WASTE-FREE FUTURE
SUMMIT
EST 2024
November 13-15 | Zoom
Join Just Zero for our inaugural Waste-Free Future Summit. Over the course of three days, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in five free, virtual sessions highlighting innovative tools and successful strategies that communities across the country can utilize to tackle our waste crisis. Register today to engage with experts, advocates, and volunteers who are working to shape a more sustainable, waste-free world.
Day 1: November 13
Keynote Address | 1:00 – 1:45pm ET
We are thrilled to have author and activist, Diane Wilson, who is also Executive Director at San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, as the keynote speaker for Just Zero’s inaugural Waste-Free Future Summit. Hear directly from Wilson about her environmental activism and its greater role in the Zero Waste movement. Shortly after the keynote address, Just Zero’s Executive Director, Kirstie Pecci, will join Wilson for a short Q&A.
Zero Waste Legislation | 7:30 – 8:30pm ET
Just Zero understands that every state, city, and community is unique. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to enacting sensible and effective Zero Waste laws. You have your own Zero Waste priorities, and you know the political realities of your community best. That’s why, this October, we’re releasing model legislation toolkits that are interactive and customizable – to help you build a bill that will achieve your goals. In this session, Just Zero’s Policy and Advocacy Director, Peter Blair, and Deputy Director, Kevin Budris, will provide an overview of our model legislation toolkits. They’ll also share how Just Zero hopes to support communities on their journey to Zero Waste.
Day 2: November 14
Communicating About Zero Waste | 2:00 – 3:00pm ET
In this moderated panel, Just Zero’s Communications Director, Olivia Chabot, will be joined by Brett Nadrich, Communications Officer at Break Free From Plastic, Megan Quinn, Senior Reporter at Waste Dive, and Joseph Winters, Staff Writer at Grist. These prominent journalists and experts regularly communicate important stories, issues, and developments around waste across the country. Not only will we discuss how storytelling is critical to the Zero Waste movement, but also the various communications tools used to build momentum for change.
Zero Waste Campaigns in Action | 7:30 – 8:30pm ET
A panel of grassroots organizers and activists from across the country will join Just Zero’s Policy and Advocacy Director, Peter Blair, to share the ways in which they work to advance Zero Waste policies and oppose false solutions in their communities. Here, Yvette Arellano, Founder and Executive Director at Fenceline Watch, Seema Keshav, Steering Committee Member at Coalition for Plastic Reduction, and Jennifer Navarra, Program Director at Zero Waste Hawai’i Island, will share what they’ve learned – the challenges and successes – when working to enact change on the ground.
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Day 3: November 15
The Future of Zero Waste Advocacy | 3:00 – 3:45pm ET
In our closing session, Just Zero’s Executive Director, Kirstie Pecci, and Deputy Director, Kevin Budris, will discuss the importance of striving for new policies that protect people and the environment. Together, Pecci and Budris will look at the year ahead and talk about the opportunities and challenges they see on the path to Zero Waste.
Our Speakers
FEATURING
AUTHOR & ACTIVIST
Diane Wilson
Diane Wilson is a fourth-generation fisherwoman, author, activist, and mother of five. She has fought petrochemical industry on the Texas Gulf Coast for 35 years, launching environmental campaigns, demonstrations, hunger strikes, climbed towers, and even attempted to sink her boat in the fight against local industrial polluters. She has been jailed multiple times for civil disobedience.
She is executive director of San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper. In 2019, Wilson and Waterkeeper won a $50 Million settlement and zero discharge of plastic in a Citizen Clean Water suit against Formosa Plastics, Texas in Point Comfort, Texas. She was the recipient of the Goldman Environmental Award in 2023. She lives in Seadrift, Texas.
AS OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Diane also serves as Executive Director at
San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper.
Yvette Arellano
Yvette Arellano (they/elle) is a Mexican-American Gulf Coast organizer based in Houston, Texas largest chemical port in the nation. They are the founder & director of Fenceline Watch, an environmental justice organization dedicated to the eradication of toxic multigenerational harm on fenceline communities. They were instrumental in the Center for International Environmental Law ‘Plastic and Health: The Hidden Cost of a Plastic Planet’. Yvette has testified before EPA, federal, state, and intergovernmental bodies about public health impacts from toxic exposure and potential solutions.
Their advocacy focuses on protecting open & public processes, toxic exposure, community right-to-know, and chemical disasters fueled by expanding plastic production. The expansion of plastic production in the petrochemical sector has driven their participation in the Global Plastics Treaty with Break Free From Plastics coalition. Yvette is a board member of the Center for International Environmental Law, GreenLatinos, and Backbone Campaign.
Founder & Director
Fenceline Watch
Peter Blair
Peter Blair (he/him) is the Policy and Advocacy Director at Just Zero. He is an accomplished advocate, environmental attorney, and movement leader with extensive knowledge of Zero Waste legislation and programs. Peter is one of the country’s foremost experts on policy solutions to the plastics crisis, including Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging laws, Bottle Bills, plastic bans, and the Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guide regulations.
Peter has worked with communities and lawmakers throughout the U.S. to draft, build coalitions and campaigns to support, and enact nation-leading laws, policies, and regulations that phase out single-use plastics, improve recycling programs, and hold polluters accountable for the waste they create.
Policy & Advocacy Director
Just Zero
Kevin Budris
Kevin Budris (he/him) is the Deputy Director at Just Zero. Prior to Just Zero, Kevin was a Senior Attorney in the Zero Waste Program at Conservation Law Foundation. He previously worked as a Staff Attorney at the National Environmental Law Center, where he brought citizen enforcement lawsuits against polluting landfills and incinerators.
Kevin is one of the premier Zero Waste experts in the country and has a deep understanding of environmental policy and litigation. He is adept at working with communities, advocates, coalitions, and lawmakers to oppose false solutions and polluting waste facilities, and instead pursue strong legislation that protects public health and the environment. He has written and presented extensively about corporate greenwashing, the hazards inherent in solid waste incineration and chemical recycling, and the benefits of empowering communities through Zero Waste.
Deputy Director
Just Zero
Olivia Chabot
Olivia Chabot (she/her) is the Communications Director at Just Zero, where she supervises communication strategies and messaging for the organization. An accomplished writer and graphic designer, Olivia uses bold, accessible language and captivating visuals to spark transformative change. Her vision and direction have shaped Just Zero into a leader for creative, engaging content that encourages action and inspires our followers to think differently about our waste crisis.
Communications Director
Just Zero
Seema Keshav
Seema is the founder of Go Green Vernon Hills & Lincolnshire (GGVHL), a community based environmental group that promotes sustainable solutions through education, advocacy and volunteering. Since its inception, GGVHL has focused on being a community partner to advance programs that reduce food waste and single-use plastics.
Seema is also on the Steering Committee for the Coalition for Plastic Reduction, leading the coalition’s efforts to campaign for policies to reduce single-use plastics within the state of Illinois.
Prior to her environmental work, Seema worked in the corporate world for over 15 years. She is an alum of University of Illinois, Chicago and DePaul University. In her free time, she learns Indian Classical dance and enjoys performing at community events.
You can contact her at seema.keshav@gmail.com
Steering Committee Member
Coalition for Plastic Reduction
Brett Nadrich
Brett Nadrich serves as U.S. & Canada Communications Officer with the Break Free From Plastic movement, where he is responsible for the co-creation and implementation of key communications and media strategies to realize both domestic and international goals.
Prior to joining Break Free From Plastic, Brett served as Communications Director with GreenFaith, where he helped build and support an interfaith global climate movement. Brett has robust experience managing multi-stakeholder initiatives, including a focus on cross-sector member engagement, beginning with his earlier work as Director of MB Squared Solutions public affairs firm in Washington, DC. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Communications Officer
Break Free From Plastic
Jennifer Navarra
Jennifer Navarra is the Program Director of Zero Waste HawaiÊ»i Island (ZWHI) and has been actively involved in the zero waste movement in HawaiÊ»i since 2019. Along with the ZWHI team, she serves as the local partner to Perpetual, collaborating with the County of HawaiÊ»i and Hawaii Sea Grant to design and implement a groundbreaking reusable foodware program in Hilo, HI. In addition to her role at ZWHI, Jennifer serves as the Solid Waste Reduction Task Force coordinator with the Hawaii Environmental Change Agents, whose main focus for the last two years has been to advance Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging legislation within the state. Jennifer employs a holistic approach to develop reuse systems for packaging, recognizing that demonstration projects showcasing the feasibility of reuse at scale are essential for advancing policies that promote these systems.Â
Program Director
Zero Waste Hawai’i Island
Kirstie Pecci
Kirstie Pecci (she/her) is the Executive Director at Just Zero. Prior to Just Zero, Kirstie established and led the Zero Waste Program at Conservation Law Foundation. For more than a decade, Kirstie has worked to grow the environmental movement’s understanding of and response to the toxic and climate-damaging impacts of our waste crisis. She is a seasoned attorney and environmental advocate and an adept teambuilder, fundraiser, and communicator.
She works to expand her encyclopedic knowledge of Zero Waste policy every day. Kirstie regularly works with other environmental experts, advocates, journalists, and policy makers, to unite disparate interests and adopt common sense, sustainable, and safe solutions that put communities first.
Executive Director
Just Zero
Megan Quinn
Megan joined the Waste Dive team as a reporter in 2020. She previously covered the recycling industry as senior reporter for Scrap News, where she learned about the industry at scrapyards and steel mills. She is originally from Colorado, where she covered everything from fracking lawsuits to pet parades at several daily and weekly newspapers. She lives in Washington, D.C.
Senior Reporter
Waste Dive
Joseph Winters
Joseph Winters (he/him) is a staff writer for the environmental news site Grist, where he covers plastics, greenwashing, and carbon markets, among other topics. His work has been published in other outlets including The Guardian, Mother Jones, and Teen Vogue, and he recently won a Solutions Journalism Network Award for his coverage of French zero-waste initiatives. He lives in Seattle.
Staff Writer
Grist
