Special Guests

Will Harrison

Sustainable Product Engineering Lead, Synapse Product Development

Will Harrison is a Mechanical Engineer, working in multidisciplinary engineering teams to realize the ideas and concepts of our clients. He previously worked at Cambridge Consultants, Synapse’s parent company, and can draw on the experience gained there from early stage R&D to transferring designs to manufacture in China.

Working on engineering projects from industrial robotics, to high performance sports equipment, to consumer electronics, Will has gained experience through a broad range of technical and commercial projects. Alongside developing novel engineering solutions, Will’s rewarding partnerships with clients have come from effective communication of project challenges, trade-offs, and successes.

More recently, Will has focused his efforts on developing Synapse’s skills and capabilities in sustainable design, leading our clients in product development strategies to result in more sustainable products and systems.

Will is a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and holds a MEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cambridge.

How to Incorporate Sustainability Into Your Product Development Process Theme: The Solutions Mindset We Need

Dr. Bev Law

Emeritus Professor of Global Change Biology & Terrestrial Systems Science
Oregon State University, Department of Forest Ecosystems & Society

Beverly Law is Emeritus Professor of Global Change Biology & Terrestrial Systems Science at Oregon State University. She is a terrestrial ecosystems ecologist with expertise in the role of forests in climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the effects of climate, natural disturbances and management activities on forest carbon and water.

She has an undergraduate degree in forest management, and PhD in forest science. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Leopold Leadership Program.

She has published more than 200 refereed journal articles, including publication of the year award from the World Meteorological Organization, and awarded highly cited researcher for production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% across fields globally. She was a co-author of the National Climate Assessment and the National Research Council’s report, “Verifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Methods to Support International Climate Agreements.” She was Science Chair of the AmeriFlux research network of over 100 sites in the Americas, and Chair of the UN programme Global Terrestrial Observation System – Terrestrial Carbon Observations (GTOS-TCO). Her 30 years of research includes the effects of climate, wildfire and management on forest carbon processes, and related emissions to the atmosphere at multiple scales from ecosystems to regional and global.

Forests and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
Theme: Solutions: Cities, Forests, Farmland

Lauren Rosenblatt

Co-Founder and Executive Director, Barrio Eléctrico

Lauren Rosenblatt is Executive Director of Barrio Eléctrico, and also a chief executive of Uplift Solar Corp. A lawyer with a history in regulated market issues and oversight, including securities and commodities markets, she has specialized for more than a decade in the electricity industry.

She has worked on behalf of nearly all perspectives in the electric sector: government oversight of the markets; vertically-integrated utilities; energy marketer; law and public policy; high-demand energy consumer; various emerging energy generation and storage technologies; and now renewables investment developer and market entry of a new energy technology.

Dedicated to equitable access for all to power and water, Ms. Rosenblatt directs her efforts to manifesting business models and technologies that promote outcomes of affordable power for homes and for economic development. Through her work at Uplift Solar Corp., she seeks to open new markets to Uplift’s unique combination of energy tech and fintech, thereby broadening access to financeable solar.

As a co-founder and Executive Director of Barrio Eléctrico, she is leading development of a transformational electricity market model with a process that starts with the users and consumers of distributed energy resources. She has a B.S.C.E. from Rice University in Houston Texas, and a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas.

Barrio Eléctrico: Community-Powered Distributed Solar for Puerto Rico 
Theme: Solutions: Energy, Transport, Materials

Jane Turville

Writer / Producer / Director, Wagging Tale Productions

Jane Turville began making films in 2005 and co-produced her first documentary A PASSION FOR SUSTAINABILITY in 2007. She is the writer/director/producer of the award winning film THE GREENEST BUILDING which aired on over 250 PBS stations nationwide and won numerous awards.

Over the past 10 years Jane has made numerous promotional film for local nonprofit organizations and wrote, directed and produced OUR VOICE, OUR WORLD, OUR FUTURE in 2018. The film won the Best of the Northwest Community Empowerment Award in 2019. Additionally, she is the director/producer/writer/editor of five short narrative films and the recipient of several screenwriting awards.

She is currently in production on her next projects – THE PEOPLE FACTOR: SUSTAINABILITY, POPULATION AND HUMAN WELL-BEING – a podcast/film series exploring the many facets and impacts of population growth and a 30 minute film documenting the restoration of what may be Oregon’s first house!

Jane received her Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Oregon and lives with her husband and pets in Oregon City, Oregon.

Our Voice, Our World, Our Future: The Effects of Climate Change on Low-Income Communities
Theme: Equitable & Resilient Solutions