Together We Can Move Mountains

As we reflect on March 8--International Women’s Day--I am recollecting the sea of 100,000 participants at the Women’s March in Portland, OR this last January. It was deeply gratifying to be surrounded by a strong, courageous and passionate group of women. The thought that nearly 4 million participants worldwide were moved to turn out to the Women’s March based on one individual woman in Hawaii from her Facebook post strains the imagination. The Black Lives Matter movement also started as one woman’s tweet that led to a social movement.  Both illustrate the personal power that each of us have to harness and impact change when we engage our genius and courage.

Our national landscape has shifted dramatically in the U.S over the last couple of months. Our institutions, regulations, and protections thought to be sacred and enshrined in our way of life are suddenly at risk. As the U.S. is the largest carbon producers per capita, it’s critical that we respond to the clarion call of healing the Earth and creating a living future.  We can do this together and being surrounded by those of like purpose fuels our fire and inspires us to dig deep.

And on a day like today, it is important to reflect upon the genius and courage of some very impactful women coming to speak at this year’s Living Future unConference. This will be a historic year for Living Future and the call of personal responsibility of impacting our issues lies within our communities. Together, we will use our genius and courage to create the pathway to our collective Living Future.

Here’s just a small sample of the amazing women who will be speak at the Living Future unConference and will share their courage and genius with us.

• Naomi Klein, Friday Keynote: New York Times bestselling author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate (2014), board member of 350.org, a lead organizer and author of Canada's Leap Manifesto - a blueprint for a rapid and justice-based transition off fossil fuels, 2016 awardee of Australia’s prestigious Sydney Peace Prize, and the senior correspondent for The Intercept.
   
• Kirsti Luke, Thursday Morning Keynote: Chief Executive of Tūhoe Te Uru Taumatua in New Zealand, Ngāi Tūhoe’s Tribal Authority and Bachelor of Law (LLB) holder.  She has worked extensively in tribal treaty claims and was involved in the establishment of Te Uru Taumatua.
   
• Favianna Rodriguez, Artist-in-Residence: An interdisciplinary artist, cultural strategist, and organizer based in Oakland, CA. Her art addresses migration, economic inequality, gender justice, and ecology. She is the Executive Director of CultureStrike.
   
• Anjanette Green, Speaker: materials analyst in the Architecture and Design industry and First ambassador in China for the Living Building Challenge, worked on the first two LBC projects in China, co-authored the RESET air quality certification standard.
   
• Jodi Smits Anderson, Speaker: the first sustainability director in NYS Government. Her work includes working on aggressive green building goals, improving DASNY business operations, and collaborating on state policy work.
   
• Julie Hiramoto, Speaker: Vice President HKS, a project manager, designer and senior technical architect, specializing in curtain walls and sustainable, energy efficient design. She is adjunct faculty member at New York University’s Shack Institute of Real Estate.
   
• Jamie Dwyer, Speaker: Principal at Biomimicry 3.8, she has fused architecture and biology degrees into a career as a biologist at the design table. Her work is focused on facilitating biomimicry in the built environment.

I hope you join us - and these amazing women at Living Future 2017. Together we can move mountains.

Julie Tonroy, Events Director
International Living Future Institute