What is the Impact of Regenerative Manufacturing on Health Care?
Provocative Conversation About Next Generation Product Manufacturing Is Happening at Living Product Expo in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH, September 14, 2016 /3BL Media/ -- There’s a term that is known in healthcare as “toxic body burden.” It refers to the level of toxicity that exists in our bodies, accumulated in organs and fatty tissue, based on our exposure to chemicals and other harmful substances that are commonly found in building and consumer products. There is also an exposure we risk when we are PART of the healthcare systems – when we are visiting a doctor’s office, or hospitalized and come into contact with toxic products. It’s ironic that places of healing can contribute to toxicity, but they do. Robin Guenther, FAIA and LEED Fellow, is a Principal at Perkins+Will and Senior Advisor to the non-profit Health Care Without Harm that works at the intersection of health care architecture and sustainable policy, while also participating in a wide range of leading edge advocacy initiatives. She is known for her leadership and advocacy around material health, and she will be on the main stage to talk about how Health Care without Harm is rethinking hospitals and their unintentional negative impacts.
Robin will be joined by Chris Ategeka, a Uganda-born engineer, entrepreneur and inventor who is the Founder and General Partner at Hourglass Ventures, where he supports visionary entrepreneurs running startup companies that have a mission to improve life for people, planet, and sustainability. He is also the founder of Rides for Lives, an on-demand rural health care delivery company with operations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Chris will talk about how access to health care impacts the social and economic infrastructure in Africa, and what lessons his organization has learned from harnessing the power of social entrepreneurship that can apply across all populations.
Other topics and speakers on Day Two will bring new thinking and innovation into focus, including:
- Showing is better than telling! The Better Future Factory will be onsite to demonstrate how their Perpetual Plastic Project is inspiring plastic waste recycling with an interactive, hands on demo that can be used at any event, concert, meeting, or other gathering where plastic waste is generated. Waste is recycled on the spot into new products by 3D-printers.
- A conversation about our ability to mimic nature’s design principles to rethink our traditional take-make-waste linear manufacturing, and move towards a circular economy, led by Bill Browning and Chris Garvin at Terrapin Bright Green and Erika Hanson.
- A fun, creative and highly interactive workshop that will bring together material fabricators, manufacturers, designers, architects and facility managers to creatively imagine new products to be made from rapidly renewable, ag-based and bio-based sources that are benign, low carb and many with high performance characteristics, led by Thaddeus Owen at Herman Miller, Jen Stensland at Inside Matters and Elizabeth Whalen at CalAg.
- How the Paris climate accord will jumpstart a net positive economy, in a conversation around The Time Value of Carbon: Getting to Zero by 2050, led by Dirk Kestner, Director of Sustainable Design, Walter P Moore, Kate Simonen, Associate Professor, Carbon Leadership Forum Director, University of Washington, and Stacy H. Smedley, Director of Sustainability, Skanska.
About the Living Product Challenge
The Living Product Challenge re-imagines the design and construction of products to function as elegantly and efficiently as anything found in the natural world. The creation of this program kicked off a groundbreaking new event that brought together leading minds in the product industry to inspire a revolution in the way materials are designed, manufactured and delivered: the Living Product Expo.
At the first event in 2015 sustainability directors from the world’s leading design firms, prominent manufacturers and sustainability consultants learned about and shared game-changing innovations in product design.
This second annual event moves from inspiration to action. The Expo is an opportunity for participants to share and discover disruptive new ideas and technologies that are reshaping the materials landscape, accelerating the pace of innovation and making Living Products possible today. Join us, and together we will craft the future of materials.
About the International Living Future Institute
The International Living Future Institute is an inspiring hub for visionary programs. Our mission is to lead and support the transformation toward communities that are socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. Composed of leading green building experts and thought-leaders, the Institute is premised on the belief that providing a compelling vision for the future is a fundamental requirement for reconciling humanity’s relationship with the natural world. The Institute runs the Living Building Challenge, Living Community Challenge, Living Product Challenge, Net Zero Energy Certification, the Cascadia Green Building Council, Ecotone Publishing, Declare, JUST and other leading-edge programs. A global network of more than 400 volunteers across nearly 30 countries drive the local adoption of restorative principles in their communities.
