All activities are on the Main Stage – except Concurrent Sessions.
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Alejandra Warren, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Plastic Free Future
Integrating Equity And Inclusion In Waste Reduction Strategies And Reuse Systems
Terry McDonald, Executive Director, St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, OR
How The Circular Economy Unlocks Barriers To Employment
Peter Mui, Founder, Fix-it Clinic
Think Globally, Fix Locally: Joining the World-Wide Repair Movement
Ross Gibby, Chief Operating Officer, CRDC Global
Retransforming Plastic Waste
Alejandra Warren, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Plastic Free Future
Integrating Equity And Inclusion In Waste Reduction Strategies And Reuse Systems
Alejandra Warren is a sustainability consultant and intersectional environmentalist working on diverse resource conservation, climate resiliency and intersectional justice projects across the Bay Area. She co-founded Plastic Free Future in 2020. From soil to humans, Alejandra strongly believes in the interconnectedness of all organisms and that working to heal our relationship with the environment will lead to happier, healthier and more resilient communities.
Plastic Free Future is a California-based non-profit organization dedicated to the reduction and elimination of plastic pollution through promoting reusable alternatives and focusing on outreach to systemically excluded communities. By focusing on environmental justice, social equity and inclusion within the global movement to eliminate plastic pollution, Plastic Free Future aims to amplify, support, and represent voices that have been historically excluded from sustainability conversations.
Terry McDonald, St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, OR
How the Circular Economy Unlocks Barriers To Employment
Terry McDonald has served as Executive Director of St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, Inc. (SVdP) for 37 years. He is a hands-on, visionary leader with undergraduate degrees in political science and history and a Master of Education degree from the University of Oregon.
Terry’s road to entrepreneurial leadership began with a modest tool employed by many nonprofits — the retail thrift store — and has grown to encompass a small empire of reuse, recycling and upcycling businesses. He also opened the first mattress-recycling facility in the nation, and through the SVdP subsidiary DR3 Recycling, today the nonprofit remains the largest mattress recycler in the United States with four facilities in California and Oregon.
Terry has led SVdP to become the largest social-services agency in its region. Some 60 percent of its annual $55 million budget comes from earned income. For nonprofits like SVdP, the value of generating revenue means the ability to pivot quickly to emerging community needs. SVdP’s social enterprises also employ more than 600 people and diverted more than 44.1 million pounds of material from the waste stream last year alone.
Terry is a founding partner of the Cascade Alliance which helps nonprofit organizations from around the country take control of their financial future by transforming them into self-sufficient, job-creating community enterprises. With St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County’s proven process, demonstrated expertise, and more than 50 years of experience, they help Cascade Alliance members launch or improve a waste-based business and turn discarded mattresses, books, clothing, and other items into a stable revenue stream and source of secure, quality jobs. The result: financial stability for the organization, a cleaner, more sustainable environment for all, and the opportunity for a healthier, more secure life for the most vulnerable in the community.
Peter Mui, Founder, Fix-it Clinic
Think Globally, Fix Locally: Joining the World-Wide Repair Movement
Peter Mui is the founder of Fixit Clinic which conveys critical thinking and troubleshooting skills through both in-person and virtual events. Over 750 in-person Fixit Clinic events have been hosted across the US at elementary, secondary and high schools, colleges and universities, libraries and virtually through teleconferencing software. “Education, entertainment, empowerment, elucidation, and, ultimately, enlightenment through all-ages do-it-together hands-on fix-n-learn community-sponsored and community-led discovery, disassembly, troubleshooting and repair.”
Peter is a leading practitioner in lean innovation; applying agile methods from software development to hardware and durable goods. He’s the founder of the MIT Entrepreneurs Club, co-founder of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition and mentors academic startups at MIT, UC Berkeley, and UCSF.
Peter was the keynote speaker for the IEEE Consumer Technology Society (CTSoc) at the Consumer Electronics Show, has presented for the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Armed Services Makerspaces. In February 2022 he was interviewed on the Ralph Nader Radio Show and in September 2022 he presented at the WIRED magazine REWIRED Green Climate Action Conference. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the E-town eChievement Award and the California Resource Recovery Association Pavitra Crimmel Reuse Award.
Ross Gibby, Chief Operating Officer, CRDC Global
Retransforming Plastic Waste
Ross Gibby is the Chief Operating Officer of CRDC Global and President of CRDC USA. Ross is on a mission to end plastic waste and reduce CO2 through market-driven innovation. He is an entrepreneur with a diverse background inoperations, business development, marketing, communications, brand innovation and content creation. Following an MFA from Rutgers University, Ross was featured in several award-winning TV shows and went on to found Maindock Media, a digital content marketing agency for industrial manufacturers. He joined CRDC in January 2019 and now oversees business development and plant operations as the company rapidly expands its reach across Costa Rica, the US, South Africa, the UK, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Dominican Republic and others. Most recently, Ross was a featured speaker at the Ultramarine Ocean Action Summit hosted by Richard Branson on Necker Island.