Speakers

(in order of appearance in the program)

What is a carbon footprint, how can I reduce it and will it make any difference? with Adam Hardy

Fossil fuel addict trying to find a way to kick the habit – I was a zoologist, a forex trader & a coder (not simultaneously). Up until 2019 I worked for BP plc, creating systems and huge databases to help the oil industry run smoothly. When the cognitive dissonance between that and what I thought my life was about grew too loud, I quit and since then, I’ve run Carbon Watchdog to promote action on climate change and the ways to deal with it, personally and together with others. Together with other local people in North London, I’ve started a group to manage our carbon footprints. We’re also working with local business and local councils to collaborate on reducing emissions. One key goal we are aiming for is to establish a Personal Carbon Trading network. I’m also publishing an academic paper with economist Prof Steve Keen laying out the policy on the Universal Carbon Credits as a Carbon Currency.

Human behaviour: working with the unobtainium of climate change with Luke Nicholson

Luke Nicholson is an entrepreneur and innovator focused on sustainability. He has been working at the intersection of design, technology, data and behaviour for nearly two decades. He co-founded carbon-saving businesses including CarbonCulture and Onzo, and has run sustainability innovation projects for clients including DECC, UK Parliament, The Mayor of London and 10 Downing Street.

Radical Co-authorship: Materials for the 21st Century with Simone Ferracina

Simone Ferracina is a Lecturer in Architectural Design/Detail at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), The University of Edinburgh. His research and teaching interrogate alternative design potentials, technical platforms, and modes of architectural authorship—with a focus on reuse and repurposing. He is the author of the forthcoming monograph Ecologies of Inception: Designing Hyperobjects (Routledge 2022), and the Series Director of Œ Case Files, a Punctum Books imprint on experimental and transdisciplinary design research (2021). Simone holds a Diploma of Architect (USI AAM 2003) and a PhD in Philosophy, Art & Critical Thought (EGS 2020). His work, independently and with the Experimental Architecture Group, has been exhibited and published internationally. Prior to joining ESALA, he was a researcher in Living Architecture at Newcastle University and, for over a decade, a project manager and project architect at Richard Meier & Partners Architects in New York City, with award-winning projects in Italy, Czech Republic and Taiwan.

Our Food System: Designing for Life with Ana Bradley

Ana Bradley is Executive Director of Sentient Media, a nonprofit journalism organization building trransparency around the use of animals in our daily lives—from food to companionship to laboratory test subjects. She is also Director of Digital Communications at Do it Now Now, an open innovation organization committed to bringing social empowerment to Black communities across the globe.

To Rewild: Authentic human response or symbolic of an emerging subconscious need for reconnection with Jeremy Rye

Jeremy Rye is a thoughtful, experienced and far-sighted Landscape Architect. Through his vision his studio strives to understand the living landscape: the influences, patterns and roles it has played in the past that have shaped it to the present day and how those elements will affect the role it will play in the future. His understanding crystallises the design, preserving what has worked and reviewing what no longer serves to create a landscape that is harmonious with the needs of the client, its visitors and the environment.

Innovative rural communities and a sustainable future with Mariana Van Der Walt

Mariana is the MD of New Zealand Institute for Rural Entrepreneurship, advancing entrepreneurship models and approaches that move beyond the traditional land-based focus in rural areas. She is also a co-founder of Impact Hub Waikato, advancing the impact economy. Prior to that she was a Chief Scientist and later a Director of Research and Innovation.

Local, inclusive, dynamic, food systems with Anthony Davison

Anthony Davison is a 5th generation farmer from Bedfordshire. He set up website BigBarn in 2001 to reconnect consumers with their local food producers to encourage trade and communication. The site now covers the whole of the UK gets 5,000 visitors per day and has 9,500 local food producers on its Local Food Map. BigBarn shares the local food map with other websites so everyone can add to the map, encourage trade and share income.

What would carbon aware internet look like? with Chris Adams

Chris Adams is an environmentally focussed tech generalist, living in Berlin and working in Europe. He is an organiser of ClimateAction.tech, a community for technology professionals taking climate action, and a director of the Green Web Foundation.

What could urban mobility look like in the future? with Rachel Jones

Rachel is a highly experienced design director who has spent 20 years at the forefront of digital innovation, framing and scoping opportunities, forging partnerships, and developing products and services across a variety of industry sectors, particularly digital intervention programs in healthcare and digital transformation programs in energy systems. Rachel is currently Design Director at D-Ford London.

How trying to design low-carbon products turned me into a tax fundamentalist with Ross Atkin

Ross Atkin is a product designer based in London. As a consultant he works mainly on physical infrastructure and electronic devices and has a strong interest in accessibility. He also makes and sells reusable cardboard robot kits under The Crafty Robot brand.

Making the sharing economy work for the local economy with Rebecca Trevalyan

Rebecca is cofounder of Library of Things, a social enterprise that helps people save money and reduce waste by renting out useful items like drills, sound systems and sewing machines from high street spaces, and helping neighbours share practical skills. Before that, she set up co-working space and local incubator Impact Hub Brixton, which helped community-led businesses around South London to support each other to thrive. Rebecca now advocates for community-powered high streets and access to affordable land and property, recently co-authoring the latest Grimsey High Street Review for government.

We need a universal Right to Repair – and we need it now with Ugo Vallauri.

Ugo Vallauri is Co-founder and Policy Lead of The Restart Project, a London-based charity fixing our relationship with electronics. By encouraging people to use their electronics longer and collecting and sharing data from community repair initiatives globally on recurrent barriers to repair, Restart pushes for legislation for the Right to repair in the UK and across Europe. The Restart Project is a founding member of the European Right to Repair Campaign. , a coalition pushing for the universal right to repair, meaning legislation at national and European level requiring manufacturers of all electrical and electronic products to design for repairability, while providing access to all independent repairers and the general public to repair manuals, affordable spare parts and long-term software and security updates.

Keynotes

Climate has a class issue: here’s how we fix it with Stewart Fraser

Fraser is an applied researcher at the University of Strathclyde, making clean energy work for social and economic justice around the world. Originally from a heavily deprived scheme in Forfar, just north of Dundee in Scotland, Fraser’s work focusses on bringing the benefits of low-carbon technologies into low-income and deprived communities to make them work against poverty and inequality, and bringing more people from those communities into policy spaces. Fraser is also a board member at Glasgow Community Energy, Glasgow’s first ever community energy cooperative, which is now generating at two sites across the city.

Redefining Innovation: How Equity + Design Should Remake The World with Dr. Pierce Otlhogile-Gordon

Dr. Pierce Otlhogile-Gordon is an innovation catalyst, researcher, facilitator, and evaluator, impassioned by the space between transformation and liberation. As the Director of the Equity Innovation studio at Think Rubix, a Black-led social innovation consultancy. Dr. Gordon serves as a shepherd for Equity Innovation to shape our collective future. He’s taught courses in design, evaluation, international development, and equity across four continents, co-designed partnerships, products, and services with local and international changemakers to support social change, and researched the complexity, evaluation, and emergence of design and innovation across the world.

Solarpunk Dreams and Other Ways of Commoning with Michelle Thorne

Michelle Thorne (@thornet) is interested in climate justice and a fossil-free internet. As a Senior Program Officer at the Mozilla Foundation, Michelle leads a PhD program on Open Design of Trust Things (OpenDoTT) and research initiatives in Mozilla’s Sustainability Program. Michelle publishes Branch, an online magazine written by and for people who dream about a sustainable internet. She is an advisor to the Green Web Foundation and the Billion Seconds Institute. She also co-founded a sustainable fashion label, Zephyr Berlin.