Spending 90% of our time indoors negatively impacts health more than diet or exercise. Hexagro Urban Farming, an Italian startup, addresses this by creating a modular, nature-inspired system. Mimicking honeybee hives and tree structures, their solution transforms interior spaces into beautiful gardens, increasing access to healthy food.

Hexagro's automated indoor garden is modular, scalable, and utilizes high-pressure aeroponics, LED horticulture lighting, and environmental sensors. Join this session, streamed via Restream.io, to discover the first automated indoor garden designed to deliver abundance for everyone.

Preparing children for a sustainable future requires a collective effort from parents, teachers, and the wider community. It's not enough to simply help them understand environmental challenges; we must also take immediate action and lead by example, especially as young people like Greta Thunberg demand change.

We need to transform our own mindsets and behaviors to ensure a cleaner, greener planet for the next generation. By doing so, we empower children to become responsible stewards of our precious Earth.

Originally livestreamed via Restream.io, this session addresses the critical issue of clothing waste. Annually, New York landfills 200 million pounds of clothing. Globally, 73% of materials used for garments are landfilled or burned, with less than 1% recycled into new clothes.

To combat this, campaigns like Wear Next (New York) and Love Not Landfill (London) encourage diverting clothes from waste streams. They advocate for swapping, selling, donating, or recycling to prevent garments from ever becoming waste.

Join this session to understand why these initiatives were launched, their execution, and key learnings.

restream.io

The circular economy is increasingly vital for addressing global challenges, yet the finance sector's engagement remains in early stages. While industry leaders recognize the power of circular solutions, accelerating and scaling these initiatives urgently requires capital and services from financial institutions.

This session highlights how Intesa Sanpaolo has integrated the circular economy into its core strategy. Learn how this financial services company supports businesses, especially SMEs, in making this crucial transition.

A new era of consumption is emerging, driven by increased consumer awareness of product origins and environmental impact. This shift is moving us towards innovative consumption models beyond traditional purchasing.

Within the circular economy, rental and subscription models are gaining prominence, as recycling alone has proven insufficient. The next generation will demand service-based solutions over one-time purchases, prioritizing both convenience and positive social-environmental impact.

Q'orianka, a Peruvian-American filmmaker and actress, leverages her platform to highlight human rights and environmental injustices. She focused on Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum, which discharged 800,000 barrels of toxic wastewater, containing contaminants like cyanide and mercury, into the Corrientes river basin in the Peruvian Amazon.

This pollution severely impacted the Achuar and other Amazonian communities, who rely on the river for survival and have endured 35 years of conflict. During a trip to Peru, Q'orianka directed media attention to their plight. She invited indigenous leaders to a red carpet event, toured affected areas, interviewed residents for a documentary, and collaborated with Amazon Watch to advocate for change.

Amira Odeh, a student at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, observed peers buying disposable plastic water bottles due to inadequate campus fountains. Drawing from her personal experience with water scarcity, she initiated a campaign to address this wasteful habit.

Her successful advocacy led to the installation of new drinking fountains in every building and educated students on the environmental impact of single-use bottles. Consequently, more students now utilize the free tap water available on campus.

Odeh considers the university's commitment to maintaining fountain conditions and its consideration of a ban on non-reusable bottles her most significant accomplishment. This marked the first student-instigated environmental change campaign on a Puerto Rican college campus.

In 2008, fifth-grader Cassandra Lin founded Turn Grease Into Fuel (TGIF) after learning used cooking oil could be converted into affordable, clean-burning biodiesel for home heating. TGIF partners with local restaurants to collect kitchen grease, which is then recycled and distributed to charities assisting families with heating needs. This initiative has already helped offset over two million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

Lin and her team further championed environmental efforts by drafting Rhode Island's Used Cooking Oil Recycling Act in 2011. Passed into law in 2012, this legislation expanded TGIF's reach, establishing a robust network that effectively addresses community needs while significantly reducing waste and pollution.

Chloe Maxmin co-founded "Divest Harvard" in September 2012, aiming to move Harvard University's funds out of fossil fuel corporations. Her initiative built on research into Harvard's past divestment campaigns against apartheid and Big Tobacco, galvanizing a broad student and community movement.

The campaign gained significant traction, highlighted by a campus-wide referendum where 72% of undergraduates supported fossil fuel divestment. This, combined with outreach to alumni and faculty, led to meetings with trustees and initiated a crucial dialogue about fossil fuels at the university. Maxmin's activism began at age 12, and in 2007, she founded "First Here, Then Everywhere," an online network connecting youth activists globally.

Victor Davila, a New Yorker, was among the seven winners of the Earth Island Institute's 2011 Brower Youth Awards.

He teaches young people in his community about environmental and health issues, uniquely using skateboarding as his educational platform.

Michigan's Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva are recipients of the Earth Island Institute's 2011 Brower Youth Award.

They successfully advocated for Girl Scouts USA to limit the use of destructive palm oil in their iconic cookies.

Childhood friends Erika and Kayla actively championed river health in their hometown. Through the Youth Tribal Council and a Salmon Run Relay, they raised awareness about the declining Klamath and Trinity rivers. Excessive water diversion for agriculture, requiring dams and heavy irrigation, had severely depleted water tables and fish populations like salmon, sturgeon, and trout.

The Salmon Run Relay, mimicking salmon migration, also educated the community on native diet and culture, featuring a ceremony based on Yurok, Hupa, and Karuk traditions. Erika and Kayla further organized town hall meetings and distributed pamphlets, aiming to unite cultures, promote health, and encourage political engagement for river conservation.

Inspired by a 2004 Wall Street Journal article on the E-Waste crisis, Alex launched Project WIN '05 with his Westerly Innovations Network team. This initiative achieved significant local impact, collecting 21,000 pounds of E-Waste and establishing a permanent town receptacle that has gathered over 60,000 pounds. Project WIN '05 also helped enact local and statewide E-Waste dumping bans.

Alex further integrated computer refurbishing into his school's curriculum, restoring and distributing 260 computers to students locally and in Sri Lanka and Mexico. His recent work includes building an Internet café in Cameroon, developing a UN Environment Program pilot for international youth, and launching a "Bridging Divides" program with U.S. businesses and schools.

Q'orianka, a Peruvian-descended filmmaker and actress, champions human rights and environmental justice. She drew attention to Occidental Petroleum's discharge of 800,000 barrels of toxic wastewater, laden with contaminants like cyanide and lead, into the Corrientes river basin in the Peruvian Amazon. This pollution severely impacts the Achuar and other indigenous communities, who rely on the river and have faced conflict for 35 years.

During a film promotion trip, Q'orianka leveraged her media presence for the Achuar's plight. She invited indigenous leaders to a red carpet event, toured affected areas, interviewed residents for a documentary, collaborated with Amazon Watch, and urged oil company representatives to visit the impacted region.

Malin Viola Wennberg asserts that a sustainable approach is essential for the future of fashion. She emphasizes that 80% of a garment's climate impact occurs before it reaches stores, underscoring the need for significant changes in the global supply chain.

As Communications Manager at Mistra Future Fashion in Stockholm, Wennberg is a dedicated Sustainable Fashion Advocate. Her academic background includes an MA in Fashion Studies and doctoral research on sustainable luxury production.

Mistra Future Fashion, a research program funded by MISTRA and hosted by RISE, drives systemic change towards a Circular Economy in fashion. It examines the entire value chain with over 50 industry partners. This talk was presented at a TEDx event; learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx.

Fast fashion has drastically shortened clothing lifespans, increasing consumption while ~70% of closets go unworn. Extending garment life is crucial to reduce the industry's impact, cutting new production and textile waste.

The "Switching Gear" project, supported by C&A Foundation and Circle Economy, helps four apparel brands pilot rental and recommerce business models by 2021.

Join a session with innovators from the Switching Gear Enabling Network (SGEN), a global network of over 50 circular solution providers. Discover how pioneers like The Renewal Workshop and Stuffstr are disrupting norms with rental and recommerce, exploring their latest innovations, opportunities, and challenges.

Plastic pollution poses a severe environmental threat. Plastic packaging constitutes nearly half of global plastic waste, much of it single-use. This plastic can take up to a thousand years to decompose, entering our food systems and projected to outweigh fish in oceans by 2050.

Ecoware confronts this challenge by producing 100% biodegradable and compostable packaging. Made from agricultural waste, their affordable and sustainable tableware, packaging, and medical products offer an alternative to single-use plastics.

Learn how Ecoware achieved this and if their model can be replicated in a session.

The UK's oil platforms require decommissioning. A circular economy approach offers a significant opportunity to capture economic value by reusing the vast quantities of steel, rather than simply recycling it.

While the systemic benefits of this reuse strategy are clear, aligning incentives for all stakeholders presents a key challenge. The central question is how to effectively convince every actor to prioritize reuse.

The DIF explores disruptive ideas, stories, and innovations related to the circular economy. But what exactly is the circular economy, and how does it impact you?

Join the Ellen MacArthur Foundation team for an interactive session delving into the circular economy's fundamentals and underlying value questions. Share your insights on the interactive red pen graphic before, during, and after the session.

The future of fashion and its transition to a circular economy rests with creatives across all roles, from designers to marketers and editors. Their diverse contributions are crucial in shaping this industry-wide shift.

This session explores how a new narrative can redirect customer desire from wanting more to prioritizing better, sustainable fashion. We will examine how industry creatives can apply circular principles to their storytelling, fostering a circular economy. Tune in to discover more.