Suzanne DeVall (USA)
Founder and CEO of Ploughboy Organics, is a life long advocate of sustainable and organic textile processes. DeVall’s development of organics Avani Dyes are what many in the fashion industry today are calling “the most significant breakthrough of green technologies in the 21st century”. DeVall’s lifelong pursuit of responsible industry practices has led her to the unveiling of a revolutionary technology that repurposes the tobacco plant into a completely 100% organic dye and fiber. Avani Dye uses a fraction of the water most chemical dyes methods use.
Warwick Fox (UK)
is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Central Lancashire, in the UK. He has published widely in environmental philosophy and has a particular interest in the ethics of form and design. His books include A Theory of General Ethics: Human Relationships, Nature, and the Built Environment , Ethics and the Built Environment, and Toward a Transpersonal Ecology: Developing New Foundations for Environmentalism.
Hendrik-Jan Grievink (NL)
is a graphic designer and editor who lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is art director of the Next Nature Network, a global think- and design network that investigates our changing notion of nature and the impact of technology and design on our everyday lives. The network produces daily observations on nextnature.net and self-initiated projects such as the NANO Supermarket, an exhibition disguised as a supermarket that visualizes the impact of emerging technologies on our everyday lives through speculative products. Grievink is co-editor and designer of the book Next Nature: Nature Changes Along With Us.
Claudia Kersten (DE)
is working in the field of sustainable textiles since 2005. She is Marketing Director of the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and representative for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. GOTS is recognized as the leading processing standard for textiles made from organic fibres worldwide. It defines high level environmental criteria along the entire supply chain – from harvesting of the raw materials up to labelling – of organic textiles and requires compliance with social criteria as well. Claudia also works as a consultant and as an editor of the b2b magazine for sustainable textiles “natürlich natur” in Germany. Her research interest lies in contributions of Standards to the Business Case for Sustainability.
Safia Minney
is founder of Fair Trade and environmental fashion and lifestyle label People Tree. Safia turned a lifelong interest in environmental, trade and social justice issues from a lifestyle into a Fair Trade business and is regarded as one of the worlds foremost commentators of Fair Trade in the fashion industry.
Beth Mortimer (UK)
is a third-year PhD in the Zoology Department, University of Oxford, working with Professor Fritz Vollrath in the Oxford Silk Group. Researching at the interface between Biology and Engineering, Mortimer studies the mechanical properties of varied silk fibres over a range of testing speeds. Originally trained as a Biologist at the University of Oxford, her PhD work combines physics and engineering methods with biological interpretation. She is particularly interested in the question how silks are used as vibration sensors by spiders. She uses natural silks in her tests as well as silks generated in the lab. She currently holds a Lectureship in Biological Sciences at Jesus College, Oxford.
Kavita Parmar (SP/IN/UK)
is a designer, serial entrepreneur and a passionate advocate for change in the fashion industry. She is founder and creative director of the IOU Project. The IOU Project launched in may 2011 and is her most ambitious project to date: an e-commerce social networking platform that manufactures and retails one-of-a-kind handmade clothes. It seeks to empower the artisan, celebrate uniqueness, re-vindicate the right to transparency and believes that technology can make it happen.
Alexandra Perschau (DE)
has more than a decade experience in awareness raising for sustainable cotton and textiles. She has been the cotton project coordinator at the Pesticide Action Network Germany till early 2011, and since then runs her own business Future for Cotton. At the Initiatives for Sustainable Cotton (ISC), she is spokesperson for organic cotton, and coordinates ISC activities towards the fashion and textile industry.
Simone Seisl (CH/DE)
brings 17 years of working experience in the international fashion and sporting goods industry, as a buyer, designer, product- and marketing manager also for global players like Adidas. She switched to sustainability topics in 2008, working at the NGO Made-by as a consultant for social and ecological aspects and standards. Since 2011 she is working for Remei AG in Switzerland, a leading producing company for organic cotton, and responsible for the apparel business and for marketing.
Tom van Soest (NL)
has been working with fashion Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), retail and visual merchandising solutions since its incubation back in the 90’s. Van Soest shared the early vision of PLM when technology was still local and databases primarily static. With the launch of ChainReaction, a completely web based, platform independent PLM system, Van Soest revolutionized PLM for the second time. With his wealth of global fashion knowledge he combines his PLM expertise with visual fashion retail technology. Van Soest heads up the entire fashion software division of iShopShape and covers the concept- to- consumer- lifecycle.
Maurice Stanszus (DE)
is social entrepreneur and founder of WeGreen, the first comprehensive search engine for sustainability. He studied economics with specialization in CSR and marketing at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. In addition, he gained intercultural experience and expert knowledge in the field of sustainability management during stays in Chengdu (Sichuan Province) and Santiago de Chile. He is currently enrolled in a master’s degree program in sustainability marketing and social entrepreneurship at the University of Potsdam.
Mark Starmanns (CH/DE)
has worked on the topic of fair fashion for over eight years as a researcher and entrepreneur. He is a senior research fellow at the Univeristy of Zürich and founder of the Netzwerk Faire Mode, a German speaking platform for sustainable fashion. For his doctoral degree at the Wuppertal Institute, he did researches in Europe, Bangladesh and India, comparing different organizations like Fairwear Foundation and BCSI. Mark works at BSD Consulting Switzerland.
Sebastian Straube
is Co-Founder and Managing Director of BSD Innovation Solutions GmbH, the Sustainable Innovation Hub of the international BSD Consulting Group, which focuses on the implementation and management of strategic sustainability issues in business and organizations, both governmental and non-governmental. He has a broad experience in applying strategic and operational sustainability solutions for national and international corporations. His focus is on improving organizational structures by efficiency methods and sustainability driven business model innovation.
Anina (CN/US)
is an international model with a passion for technology. She is CEO and founder of 360Fashion Network, a company focused on creating mobile applications for the fashion industry. With operations in China since 2008, 360Fashion Network is pioneering mobile apps for the China Fashion Industry using Augmented Reality, NFC, QR Codes and creating interactive events. Anina is working together with the government to educate, bringing change, and innovation.
Peter Waeber (CH)
is chemist and textile engineer and CEO of Bluesign. The Bluesign standard is a comprehensive input-stream-management-system that covers all environmental, health and safety aspects along the textile manufacturing chain. With a professional background of many years in both in the chemical industry and the textile industry, Waeber is now dedicated to the principle that the waste of today is the resource of tomorrow.
Yvonne Zwick
German Council for Sustainable Development is scientific advisor for the German Council for Sustainable Development (Rat für Nachhaltige Entwicklung, RNE) and specialized on issues of sustainable consumption and lifestyles, corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investments. Currently she is working on the German Sustainability Code. It aims to mainstream the investors orientation towards sustainable development and to foster a shift towards sustainable business practice in general.