastewater, flood resilience, and sea level rise. Rosey, who has helped numerous communities re-envision their future by integrating green and nature-based infrastructure, believes climate resilience requires a “one water” mindset, focusing on land management and balancing green and grey infrastructure.
Julia Gowin
Urban Forestry Supervisor | CAL FIRE
Julia Gowin, Ph.D., the Northern California Urban Forestry Supervisor for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), co-leads CAL FIRE’s Green Schoolyards Program. Julia is an International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Certified Arborist, a California Registered Professional Forester, the incoming President for the Western Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), and a founding member of the California Schoolyard Forest System Initiative.
Facilitated by Sharon Gamson Danks, MLA-MCP, founder of Green Schoolyards America, in this session, educators of all stripes will have the chance to meet others in this noble profession.
March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Ashby Room, Residence Inn
Panelists
Sharon Gamson Danks
Founder and CEO | Green Schoolyards America
Sharon Gamson Danks, MLA-MCP, an environmental city planner, social entrepreneur, and author, founded Green Schoolyards America in 2013 and is its CEO. She has been a leading figure in the “green schoolyard” field for 25+ years, helping build a movement to transform school grounds at scale into vibrant, nature-rich public spaces that engage the community and nurture children as they learn and play. Sharon is the author of Asphalt to Ecosystems and also co-founded the International School Grounds Alliance.
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.
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).
