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Natalie Bennett
Project Founder of Live With LessGraduating with a Master in Architecture from the Glasgow School of Art, Natalie is a registered Architect in Britain. Natalie now works in strategy and partnership development with Crossboundaries, an architecture and design studio in Beijing, applying her values of creativity and building relationships to support collective success.
Natalie believes that we each have a responsibility to the world we act in to make it better for all, through our relationships to one another and the environment around us that supports our existence. She explores the possibilities of problems by developing partnerships and projects that bolster action for good, through knowledge exchange and community interaction.
Live With Less is one such project, driven by the need to reduce consumption through individual action - making better daily habits - and intensifying impact through collective action. Running on these simple values, the ambition is to overcome current materialistic lifestyles that produce more waste than happiness.
Jean-Pierre Goux
General Manager & founder of the Blueturn project at PowerNextJean-Pierre Goux. Former researcher in mathematics at Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory, he was awarded the SIAM optimization prize in 2002 for his research. He is currently General Manager of a company in Paris specialised in energy and environment. He is the author of the two novels "Siècle bleu" (www.sieclebleu.org) that tells an alternative narration of the 21st century and explains how the view of the Earth from space could trigger a paradigm shift and access to planetary consciousness. He is the founder of the Blueturn project (www.blueturn.earth) which for the first time is showing real videos of the earth rotating in space, using data from the NASA DSCOVR satellite.
Steve Blake
Chief representative at WildAidWhile most wildlife conservation groups focus on scientific studies and anti-poaching efforts, WildAid works to reduce global consumption of wildlife products and to increase local support for conservation efforts.
Steve Blake joined them in 2013 to lead its online campaigns in China and has since also managed its media outreach programs. Steve has lived in China since 2005 working in the fields of media, communications, and conservation. He is passionate about both protecting wildlife and producing exciting media campaigns. At WildAid, Steve has lead the production and distribution of numerous national media campaigns to protect rhinos, sharks, elephants, pangolins and other endangered wildlife.
Laurent Boillot
president at Guerlain & Cha LingLaurent Boillot and his teams have been writing the fate of Guerlain since 2007 – the year he was appointed as the brand’s president. Under his leadership, Guerlain was able to reach new heights of success, especially in Mon Guerlain, La Petite Robe Noire, L’homme idéal, Abeille Royale skincare, etc. The brand also opened up La Ruche, a new production site for cosmetics with a High Environmental Quality (HEQ) certification. Guerlain has always manufactured its products in France, and Laurent Boillot intends to make it grow as a company while respecting its origins and limiting its environmental impact. His philosophy? Convinced that “without the beauty of nature, there’s no real beauty’, he reconnects Guerlain's traditions with the concept of sustainable development, which has been at the heart of the brand's strategy and its activities for 11 years now. Laurent Boillot’s commitment and beliefs pushed him to create a new cosmetics brand, with the help of LVMH group. It was the life-changing meeting with biologist Joseph Margraf and his wife Minguo Li in Yunnan, the green lung of China, that made him become aware of the need to protect the exceptional ecosystem which produces the Pu’Er tea. He created CHA LING, L’Esprit du Thé – a cosmetics brand born from an ecological dream.
Antoine Bunel
Ambassador for western cooking and sustainable lifestyleAntoine Bunel is a 38yo French man, Londoner and Beijinger at heart, with over 12 years of experience in global media marketing, and a lifetime passion for healthy delicious food.
He has for the last five years worked his way up to the top of the Chinese media landscape, appearing on countless tv shows with celebrities, online live streams with brands, events… He has become a China Top 100 KOL, as well as a natural ambassador for western cooking and sustainable lifestyle.
He is passionate about health, education and the environment, and wants to promote positive cross cultural projects between China and the West.
Tianle CHANG
Organizer at Beijing Farmers’ MarketSince 2010, CHANG Tianle is the organizer of Beijing Farmers’ Market, a platform to support small organic producers and sustainable food systems through weekly pop-up markets, community centers, education programs, farm visits, research and advocacy. In 2016, she co-founded Heyi Green Foundation and served as vice chair. She is also the founding editor of Foodthink, an online media platform to promote sustainable food system. In 2009, she joined a Minneapolis-based NGO Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy as its China program officer. Before that, she worked as a journalist for China Development Brief and China Daily. She studied journalism at Shanghai International Studies University and International Affairs at the New School in New York.
Lisa Christensen
Founder & CEO of Refined Travellers, Ecozine and The Cleanup ChallengeLisa believes that it is essential to grow ones consciousness, be happy, healthy and continually strive to live a more sustainable life. She is the vibrant, and passionate Founder & CEO of Refined Travellers, as well as Ecozine and The Cleanup Challenge, which was the first of its kind when launched in 2000, and is now the largest environmental event in Asia, mobilising hundreds of thousands of volunteers to clean up coastlines around the world. She previously worked globally in large-scale events, and sports marketing. Lisa is considered an authority in the conservation world, is a revered social entrepreneur, sustainability consultant and public speaker. She encourages disruption, creativity, innovation and lives life to the max. Together with her partner, Jean, they aspire to build a community of like-minded people who want to change the world in a positive way.
Mao Da
Academic Director & Policy Advisor of China Zero Waste AllianceMao Da is the academic director of Toxics-Free China and the policy advisor of China Zero Waste Alliance. He holds a PhD degree in environmental history. Over the past 10 years, he has been actively working with different environmental NGOs for their efforts to reduce pollutions of toxic chemicals and wastes, and promote environmental health. In the academic area, he has published a book on the history of waste disposal in the ocean in the United States and finished a post-doctorate report on the history of social debate on dioxin. Currently his work focuses more on environmentally sound management of toxic chemicals and on the monitoring of the secondary pollution caused by waste disposals. He also brings social assistance to chemicals and waste pollution victims.
Wen Fang
Indipendent Artist at 出溜儿大地艺术小组Graduated from Ecole national superieure L’ENS Louis-Lumière, Paris, France and majoring in Photography, Wen Fang is an advocator and practitioner of earth art in China. For this, she set up a group named ”walk out and create the earth art" with her friends. during this session, she will show us a series of artworks that tap into the nature and share the story behind.
Niko de La Faye
Visual artistNiko works across sculptural objects, photography, video and performance. De La Faye’s work consists of making compositions of shapes, geometrical and natural, referring directly or indirectly to universal laws and Nature in various forms. He creates instinctively and the foundations of his work lie in collaboration and encounters with people he meets and environments in which he finds himself living and working. De La Faye has shown his work both nationally and internationally (www.nikodelafaye.com)
Title of his creative capsule: SHINE 8 LIGHTS
Niko de La Faye invites the audience into an moment of poetry with an abstract geometrical shadow theatre, with light radiating through its latest piece, a representation of the Cosmos called M2B4#2.2.
Hans Galliker
Ecopreneur.Hans Galliker is a self-professed ecopreneur. Having grown up in Switzerland working as a farmer, and then in the IT industry and studying business communication, since 2009 Hans’ mission has been to create seismic positive change in the agricultural industry. His dream is that farming will become a substantial, valued part of the world economy by producing healthy products in a socially sustainable and environmentally-friendly way. In 2011 he co-founded the urban organic fashion brand NEEMIC and the Beijing Fashion Collective. Hans approaches the sustainability mission through the textile industry, embedded in lifestyle-oriented contemporary culture. He is also currently building an IT service company that empowers eco-minded organizations with open source-based business software solutions.
Anna Guo
Founder of Smart AirFounder of Smart Air Filters - Smart Air (Beijing) Technology Company
Anna Guo graduated from Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, is co-founder of Smart Air Filters, a mission-driving social enterprise that provides air pollution knowledge through educational workshops and research, and ships low-cost air purifiers. Smart Air's workshops and crazy simple purifiers have attracted the attention of international and domestic media including the BBC, Forbes, and CCTV. Smart Air has been providing purifiers to 30,000 people. At the same time, with the transparency policy to share all Smart Air research and data online and DIY workshop offline to help people know how to protect ourselves from air pollution. There are more than 5,000 people benefited by Smart Air’s workshop up now.
Hanna Hallin
Sustainability Manager for H&M Sales Market Greater China at H&M GroupHanna Hallin is Sustainability Manager for H&M Sales Market Greater China, with more than 500 stores within the H&M Group brands and +10,000 employees. Prior to this she was a Sustainability Business Expert at the H&M Group’s Head Office in Stockholm. Hanna has more than a decade’s experience in the field of sustainability within the non-profit sector, including Fairtrade Sweden and Clean Clothes Campaign. Before joining H&M she was the Executive Director of a Swedish think tank on civil society and has served as a board member of the Swedish National Committee to UNESCO.
For fashion to be successful in a world with finite resources, it needs to explore new circular ways as to how fashion is made and enjoyed. H&M has set bold goals to lead the change towards a circular fashion future, such as using 100% sustainable materials by 2030 and have a climate neutral supply chain.
Joe Harvey
Co-founder of THE BULK HOUSEJoe Harvey is an Irish or British (he’s not too sure) zero waste advocate and entrepreneur. After graduating in Law, Joe joined the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay team on a momentous journey taking the Olympic torch to almost every corner of the UK. After this unforgettable experience, he decided he wanted to go travelling choosing China as his 1st port of call. A few more months went by and Joe decided to stay a little longer, started his own business, joined a band and later co-founded THE BULK HOUSE, China’s 1st zero waste social enterprise.
Lise Honsiger
Chief Financial Officer at Skipping RocksLise is the Chief Financial Officer of start-up Skipping Rocks Lab whose mission is ‘to make packaging disappear’. The company has developed Ooho, a fully biodegradable flexible packaging made from seaweed extract that intends to replace plastic packaging in multiple markets. The Ooho can be used to package any liquid from juice to alcohol to ketchup, and the Ooho production machine will be launched for sale in early 2019. The company are also developing rigid materials to replace plastic lined boxes and coffee cups. Prior to Skipping Rocks, Lise worked in private equity investing in renewable energy, helping build more than 100MWs of grid connected solar in the Philippines. She has degrees in environmental science from Oxford University and Imperial College London.
Vivien Ji
Founder of LifebloomsVievien is a founder of Lifeblooms - a platform dedicated to the holistic living, healing and spiritual growth for woman. Inspired by her own journey through 14 years of yoga, coaching and holistic detox healing, Vivien has dedicated her career to bring the most forward thinking modalities in leading healing arts and science to help women in the world reaching their multiple level of self-awareness from physical body, mind, emotion, and spiritual level. Vivien is also a holistic detox retreat leader, certified vegan raw chef & juice detox practitioner and ICF certified coach.
Danma Jyid
Social Worker/Social Entrepreneur at YakmaDanmaji (བརྟན་མ་སྐྱིད) grew up on the edge of the Himalayan Plateau to a yak herding nomadic family. When she was a child, she understood that her only future seemed to be bearing children, herding livestock, fetching water and collecting wood for fuel. She observed and understood the gender inequality in her community and committed to the change of people traditional picture of women role in society.
She pursued her education at Qinghai Normal University’s “English Training Program” and implemented several development projects that proved to her community that educating women is worthwhile. One of it she ran with success was to bring running water to her hometown for the first time. Then she left for Australia to study a Bachelor of Public Communications (Social Inquiry) and a Master of Social Work at the University of Sydney.
Back to her hometown in 2016, she established a social enterprise called Yakma (www.yakmybody.com) which aims to empower village women by employing them to make 100% yak milk soap. She realized that the traditional herding lifestyle and natural yak milk fit well with the modern concept of organic products.
Cassie Kang
MeditationCassie coaches both individuals and groups, she also takes part in corporate internal coaching and trainings. Moreover, she is passionate about Buddha’s teachings and uses her spare time to study to be a bilingual Dharma Instructor. As a student of life, she has great passion in inspiring and empowering others. Her approaches are gentle and warm but also direct and right to the point, she uses creative ways to help coaches and students to achieve the life they are most passionate about with an open heart. Her specialties are self-cultivation, personal growth, letting go, emotion regulation, mind training, self-sufficient and effortless living.
MINGUO LI MARGRAF
founder of TianZi Biodiversity & Development CentreMs. Minguo Li-Margraf, is founder of the “TianZi Biodiversity & Development Centre”, Deputy Chief Director of the “Chinese Institute of Environment & Resources Protection for Minority Areas” at Minzu University in Beijing.
She devotes herself to designing and implementing projects for the protection of Yunnan’s unique biodiversity and rich natural resources, focusing on sustainable rural development. Ms. Li-Margraf received a UN “Make China Beautiful” Award, “The 10 Most Influential Woman in Public Welfare” Award from All-China Women’s Federation, and a "Forest Chinese - 2014 Chinese Eco Hero" Award.
To realize Inter-Generation Equity, Ms. Li-Margraf has become the promoter and practitioner to recover and recreate Rainforest Life-style.
Eric Lau
toxics campaigner at Greenpeace Beijing officeEric Lau, toxics campaigner at Greenpeace Beijing office. His passion and expertise lie in areas of solid waste and chemical pollution prevention. He joined Greenpeace in 2015 and began his journey with participating in the rapid response of Tianjin Port blaster. Based on his 14 years working experience in ICT sector, he led various campaigns to make IT industry greener, which means using more renewable energy, using more recycled materials and reducing hazardous chemicals.
What Eric and Greenpeace doing now is to ReThink IT, changing the current linear business model in to a circular one. It is clear that the linear business model, including mining, manufacturing, consumption and disposal is not sustainable at all. We should rethink our current business and define a brand new future: how to make a win-win situation to balance the technology development and environment impact.
Tristan Macquet
Co-founder of Nurseries for NurseriesTristan Macquet arrived in China in 2010 after an engineering degree to specialise in environmental sciences at Tsinghua University. He started as an entrepreneur joining or founding several restaurants then focused on organic agriculture. Since his first son’s birth in 2015, Tristan has shifted his work toward education and more specifically environmental education. He taught sciences 2 years at the Beijing International French School, before taking over as principal of the sino-french school La Maison Montessori de Pékin. Then he co-founded Nurseries for Nurseries (N4N) that assists Chinese kindergartens and primary schools to start their own pedagogical vegetable gardens. It has now more than a hundred participating schools across 13 Chinese provinces! Tristan works not only to raise awareness among future generations but through the thousands of little gardeners, reach their families and encourage them to act now.
François-Ghislain Morillion
Co-founder of VEJAFrançois-Ghislain Morillion is the co-founder of VEJA. After consulting large corporations on sustainability issues (2002/2004), François and Sébastien created their own venture in 2005. VEJA is a brand of sneakers made in Brazil with fair trade, organic and recycled materials. The approach of VEJA on sustainability is holistic: through its products, it is aiming to have a positive impact on society, the economy, and the environment. Based in Paris, VEJA is sold in 2 000 selected stores around the world. In 2018, its annual production is 800 000 pairs, with 70% growth. China is VEJA’s third market after France and USA.
In parallel to VEJA, François studies philosophy at Institut Catholique de Paris.
Clotilde Pallier
social auditor and one of the partners at Feiy, at FeiyClotilde obtained her master degree in food engineering in 2007. Following her studies she joined the international retail chain Carrefour as a quality manager. Her first position was in Indonesia and later on in China, where she has been living since 2010. In 2015, as she was looking for more purpose and alignment, she operated a turn in her career and joined the sector of social entrepreneurship. She is now a social auditor and one of the partners at Feiy, a platform that empowers empathic and purpose-driven leaders to shape tomorrow’s world. It inspires, connects and supports individuals, entrepreneurs and employees to drive change by building a career aligned with environmental and social goals.
Xenia Sidorenko
Russian fashion designerXenia Sidorenko is a Russian fashion designer who lives in Shanghai for 8 years and works within a fashion industry for 10 years. She is challenging and reshaping the idea of linear fashion into a circular process. Through UseDem, she transform discarded and rejected denim into fashionable wearable products. By that, she is taking charge to promote sustainable fashion and upcycling. Moreover, all UseDem items are produced in cooperation with the Chinese retired and disabled community, which provides people in need with the support and training, necessary to become employable as well as providing a job.
Miao Wang
Founder of Better BlueMiao Wang is chief representative of Project AWARE in Greater China, ambassador of Project Seahorse and Guangxi Reef Check and founder of Better Blue. Miao Wang has always been working in the field of international development and since she became a diver in 2015, she decided to be dedicated to ocean conservation as she recognizes that ocean health is highly connected with human welfare. Formed mainly by divers, Better Blue is China’s first organization focuses on linking divers to participate in ocean conservation and has launched more than 100 offline activities in 24 cities. Better Blue has already become an influential leading charity on ocean conservation.
Zhou Wei
Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace East AsiaZhou Wei has been working on oceans protection for more than 6 years within two areas: promoting marine protected areas to preserve the world’s most valuable marine ecosystems, and promoting sustainable fisheries to solve one of the most important challenges faced by our oceans - overfishing. She and her team have made joint efforts to protect our oceans with many ocean lovers. They cooperated with photographers to document fishermen stories and scientists to do research on fisheries and marine creature’s conservation. They explored fishing ports and coastal villages and made a public art work with volunteers, high school students and artists. Her team is also engaged with celebrities to call for Antarctic marine protected areas to safeguard the pristine, fragile, unique ecosystem and wildlife.
Angela S. Yu
Executive Director of Institute for Postmodern Development of ChinaAngela is a writer, journalist and philosopher. One of her recent reports/ publishment was on organic farmers across Asia. She is also executive Director of IPDC, Institute for Postmodern Development of China, a world leading think tank and academic community in promoting organic philosophy and ecological civilization in the US and in China.
In recent years, Angela talks to the mainland fashion industry about the situation of plastic pollution in the ocean. She is the first and only speaker to propose a plastic-free and ecologically friendly new fashion at the Marie Claire Smart Women Forum held in Beijing in 2017. She defined it as New Sexy.
Angela is working to bridge doers and world first class thinkers together to talk, to share and to support each other. She believes that only by breaking walls and working together, we can achieve an ecological transition.
Carrie Yu
Co-founder of THE BULK HOUSECarrie Yu (余元 Yu Yuan) is the co-founder of THE BULK HOUSE, China’s 1st zero waste social enterprise. Carrie and her partner, Joe Harvey, opened mainland China’s first zero waste and package free store in Beijing at the beginning of 2018. One of the main focuses of THE BULK HOUSE is encouraging people to understand and reduce their waste by following the 6R principle (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle, Rot) in their logo. The zero waste advocates are dedicated to making zero waste convenient for all. (Zero waste + minimalism = greater happiness)
Rui (Juliet ) ZHU
Professor of Marketing, Co-director of the Branding Center, and Associate Dean for EMBA Programs at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) at Cheung Kong Graduate School of BusinessZhu Rui is Associate Dean for EMBA Programs, Professor of Marketing and co-Director of the Branding Center in Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. Professor Zhu has done extensive research on consumer behavior, creativity, and advertising. Professor Zhu won the CKGSB Research Excellence Award in 2015, the Sauder Research Excellence Award in 2010 and the Marketing Science Institute’s Young Scholar award in 2007. Her research has been published in leading journals such as Science, the Journal of Consumer Research, and the Journal of Marketing Research, and has been featured in media outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Independent, CBC and Financial Times.
Professor Zhu has great insights on using the latest business models and know-how to guide and operate social enterprises. She has been working with and researching non-profits in China, including Adream, Tencent and many others. She pioneered the philanthropy courses in CKGSB.
Ella Zhang
Founder of The Institute of Growing Capacity (iGrow)The Institute of Growing Capacity (iGrow) was established to serve organizations who wish to develop their people to the highest levels of performance, to have greater fulfilment in their lives and to make a positive contribution to the wider community. Ella Zhang is a passionate change maker, workshop facilitator and executive coach. Her areas of expertise include leadership development, cultural transformation and performance management. Prior to iGrow, Ella offered her services as National HR Manager, Learning & Development Manager in various Financial Institutions in Australia and as in-house counsel in High-Tech industry in Asia. After witnessing what a toxic culture can do to a human psychic and how a flourishing environment can inspire ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things, Ella is missioned to assist organizations to create flourishing workplaces via cutting edge Brain Science & Mindful Leadership.
Hazel Zhang
Founder and CEO of VegPlanetHazel Zhang (张思), founder and CEO of VegPlanet : Hazel has launched VegPlanet as a media platform. VegPlanet is now growing into a lifestyle brand with content, community and its own vegan products. Today, it is the most influential vegan media platform in China with a loyal following of over 300 000 people. It is a philosophy-driven company that sees human, animals and the planet as a whole, and hopes to reconnect human with other beings. It is not just a media company or a vegan business. With trendy contents, vibrant events and earth-friendly products, it helps people discover and experience a lifestyle that is sustainable, healthy, beautiful and fun and believes one can build a harmonious and loving connection between our inner and outer world.
Kemin Zhang
MC at WDTSFBorn to a musical family in China and raised in Canada, Kemin was brought up bi-culturally and was influenced by music and theatre since childhood. Kemin’s Television career began in 2004 as a magician on China Central Television's (CCTV). After writing, producing, co-directing and starring in a few commercial gigs, Kemin turned his interest to the stage and made his debut as a musical theatre director in a production of the musical "Oliver!" with the International Festival Chorus and Children's Choi. Since then he has worked on some original Chinese musicals such as "Love U, Teresa!", and a magical musical of his own creation: "Joker's Game", which was awarded the “Best Production Award” and the “Best Loved By Audience Award” at the China National Dongguan Musical Theatre Festival in 2011. In 2012 Kemin founded the “Bukaopu” (to play without score) Concert Saloon, as founder and CEO of WDTSF and Executive Director of the Li Delun Music Foundation, Kemin continues to dream up new ways to contribute to humanity without causing too much damage.
Yuan Zou
Founder & CEO of VDC DigitalBefore establishing VDC Digital as Founder and CEO, Yuan had a successful agency career, serving as Head of Digital of NewBase (formerly Publicitas) in Paris, and previous to that ran a leading pure play digital agency, Digital Jungle as Managing Director in Beijing for 7 years. She has over 15-year experience in media, 10 years in digital media, 8 of which with a particular focus on the luxury sector.
Yuan came from an international academic and professional background, from university in the US and Japan, and an MBA degree from Cambridge University in England. She sits on the Board of several local Chinese companies, and serves as advisors to Women In Business, and was the spoke person for Women In Tech.
Yuan has always been passionate about environmental projects, while working closely with luxury brands on their communication strategy, she realized the power of influence that these iconic brands have on the younger generation, and wants to combine the two to find solutions for a more sustainable future. This is when she has met Nathalie, the founder of WeBelong, and was integrated in its Advisory Board.