Aligning Profits with the Public Good: The Future of Impact Investing

How can investment choices and strategies truly move the needle on large-scale change? Four leading entrepreneur/investors working to reinvent and re-imagine impact investing share strategies and projects. Hosted by Darian Rodriguez Heyman, former Craigslist Foundation Executive Director and SF Environment Commissioner. With: Silda Wall Spitzer, New World Capital, which invests primarily in green technologies; James Joaquin, co-founder of the venture capital firm Obvious Ventures; Catlin Powers of Sol Source, inventor, Research Fellow at Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment.

Recorded Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California.

Carbon Farming: Soil Not Oil

Sequestering soil carbon is a critically important way to mitigate climate change. Hosted by John Roulac, founder and CEO of the groundbreaking organic superfood company, Nutiva. With: rancher John Wick, co-founder of the exemplary Marin Carbon Project, developing ways to increase durable carbon on his grazed grassland while increasing biodiversity and soil fertility and capturing the scientific data.

Recorded Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California.

Cultivating Dynamic Power, Catalyzing the Movement | J. Miakoda Taylor

What if we stop perceiving power and privilege as limited commodities? How do we collaborate in ways that generate dynamic power and create win-win strategies? Join J. Miakoda Taylor, Founding Director of Fierce Allies, in this interactive exploration.

Recorded Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California.

Curbing Corporate Power to Develop a Just Food System | Joann Lo, Saru Jayaraman, Sriram Madhusoodanan, and Ben Burkett

Although powerful global corporations and their allies are trying to undermine progress toward sustainable and just food systems, unexpected collaborations among labor, women’s rights activists, family farmers and environmentalists are innovating strategies and alliances to assure a new course for our food systems. Hosted by Joann Lo, Executive Director, Food Chain Workers Alliance. With: Saru Jayaraman, Co-Director/founder, ROC United; Sriram Madhusoodanan, Value [the] Meal Director at Corporate Accountability International; Ben Burkett, President of the National Family Farm Coalition.

Recorded Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California.

Digital Media: Collaboration and Movement Building in a Data-Driven Society | Matthew Monahan, Ben Knight, Edward West, and Ingrid Sanders

To have any chance of success, highly creative, collaborative uses of new forms of digital media must be a cornerstone of any strategy for progressive social and environmental movements. Four leading innovators in this domain share their insights. Hosted by Matthew Monahan, Namaste Foundation. With: Ben Knight, co-founder of Loomio; Edward West, co-founder of Impact Hub Oakland and Hylo social network; Ingrid Sanders, founder of PopExpert, a crowd-sourced, community-driven platform.

Recorded Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California.

Green Chemistry and Biomimicry in STEM Education: Interdisciplinary Approaches | Amy Cannon and John Warner

The seminal co-founder of Green Chemistry, John Warner, and his esteemed partner, green chemistry educator Amy Cannon, are co-founders of the groundbreaking green chemistry education non-profit Beyond Benign. They’ll show how the combination of green chemistry and biomimicry in the STEM curriculum provides a unique opportunity to inspire students to make connections with the natural world and to use that inspiration to become creators of truly sustainable products and processes. They’ll focus on techniques and resources for adopting green chemistry and biomimicry throughout educational systems, highlighting K-12 and higher education programs aimed at transforming STEM education.

Recorded Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California.

Kandi Mossett – Decolonizing the mind at Bioneers

Kandi Mossett, of the Indigenous Environmental Network, in her powerful #Bioneers2017 Keynote, delivers a powerful address on First Nations, fossil fuels, and decolonization of the mind.

Business for the Common Good: Judy Wicks

As we navigate the onset of climate change, we’re witness to the rapid obsolescence of the human systems built on the assumption of cheap oil. The clock is running out on expensive (and vulnerable) practices such as the long-distance, fossil-fueled global supply chains that transport the average bite of food 1200 miles to reach our plates. Inevitably communities are moving toward a greater re-localization of such basics as food, energy, and water. And that makes sense because that’s how nature is organized. Famed restaurateur and local food advocate Judy Wicks is at the forefront of the movement to re-define business practices, grow greater security and nourish sustainable communities.

Find out more about Judy Wicks at her website.

See related media in our Green New Deal Media Collection.

Kicking the Habit: Sugar, Fat | Maggie Adamek

You do what you eat. Groundbreaking medical research now shows that what we eat is directly connected to how we behave. Maggie Adamek’s research for The Sugar Project tracks how the changing American diet has made profound health impacts on behavior, especially among our children. Transforming how we feed ourselves is showing that food is medicine that can change negative behavior dramatically.

Hanging On: Treetop Truths in Disruptive Times | Nalini Nadkarni

“Queen of the Forest Canopy” Nalini Nadkarni is riding a new current of innovative scientists uncovering previously unexplored wonders in the forest canopy. Her imaginative passion supersedes the boundaries of science to inspire and enlist people from all walks of life, transforming the truth of trees into environmental and social healing.

Watch Nalini’s keynote talk and learn more about her work at her website.