Heather has more than 25 years of experience in environmental work ranging from Zero Waste to toxic chemicals and habitat issues. At Zero Waste Washington, her focus has been on reducing upstream sources of waste and addressing downstream impacts, getting toxic chemicals out of products, eliminating plastic pollution, and building on the organization’s signature producer … Read more
Diane Cohen is executive director of Finger Lakes ReUse, Inc., an nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2007 to help reduce waste and recognize and reinvest this value back into the community. Diane is passionate about demonstrating and maximizing the triple bottom line (social, environmental and economic) benefits of reuse and helping to build momentum in … Read more
Ashpreet Kaur has a Master’s degree in Environmental Science from Panjab University, India. She is pursuing her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Ecology with a concentration in Sociology at the University of University of Florida. Her research focuses on the Zero Waste performance of higher education institutions of the USA. After graduating, she is interested in working … Read more
My pursuit as both an academic and practitioner is to help create sustainable and just transitions to less wasteful systems. I am a PhD candidate in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. Based on community-driven development, I focus my contributions on how I can bring my resources to best serve a community to … Read more
“Achieving Zero Waste is not going to be easy, but like sustainability it is a moral imperative unless we wish to see the complete demise of any semblance of a lifestyle over and beyond the barbaric.” A thought-provoking and entertaining speaker, Paul will brief us on his recent work and on what is happening around … Read more
The Gulf Coast is not only the home of the many oil and gas companies, but also of plastic companies using petroleum feedstocks. Yvette (they/them) is the founder and director of Fenceline Watch, a Houston-based environmental justice organization dedicated to eradicating toxic multigenerational harm from oil, gas, and petrochemical facilities. Yvette formally served as a … Read more
Ruth Abbe is a Zero Waste practitioner with more than 25 years of experience in recycling and composting program and facility development and outreach and technical assistance. As president of Zero Waste USA, she is working with municipalities across the U.S. to develop the social and physical infrastructure to achieve Zero Waste. As co-chair of … Read more
Clare is an architect and systems thinker with over 20 years of experience designing buildings to Passive House, LEED Platinum, Living Building Challenge and AIA COTE Top Ten standards. Her work focuses on how design of the built environment can enable regenerative and circular urban systems. Clare led the development of the AIA NY Zero … Read more
Pål Mårtensson has been in waste management for 20 years and in Zero Waste movement for 15. The creator behind first ECO-Park in the world, Kretsloppsparken Alelyckan, founded by him and used as a model to public and private sectors worldwide. Pål is a member of the Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA) and Let’s Do … Read more
A Zero Waste advocate consultant, Portia Sinnott enjoys leading and taking part in a wide variety of projects. Past favorites include: UN Habitat’s Solid Waste Management in the World’s Cities, USEPA’s Managing and Transforming Waste Streams, and more recently, the Palo Alto Zero Waste Plan Update, and Mountain View Zero Waste Plan and Materials Characterization … Read more