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Past Keynote Speakers

2024: Jeff Speck

Jeff Speck is a prominent city planner and author who is known for his advocacy of creating more walkable cities. He has held various positions, including Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts and Director of Town Planning at DPZ & Co., a firm associated with the New Urbanism movement.

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2023: Nalini Nadkarni

Nalini Nadkarni, unique academic career interweaves her research on rainforest canopy biota with innovative public engagement. She has written 140 scientific papers and books, supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society.

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2023: Larry Confino

Larry Confino, has been an independent producer/director for over 25 years. His current project 50 States of Sustainability is a 10 part documentary series about renewable energy and sustainability that is currently airing nationally on US public television.

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2022: Rob Davies

Rob Davies, a physicist and climate communicator, focuses his work on global change, human vibrancy, and the science of systems. Davies combines lectures and “performance science” to inform and engage policymakers, business leaders, civic organizations, faith communities and audiences across the U.S. and internationally.

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2022: Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stanley Robinson is a New York Times bestselling science fiction writer. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the international bestselling Mars trilogy. He was invited to the Antarctic by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers’ Program in 1995. In 2008 he was named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine.

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2021: Jasmine Sanders

Jasmine Sanders is the Executive Director of Our Climate. Prior to her appointment as Executive Director of Our Climate, she managed the strategic initiatives and special projects for HIAS, an $80million international refugee rights protection agency, operating in 16 different countries with over 900 employees.

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2021: Hazel Henderson

Hazel Henderson D.Sc.Hon., FRSA, founder of Ethical Markets Media, a Certified B Corporation. She is a world-renowned futurist, syndicated columnist, and author of award-winning Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy (2006); Mapping the Global Transition to the Solar Age (2014) now in 800 libraries.

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2021: Vicki Robin

Vicki Robin is a prolific social innovator, writer, and speaker. She is co-author with Joe Dominguez of the international best-seller, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence (Viking Penguin, 1992, 1998, 2008, 2018), and author of Blessing the Hands that Feed Us; Lessons from a 10-mile diet (Viking/Penguin 2013.

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2020: L. Hunter Lovins

L. Hunter Lovins is the President and Founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions (NCS), a non-profit formed in 2002 in Longmont, CO. A renowned author and champion of sustainable development for over 35 years, Hunter has consulted on sustainable agriculture, energy, water, security, and climate policies for scores of governments, communities, and companies worldwide. Within the United States, she has consulted for the Presidential Cabinet, Department of Defense, EPA, Department of Energy and numerous state and local agencies.

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2020: Mikhail Davis

Mikhail Davis is Director of Technical Sustainability at Interface, a world-leading modular flooring company with a fully integrated collection of hard and soft flooring. Mikhail is responsible for advancing Interface’s mission in the Americas by building internal leadership capacity, facilitating strategic alignment of efforts, and creating external partnerships that shift the marketplace toward sustainability.

2019: Paul Hawken

Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author. His work includes starting ecological businesses, writing about the impact of commerce on living systems, and consulting with heads of state and CEOs on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy. He has appeared on numerous media including the Today Show, Larry King, Talk of the Nation, Charlie Rose, and has been profiled or featured in hundreds of articles including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Washington Post, Business Week, Esquire, and US News and World Report.

Visit this page to read his full bio.

2018: Naomi Oreskes

Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. A world-renowned geologist and historian of science, she is the author of over 100 scholarly and popular books, articles, and opinion pieces. Her most recent books are Merchants of Doubt (Bloomsbury, 2010), and The Collapse of Western Civilization (Columbia University Press, 2014), both co-authored with Erik M. Conway. Oreskes also wrote the Introduction to Laudato Si, the Melville House edition of the Papal Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality.

2017: Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson served as the first woman President of Ireland from 1990-1997 and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997-2002. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. She sits on the advisory board of Sustainable Energy For All, and between March 2013 and August 2014, Mary served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa. From August 2014 to end of 2015 she served as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change.

2016: Joel Makower

Joel Makower has been a well-respected voice on business and the environment for over 25 years. As a writer, speaker, and entrepreneur on corporate sustainability practices, he has helped a wide range of companies align environmental goals with business strategy. As chairman and executive editor of GreenBiz Group, Inc., he hosts GreenBiz.com’s annual GreenBiz Forums as well as the VERGE conferences produced around the world. Joel is the author of the annual “State of Green Business” report and more than a dozen books, including Strategies for the Green Economy (2008) and The New Grand Strategy (2016).

2015: David Orr

David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Senior Adviser to the President at Oberlin College. He is the author of seven books and co-editor of three others. His first book, Ecological Literacy (1992), was described as a "true classic", and a second book, Earth in Mind (1994/2004) is praised by people as diverse as biologist E. O. Wilson, and writer, poet, and farmer, Wendell Berry. Both are widely used in hundreds of colleges and universities. He has authored nearly 200 articles, reviews, book chapters, and professional publications. In the past 25 years he has served as a board member or adviser to eight foundations and organizations including the Rocky Mountain Institute.

2014: Sally Jewell

Sally Jewell was sworn in as the 51st Secretary of the Interior in 2013, and lead an agency of more than 70,000 employees responsible for serving as stewards for approximately 20 percent of the nation’s lands — including national parks, national wildlife refuges, and other public lands. As Secretary, Jewell oversaw the responsible development of conventional and renewable energy supplies on public lands and waters and upheld trust responsibilities to the 566 federally recognized Native American tribes.

2013: L. Hunter Lovins

L. Hunter Lovins is a former co-CEO of Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado-based nonprofit resource policy think tank. In 1982, with Amory Lovins, she co-founded RMI, an organization that conducts research and provides consulting services in a variety of fields. Trained as a lawyer, she helped establish the California Conservation Project, an innovative urban forestry and environmental education group. Ms. Lovins has co-authored eight books, notably Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security (1982) and Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use (1997). She has consulted for both the public and the private sectors, briefing senior management at such groups as Mitsubishi, Bank of America, and numerous utility companies.

2012: Eric Lombardi

Eric Lombardi, Executive Director of Eco-Cycle International, is a specialist in community recycling systems, social enterprise and public-private project development. Over 25 years he built Eco-Cycle into the largest Zero Waste social enterprise in the U.S.A. Lombardi is also an international consultant, keynote speaker and workshop leader for government and private sector clients across the USA and internationally. His work covers the design of recycling facilities, the collection and marketing of “hard to recycle” materials, the benefits of a social enterprise approach, and the politics and strategies of growing community recycling programs. Lombardi was invited to the Clinton White House in 1998 as one of the Top 100 USA Recyclers.