GREEN TALKS 2021
Previous Years
GREEN TALKS 2020
Welcome to the newly digital GREEN TALKS 2020
Welcome to UC San Diego's fifth annual Green Talks! This program is a TED Talk-style conference specifically geared towards environmental awareness. This digital event aims to engage the UC San Diego student body and community about sustainability and promote the importance of being environmentally conscious through one’s actions.
The speaker's presentations are posted here (under the speaker presentations tab) and on youtube on as well as the recording of the live Q&A.
Hear from our wonderful speakers!
Bio: Enid Partika, a 2019 UCSD Graduate in ESYS: Environmental Chemistry and a current UCSD Master’s Candidate in Chemistry, was determined to develop a solution to climate change upon entering university, fueled by her passion for environmental conservation. She soon was introduced to Roger’s Community Garden through her USP 2 course in Urban World Systems, where she eagerly worked with students and alumni to develop The BioEnergy Project anaerobic digester. To date, this anaerobic digestion system has converted over 23,000 pounds of campus food waste into renewable biogas, liquid fertilizer, and hydroponically grown herbs, greens, and vegetables. The closed-loop model of a food waste to food and fuel system caught the attention of many prominent figures, and has received national acclaim from the University Office of the President, UC San Diego, The Clinton Foundation, and The Lemelson MIT Foundation. Recently, Enid and Co-founders of The BioEnergy Project and Roger’s Urban Farmlab have been accepted into the premier food and agriculture systems business accelerator hosted by MIT, after demonstrating that they could create a viable product that tackles the trilemma of overfilling landfills, climate change, and increasing energy and resource demands.
Topic: Attracting Multiple Disciplines to Sustainability and Climate Education Through Social Entrepreneurism
While negotiating with governments to adopt sustainable policies and mitigate climate change through activism is one part of the environmental movement, many fail to realize that relying on governments to make changes is not the only way to create a carbon neutral society. Through my time researching anaerobic digestion at Roger’s Urban Farmlab under the Carbon Neutrality Initiative and the Bioregional Center for Sustainability Science, Planning, and Design, I have come to realize that an often overlooked and arguably more crucial element to systemic adoption of sustainability policy is through the creation of community – minded enterprise, otherwise known as social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship begins with a community in mind, whether it be urban San Diego or rural towns in the Central Valley, and further develops an idea for change into a sustainable solution to a problem within that community that can also provide an internal source of jobs and revenue. Rather than pushing an already lagging bureaucracy to solve their constituent’s problems, communities can be empowered by starting their own businesses that take these matters into their own hands, while turning each city green along the way.
Bio: Dr. James Danoff-Burg is an educator, conservation strategist, and biodiversity scientist focused on the human dimensions of conservation. For the past two decades, his research, teaching, and conservation implementation actions have helped to reduce the negative effects of human activities on biodiversity through community-based conservation projects.
He is currently Director of Conservation at The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, California and Adjunct Research Scientist at University of California San Diego and California State University San Marcos. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan, and M.A. and Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Kansas. He has been a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vermont, a Samuel Research Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, professor and researcher at Columbia University, Director of Conservation Education at the San Diego Zoo, an independent researcher and evaluator for zoos and aquariums around the world, and Fulbright Specialist working with the Applied Environmental Research Foundation in India.
James strives to conserve ecosystems by engaging nearby residents as conservation leaders. The importance of hope for the future is central to all of Dr. Danoff-Burg’s conservation work. When people from young children to community elders learn about nature, develop a passion for its care, and implement successful approaches and tools, all are empowered to live sustainably with our rich natural world.
Topic: Zoos Can Empower the Majority to Address Climate Change
The majority of Americans are aware that climate change has already affected them and want to take action to address this catastrophic global problem. At The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, California, we are one of the leading zoos engaging and empowering our citizens to understand the problem and make changes that will address climate change. The Climate Reality framework for public engagement has been implemented and evaluated at our new Australia exhibit. We will discuss the results and future opportunities for improvement. Collectively, we must address climate change, we can make changes that mitigate the impacts, and we will ultimately succeed with the support and participation of the public.
Bio: Leah Thomas is a Midwest native currently living in Carpinteria, CA that’s passionate about environmental science and justice. She was inspired by the environmental and civil rights movements of the 60’s and 70’s to get involved with environmental activism and communications. She currently runs her eco-friendly blog, GreenGirlLeah, and works on the Communications team at sustainable apparel company Patagonia.
Topic Summary: I’ll discuss my journey from an environmental science student to an environmental communications professional. My talk will focus on how to shift a passion for sustainability into a career and I will give advice on how to get more involved with volunteering and activism. I’ll also give a glimpse into my day to day job at Patagonia on the PR team.
Bio: Sam Chereskin is a graduate of the University of Chicago where he studied Agricultural Economic Development. He has been attempting to add value to food systems for 12 years. Needing to know how things were grown, harvested, marketed, and thrown away was the fodder for finding more elegant solutions to addressing agricultural and environmental problems that affect us all.
Searching for better sustainable storytelling- a vodka story
Thought leaders in the sustainability space, specifically around food, often recontextualize our connection to the farms and the agricultural products that make up our everyday diets. That increased authenticity often emphasizes a return to local farm to table culinary experiences that are reminiscent of the type of farming that predominated yesteryear (19th century to before). Sam Chereskin, CEO of Misadventure, has been searching for a better story about how agriculture can move forward without moving back and has decided that the answer lies at the processor and manufacturing level of the food system. He is searching for a way to tell a story about humanity’s new symbiosis with the planet that keeps the Western notion of progress alive. He does so in his daily work by making carbon negative vodka out of excess baked goods.
Bio: Dr. Pereira is the founder of the Institute for Sustainable Engineering. The Institute aims to become a powerful world force for change, and to facilitate the transition to an eco-sustainable society by establishing and nurturing working partnerships, collaborations and relationships with scientists, researchers, educators, organizations, and entities public and private from all around the planet working towards an eco-sustainable present, for human beings and the entire biosphere - air, water, soil, light and biodiversity. We know the solutions and have all the technology we need to solve all the problems humanity still faces today this day of age, well into the 21st century: food, water, shelter, health, sanitation, education, desertification, pollution, global warming. These solutions, rainwater harvesting, heirloom organic farming, terracing and reforestation, compost toilets and the closing of the bio-nutrient cycle, have been known and have been effectively practiced by humanity and ancient cultures for many thousands of years all over the world, in North, Central and South America, in Africa, in Mesopotamia, and in Asia. There are absolutely no excuses not to embark on this journey, and all the reasons moral and ethical, and ultimately the very permanence of the human species on the planet, to immediately do it.
Bio: Shawn Fettel is a native Californian. She is passionate about teaching young people the importance of ocean health and conservation by encouraging everyone to act as good stewards to the planet. Before working at ILACSD, Shawn was a Senior Instructor at SeaWorld where she educated students and the public about marine animals, conservancy and how positive daily actions – like picking up trash and recycling – can impact our oceans and the animals that live there. Shawn developed and taught the Ocean Link Lab Science Class incorporating observation, discovery, and inquiry-based learning. She also hosted instructional presentations at Killer Whale, Sea Lion, and Dolphin amphitheaters. With over 20 years of teaching experience, Shawn will continue to develop curriculum and teach environmental education programs for schools, youth groups and scouts. Shawn loves to encourage kids to connect and care for animals and our environment. She volunteers with several organizations and believes that happiness comes from giving back to your community.
Live Q&A
GREEN TALKS 2019
UC San Diego's third annual Green Talks. Green Talks is a TED Talk-style conference specifically geared towards environmental awareness. This event aims to engage and educate the UC San Diego student body and the community about sustainability and the importance of being environmentally conscious through one’s actions. There will be 7 speakers, including UC San Diego students, faculty, and sustainability industry professionals. There will be opportunities to interact with some of the campus sustainability organizations, as well as networking time with the speakers after the talks. There will be a sustainability art competition running throughout the month of April, and the winners will be chosen during intermission and will receive prizes for their placing. Food will also be provided during this time.
Register at https://tinyurl.com/Green-Talks
Everyone is welcome to attend, from students, staff, faculty, professionals and surrounding community members.
Email isc@ucsd.edu with any questions.
What’s YOUR vision of climate change?
Let us know through your creation!
Digital and canvas submissions will be accepted and judged separately.
Save your digital submission as a PDF, using the convention[JaneTree_jtree@ucsd.edu] for the file name and send it to isc@ucsd.edu by 5 PM, April 20th to be entered into the 2019 Green Talks Art Digital Contest. Include your name and the title of your piece in the body of the email. Voting will happen anonymously up to and during this year’s Green Talks on April 30th. (ex. collages, photography, content limited to non-audio and non-video submissions)
Canvas submissions will be accepted at the SRC up until 5PM, April 26th.
Come by the Sustainability Resource Center(@PC) to pick up a canvas if needed.
Voting will occur in person during Green Talks, prior to intermission.
Canvas Size Requirements: 8.5 x 11
Prizes awarded to winners.
Learn About Our Wonderful Speakers!
Peter Cronin
Quality Analyst and Green Team Leader at AleSmith Brewing Company
Peter Cronin is in his 4th year leading the AleSmith Brewing Company’s Green Team while performing his regular Quality Department duties. With craft beer expanding locally as well as nationwide, there is a growing call for breweries to make their products more sustainable. During the 2011-2017 drought, many breweries including AleSmith facing higher water costs had to confront the amount of water used, with the industry average at an unsustainable 7 gallons of water used for each gallon of beer. In addition, byproducts created in the brewing and fermentation processes still contain value for many other industries. Even after brewing, malted barley contains a lot of nutritional benefits and is often used as feed by dairy farms. This year, our owner Peter Zien is opening up CheeseSmith, an onsite creamery using milk from cows that eat our brewing grain. There are other avenues for sustainability that are rarely tapped simply because of the cost – like wastewater bioreactors and reusable packaging.
Elly Brown
San Diego Food Alliance Director
As the Alliance Director, Elly manages the network, operations, programs, development, and administrative matters of San Diego Food System Alliance. Elly enjoys the ability to contribute her 15 years of business and consulting experiences and skills to a cause she loves, food and community. Elly’s fondest memories of her childhood involves visiting the country-side of Japan, eating cucumbers and momotaro tomatoes off the vines from her grandfather’s urban farm. The mission of the San Diego Food System Alliance is to develop and maintain an equitable, healthy and sustainable food system in San Diego County. The Alliance is a diverse and inclusive network that works across sectors to promote collaboration, influence policy, and catalyze transformation in the food system. Together, we are working to build a better food system in San Diego County, one that will restore ourselves and our communities, protect our environment, and transform our economy.
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Barbara Bry
Council President Pro Tem (District 1)
Council President Pro Tem Barbara Bry represents San Diego’s First City Council District. She is a high-tech entrepreneur and community leader who worked her way through college and graduate school, earning a Master’s Degree in Business from Harvard. Barbara was on the founding team of several local high-tech companies, including ProFlowers.com, which has created hundreds of local jobs. She served as the first associate director of CONNECT, and is the founder of Athena San Diego, the leading organization for women in the San Diego tech and life sciences community. Barbara has deep roots in the community and has lived in San Diego for more than 35 years. She is married to Neil Senturia, raised her two daughters here, and is a proud grandmother. Throughout history, cities have been the epicenter of commerce, culture, innovation and creative expression. Climate change is a global phenomenon, and our major cities can have a major impact in adapting resiliency strategies and in slowing it down. San Diego’s landmark Climate Action Plan puts us ahead of the game by setting aggressive targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by the year 2035. With good leadership, this goal is achievable.
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Stephen Mayfield
Director of the California Center for Algae Biotechnology
Stephen Mayfield is director of the California Center for Algae Biotechnology, and Food and Fuel for the 21st Century organized research unit at UC San Diego. His research focuses on the molecular genetics of green algae, and on the production of high value recombinant proteins and bio-products using algae as a production platform. Steve received BS degrees in Biochemistry and Plant Biology from Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, and a PhD in Molecular Genetics from UC Berkeley. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Geneva Switzerland he returned to California as an assistant professor at the Scripps Research Institute where he remained for 22 years becoming the Associate Dean of Biology before joining UC San Diego in 2009. In addition to running his research group and university research centers, Steve also founded Rincon Pharmaceutical in 2005, Sapphire Energy in 2007, Triton Health and Nutrition in 2013, and Algenesis Materials in 2016.
Bio-manufacturing in green algae – Food and Fuel for the 21st Century: The world has reached the limits of available agricultural land and our ocean fishing capacity, and yet demand, especially for protein, continues to grow. The impacts of our ever-increasing consumption, especially single use plastics, are also starting to take their toll on the environment. We need to develop a more sustainable society, and algae offer tremendous potential for the efficient production of food, feed, and bio-material. Algae require only sunlight as an energy source and sequester CO2 during the production of biomass. We need a Green Revolution 2.0, and algae offer a real opportunity as this new bio-manufacturing platform.
Josephine Talamantez
Co-founder of Chicano Park and the Chicano Park Steering Committee
Born and raised in the Logan Heights/Barrio Logan neighborhood of San Diego, California. The family roots in this community date to about 1906. The neighborhood was a self-contained environment where everyone knew each other and cared for each other’s children and family members. I am a co-founder of Chicano Park and the Chicano Park Steering Committee (CPSC), Stewards of Chicano Park. I am also a life-long member of the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF), an internationally known artist collective based out of Sacramento, California—established to educate in Chicano/Latino arts, history and cultural and to promote political awareness and to foster support for Cesar Chaves and the United Farm Workers. Formal education includes a BA from UC Berkeley in Sociology and an MA from CSU Sacramento in Public History. Author of the Chicano Park and Chicano Park Monumental Murals to the National Register of Historic Places and Co-author of the National Landmark nomination.
What happens when the geographical surroundings a community’s cohesive neighborhood is threatened and destroyed through federal, local and state policies? How does a community respond to policy makers in an era plagued by neglect along with racial, environmental and social discrimination? What does environmental racism and social injustice have to do with a community’s right of self-determination. The history and evolution of the oldest neighborhoods in the City of San Diego are told through the designation of a National Landmark and will be preserved in perpetuity at the newly formed Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center
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Serge Dedina
Mayor of Imperial Beach
Serge is the Mayor of the City of Imperial Beach. He is also co-founder and Executive Director of WILDCOAST. Serge received the Surf Industry's Environmental Award, San Diego Zoological Society’s Conservation Medal, as well as the California Coastal Commission’s “Coastal Hero” Award in recognition of his conservation achievements. He was named a UCSD John Muir Fellow in 2013 and was honored as a 2016 Peter Benchley “Hero of the Sea.” Before co-founding WILDCOAST back in 2000, Serge was the founding Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Baja California - Sea of Cortez Program where he helped to initiate successful efforts to protect Loreto Bay National Park, Espiritu Santo Island Reserve and Cabo Pulmo National Park. He grew up in Imperial Beach, California, and spent his childhood helping to preserve the Tijuana Estuary as a National Wildlife Refuge and has worked on water quality issues in the San Diego - Tijuana region since 1980. Serge is an avid surfer, swimmer and former State of California Ocean Lifeguard. He is the author of Saving the Gray Whale, a book based on the three years he lived in the gray whale lagoons of Baja California; Wild Sea: Eco-Wars and Surf Stories from the Coast of the Californias; and, Surfing the Border. Serge has a Ph.D. Geography, University of Texas at Austin; M.S. Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison; B.A. Political Science, University of California, San Diego.
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Alex Nielsen
Founder of Ritual Energy
Alex studied engineering at UCSD where his love for creating flourished into a combination of design, business, engineering, ecology, and food through his company Ritual Energy. Alex comes from a long line of entrepreneurs who inspired him to take a holistic view of business and encouraged him to take seriously the wide ranging impacts that companies have today. Through Ritual Energy, he’s hoping to redefine what it means to run a conscious company in the 21st century while investing in technologies that bring conservation into balance with consumption.
GREEN TALKS 2018
WHEN: Date: Monday, April 30, 2018
WHERE: Location: Price Center East Ballroom (2nd Floor)
(reference map below)
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Doors Open: 3:30 p.m.
WHY: To take part in all the great opportunities that Green Talks will have for you. This includes...
- Participating in a interactive Q&A panel.
- Taking part in a networking session.
- Being exposed to sustainable product vendors that you have never seen before.
- Being put in a sustainable raffle to win prizes.
Please attend our event on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/events/152305138798979/
RSVP on our Eventbrite!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/uc-san-diego-green-talks-2018-tickets-44417257212
Follow the Inter-Sustainability Council for updates!
https://www.facebook.com/iscucsd/
We strive to bring to light environmental issues that are overlooked and to explore innovations in technologies/products that utilize our natural resources in the most efficient manner.
Green Talks Price Theatre Map
Thank you to our sponsors:
WHAT: UC San Diego's third annual Green Talks. Green Talks is a TED Talk-style conference specifically geared towards environmental awareness. This event aims to engage and promote the UC San Diego student body and the community about sustainability and the importance of being environmentally conscious through one’s actions. There will be 6 speakers, including UC San Diego students, faculty, and sustainability industry professionals. There will be opportunities to interact with some of the campus sustainability and green energy organizations, as well as networking time with the speakers after the talks. There will be a sustainability art competition running throughout the month of April, and the winners will be chosen during intermission and will receive prizes for their placing. Food will also be provided during this time.
Everyone is welcome to attend, from students, staff, faculty, professionals and surrounding community members.
WHO:
Kyle Heiskala
Media Strategist & Deputy to the CEO at Rebelle Communications, UC San Diego Alumnus
Allison Paradise
Executive Director at My Green Lab
Allison Paradise is the executive director of My Green Lab, a California-based 501c3 non-profit dedicated to reducing the environmental impact of laboratories. My Green Lab works with organizations nationally through outreach programs and concrete initiatives. Paradise holds degrees in neuroscience from Brown and Harvard, and before founding My Green Lab, she worked as a scientific consultant. She is a recipient of the International Institute for Sustainable Labs' (I2SL) Go Beyond award.
Allison's talk will be about looking through the lens of Green Labs, a relatively new movement focused on reducing the environmental impact of laboratories, we will explore how the scientific community is changing one of the world's largest industries.
Cody Hooven
Chief Sustainability Officer for the
City of San Diego's Climate Action Plan
Cody Hooven leads sustainability planning and policy for San Diego, the 8th largest city in the country. With the adoption of an ambitious Climate Action Plan, Cody is exploring how mobility, renewable energy, climate resilience, and social equity are included in the city’s approach to sustainable communities and transforming San Diego into a Smart City. Her role also includes engaging business in win-win solutions and connecting technology and open data to sustainability. She is a founding member and current chair of the San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative and advisory board member of the Equinox Project. Cody has a bachelors in biology from the University of Hawaii and a Masters from the UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She began in science and decided that the intersection of science, data, and policy was the direction she wanted to take her career.
Cody will be speaking about the City of San Diego’s Climate Action Plan, adopted in 2015, which calls for eliminating half of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the City and aims for 100% renewable electricity by 2035.
Belinda Ramirez
Graduate student at UCSD who works
with the Urban Agriculture Movement in San Diego
Belinda Ramírez is a UC Global Food Initiative Fellow and fourth-year Ph.D. anthropology student at UC San Diego. Earlier in her career, Belinda worked with an indigenous group in the Ecuadorian Amazon investigating the intersections between ethnic identity, agrarian politics, the environment, and indigenous cosmology. This work fed directly into her current project, in which she explores urban agriculture, politics, and race/ethnicity in San Diego County. She is interested in dissecting the relationships between power, social movements, and community, as well as understanding the values and motivations that compel urban gardeners and farmers to grow food. Belinda strives to have her academic work inform urban growers and policymakers for the purpose of making more equitable and sustainable futures that encourage human and ecological well-being.
Belinda's talk will highlight the urgency for the urban agriculture movement to also embrace the concept of food sovereignty in order to continue transforming the nation’s urban landscapes and foodscapes.
Walt Kanzler
Program Manager of Design and Construction
at UCSD who works in Capital Project Management
Walt Kanzler is a practicing green architect, with a diverse background in sustainability and over twenty years of professional experience in Design, Construction and Facilities Management. He has spent several years in higher education at Montclair State University, CSU Long Beach and now currently at UCSD. Walt also worked for several years with Qualcomm here in San Diego leading the Facilities Design and Engineering team to develop award-winning projects in San Diego, the US and internationally. He has served as a Board member of the San Diego Green Building Council and is committed to being a change agent associated with Sustainability in each organization that he has been involved with. Walt integrates sustainability into all of his work and has been involved with projects of all sizes and scales, including smart building technologies and smart city scale planning and infrastructure.
Walt will be sharing the message about making everything we do sustainable, not an easy task but there are many committed to this vision and the opportunity for UCSD to reflect this commitment in the built environment, as well as curriculum, is here to stay.
Jacques Chirazi
Sustainability expert and Policy Adviser
at the Biomimicry Institute
Jacques Chirazi, Master in Biomimicry and Certified Biomimicry Professional, his focus is to create economic growth while fostering sustainability. With a passion for learning about the natural world and understanding how nature could transform the corporate environment, his long-term vision is to create new business models and financial instruments to accelerate the commercialization of biomimetic solutions.
Jacques will be speaking about biomimicry, an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature's time-tested patterns and strategies.
CNI Sustainability Ambassadors
UCSD undergraduates who promote
the Carbon Neutrality Initiative on campus
The Carbon Neutrality Initiative (CNI) Sustainability Ambassadors are a group of peer educators focused on the global, campus, and personal changes students can make to help achieve CNI’s goals of carbon neutrality in housing and fleet services by 2025 and all other operations by 2050. The Ambassadors have been trained by faculty and researchers specializing in the sustainable growth of UC San Diego, and aim to involve the students in sustainability efforts through presentations, events, talks, and tabling throughout the year.
GREEN TALKS 2017
WHEN: Date: April 4, 2017
WHERE: Location: Price Center East Ballroom (2nd Floor)
(reference map bellow)
Time: 4:00pm-6:30pm
Doors: 3:30pm
WHY: To take part in all the great opportunities that Green Talks will have for you. This includes..
- participating in a interactive Q&A panel
- Taking part in a networking session
- Trying organic and vegan snacks from Trilogy Sanctuary
- Seeing in awe the aerial yoga performance
- Being exposed to sustainable product vendors that you have never seen before.
- Getting free yoga passes,
- Being put in a sustainable raffle to win prizes
Please attend our event on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/events/229443640795797/
Follow the Inter-Sustainability Council for updates https://www.facebook.com/intersustainabilitycouncil/
We strive to bring to light environmental issues that are overlooked and to explore innovations in technologies/products that utilize our natural resources in the most efficient manner.
WHAT: UCSD's second annual Green Talks. This FREE event is a TED-styled sustainability talk, where we aim to celebrate a greener future and spark discussion about sustainability.
Six speakers will be covering different perspectives of sustainability, along with our presenters there will be an interactive Q&A panel, networking session, organic and vegan snacks from Trilogy Sanctuary, a spectacular aerial yoga performance, sustainable product vendors, free yoga passes, and sustainable raffle prizes!
Everyone is welcome to attend, from students, staff, faculty, professionals and surrounding community members
WHO:
Arindam Chatterji
UCSD's Solar Car Project Lead
Ari is a fourth year electrical engineering major and the founder and lead for UCSD's first ever Solar Car Project. This project consists of over 40 students across 12 different majors who have come together to build and race a solar powered vehicle at international competitions such as the American Solar Challenge. Ari is extremely passionate about the renewable energy. Last summer he worked as a motor design intern at Faraday Future, an electric vehicle startup based in Gardena, LA. Upon graduating he hopes to be part of the renewable or EV industry or ideally, both.
Staci Ashcraft & Paula Chou
Glumac Sustainable Engineers
The disastrous effects of climate change are becoming increasingly prevalent throughout the world. We need to not only reduce our carbon footprint to diminish the future impact of climate change but also prepare for the future and provide resilient infrastructure. We will discuss the potential of eco-districts to reduce energy consumption and the increased resiliency that larger scale systems can provide. The topics of interest will be on water, heating, cooling, and energy.
Monty Hasan
CEO of Topiku Upcycled Hats
Topiku means “my hat” in Indonesian. Together with the help of artisans in the village of Cigondewah, West Java, we aim to redefine the littered landscape of Indonesia by handcrafting the world’s most wholesomely sustainable hat. Through recycling + upcycling materials deemed as waste, encouraging ethical employment, paying premiums, and reinvesting our profits towards healthier community building, we are on the frontline of tackling Indonesia’s problem of adequate waste management, a growing pain of many developing nations. What does your hat do?
Nicole Capretz
Founder of San Diego Climate Action Campaign
Nicole Capretz is an environmental attorney with 20 years of experience as an energy and climate policy advisor for local governments and the nonprofit sector. Nicole was the primary author of the City of San Diego’s groundbreaking, legally binding 100% clean energy Climate Action Plan adopted in late 2015. She now serves on the San Diego’s Climate Action Plan Implementation Working Group, as well as the City of Solana Beach’s Climate Action Commission. Nicole advocates for local and state renewable energy legislation, participates in state administrative proceedings, serves as an expert witness in state policy hearings and is a regular speaker at energy and climate conferences and hearings. Nicole’s duties as Executive Director of CAC include overall strategic and operational responsibility for the organization’s staff, programs, expansion and execution of its mission.
Karen Archipley
Co-Founder of Archi's Acres
www.archisacres.com / www.archisinstitute.com
Karen Archipley, Co Founder with her husband Colin of Archi's Acres B Corp and Archi’s Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (AISA) in partnership with Cal Poly Pomona. Archi’s Acres is a small scale Hydro Organic farm in San Diego County, mostly known for their living basil and now their packaged basil in stores throughout Southern CA. Karen believes in “Don’t get mad, Get Involved”; thus, she is on the Board of CCOF Organic Sustainability, Crop Production and will talk about organic sustainability, crop production in a polluted world, our military, and the new Generation of Farmers.
Anika Ballent
Education Director at Algalita
Anika dove into the underwater world of plastic in 2010 when she first came across Algalita’s website and was confronted by the images of plastic debris floating in the North Pacific gyre. Although she had always been drawn to the water, this discovery sparked her desire to start studying the ocean and taking action to protect it. She decided to take the issue into her own hands and went on to research the underwater transport properties of pre-production pellets during her undergraduate research at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany. She since completed a Master’s degree at the University of Western Ontario in Canada where she investigated microplastic pollution in the sediments of the Great Lakes.
During her time at Algalita, she has developed a passion for educating youth about plastic pollution and inspiring them to be stewards of their local environment. She believes that knowledge is what creates the capacity for care and, in turn, action. Anika sees a future in which plastic pollution is absent from the planet’s beautiful ecosystems. She takes each day as an opportunity to contribute to the plastic pollution solution by researching, teaching, and sharing, in hopes of igniting a similar passion for the environment in her community.
Thank you to our sponsors:
Professor Leslie Lewis
GREEN TALKS 2016
Green Talks is an environmental conference held by the Inter-Sustainability Council at UC San Diego in order to promote sustainable awareness within the UC San Diego community
DATE: April 19, 2016
LOCATION: Price Center East Ballroom
TIME: 4:00PM - 6:30PM
Doors open at 3:30PM
THIS IS A FREE EVENT
SNACKS & REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED
SPEAKERS:
David Stover
Professor Leslie Lewis
Yanqi Luo
Desmond Wheatley
Alden Hough
Jessica Pompa
David Stover
David Stover is a Co-Founder of Bureo Inc, an emerging company focused on developing innovative solutions to prevent ocean plastic pollution. An avid surfer and environmental enthusiast, David has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and left behind a career in corporate finance when his global travels led him to the issues facing our ocean today. Currently residing in Los Angeles California, David splits time between Chile and the US and is actively involved in the global fight to prevent ocean plastic pollution.
Yanqi Luo
Yanqi (Grace) is the 1st year Ph.D. student in Nanoengineering Department, UC San Diego. She is currently working in Dr. David Fenning’s research group focusing on defects and interface engineering of inorganic and hybrid solar cells. Yanqi obtained her M.S. and B.S. from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in Chemistry and Polymers Science in 2014. After graduation, she worked in a silicon-based polymer synthesis company called Nusil LLC as a senior chemist.
Desmond Wheatley
Desmond Wheatley, president and CEO of Envision Solar International, Inc., teaches a LEED-accredited class on sustainability in parking and is a recognized industry leader in renewables and the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. He has a widely viewed TED talk and is frequently invited to chair and speak at industry events. Wheatley has two decades of senior international management experience in technologysystems integration, energy management, communications and renewable energy.
Leslie R Lewis, PhD, MPH, is a Lecturer in the Urban Studies & Planning Program, a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, and Director of the new Life Course Scholar Program at UC San Diego. Her research interests include the social, structural, and environmental determinants of health, health inequalities, critical medical anthropology, and community-based participatory action research. She is the Founder and Director of the Community Hope Project, a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization that partners with communities locally and internationally to create programs that foster hope, justice, peace, education, sustainable living, and human flourishing, as well as facilitate connections across constructed boundaries of race/ethnicity, gender, class, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, and (dis)ability.
Alden Hough
Alden has a BA in Earth Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz and later graduated from their internationally renowned Center for Agro-ecology and Sustainable Food Systems program. Following an extended period of travel in Asia, Alden found that traditional farming practices had been largely abandoned and replaced by the globalization of Western agriculture. This was a wake up call, seeing that even in the most remote areas of India, hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides were the norm. He began to dedicate his path to organic gardening practices, regenerating the soil, social justice, and acting as if the earth really matters. Since 2009 he has been the program director of Sky Mountain Permaculture a 7 acre permaculture and water harvesting demonstration site in Escondido, where he has taught thousands of people how to live more sustainably and regenerate the earth.
Jessica Pompa
Jessica Pompa was born and raised in the Eastern Coachella Valley, and is a fourth year Public Policy major at UC San Diego. Coming from an immigrant farmworker family, she was exposed to the injustices and disparities in rural, communities of color. This exposure inclined her to get informed and involved against unjust and unsustainable practices in rural, communities of color. She has been involved in organizations such as Building Healthy Communities, RAICES Cultura, The President’s Youth Council of the California Endowment, and the Born This Way Foundation. Currently, she is grateful for the opportunity to be part of the UC Global Food Initiative fellow. Her project is focused on building a community-university partnership and networking effort focused around issues of food waste and reduction, with an emphasis on capacity building for youth organizers and leaders.
Sponsored by:
UC San Diego Food Cooperative
EcoGrounds
HDH
