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Future of Food: Climate Wins

October 2, 2018 by dev_team

All, Announcements, OSC News and Events

OSC2 and Naturally Bay Area present..

FUTURE OF FOOD: CLIMATE WINS
Consumer, Company, And Industry-led Climate Strategies In Action

Featuring the Climate Collaborative, with special guests:
~ Afternoon Workshops~
Eric Ahnmark, Sustainability Program Manager, Recology
Ben Couch, Sustainability Manager at Traditional Medicinals, Inc.
Dana Gunders, Principal, Next Course, LLC
Calla Rose Ostrander, Strategic Advisor, Phoenix Rising Resources

~Evening Panel~
Mike Forbes, 
EVP & General Manager, California Olive Ranch
Caryl Levine,
 CoFounder/CoCEO Lotus Foods
Jenny Lester Moffitt, Undersecretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture
Ben Mand, CEO, Harmless Harvest
Mathieu Senard, CoFounder/CoCEO, Alter Eco

Sponsored by New Resource Bank and Sensiba San Filippo

Date/Time

Wednesday, October 17, 2018: 4:00pm-8:00pm

Location

David Brower Center: 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

Registration

Afternoon Climate Workshops & Happy Hour (4:oopm – 6:30pm)
~ Free!
Evening Program (6:30pm-8:00pm):
~ $10 OSC2 Members (Discount Code: OSC2NET)
~ $10 Naturally Bay Area Members (Discount code: NBADisco)
~ $20 Non-Members

About the Program

Join OSC2 and Naturally Bay Area for a special follow up to Global Climate Action Summit, with special content from the Climate Collaborative. The event will feature afternoon workshops on implementing packaging and agriculture programs, a happy hour, and an evening leadership program focused on ramping up climate action within our industry.

One month out from the Global Climate Action Summit in California, we’ll be reflecting on the summit’s key takeaways and our industry’s role in responding to the global climate crisis. Undersecretary Jenny Lester Moffitt from the California Department of Food and Agriculture will join us to share her perspective on climate change.

You’ll also hear updates on the Climate Collaborative, including insights from their new Tracking Progress Update. The project has just surpassed more than 300 businesses making over 1100 commitments—if you haven’t signed up to action yet, we hope you’ll take some time to join your peers and do so now at https://www.climatecollaborative.com/take_action.

We’ll then convene an all-star CEO panel to talk about some examples of the ways our industry is already leading the way on responding to climate change.


FULL SCHEDULE

4:00pm Climate Collaborative Food Waste Workshop featuring:
~ Dana Gunders, Principal, Next Course, LLC
~ Eric Ahnmark, Sustainability Program Manager, Recology

4:45pm Climate Collaborative Agriculture Workshop featuring:
~ Calla Rose Ostrander, Strategic Advisor, Phoenix Rising Resources
~ Ben Couch, Sustainability Manager at Traditional Medicinals, Inc.

5:30pm Happy Hour

6:30pm Future of Food: Climate Wins Evening Program featuring:
~ Mike Forbes, EVP & General Manager, California Olive Ranch
~ Caryl Levine, CoFounder/CoCEO Lotus Foods
~ Jenny Lester Moffitt, Undersecretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture
~ Ben Mand, CEO, Harmless Harvest
~ Mathieu Senard, CEO, Alter Eco

8:00pm Event Ends


SPEAKER LINE-UP

Climate Collaborative Food Waste Workshop Panelists

Eric Ahnmark, Sustainability Program Manager, Recology

Recology Inc., an integrated resource recovery company based out of San Francisco, California, is an industry pioneer in commercial organics processing and the largest composter on the West Coast. Eric leads Recology’s corporate sustainability initiatives, including organics feedstock contamination mitigation, emission inventory management and resource benchmarking, and sustainability reporting. Prior to this role, Eric helped develop quality control and characterization procedures with Recology’s collection and processing operations, which brought heightened attention to commodity contamination challenges. Eric has extensive experience working in zero waste event production and environmental education in both the public and private sectors, including work with the National Park Service, Sierra Club, and San Francisco Conservation Corps.

Dana Gunders, Principal, Next Course

Dana is a leading expert on food system efficiency and, according to Consumer Reports, “the woman who helped start the waste-free movement.”  She works with companies and other organizations to inspire, train, and strategize about food waste reduction via her business, Next Course. Dana previously founded and led the Natural Resource Defense Council’s initiative to reduce food waste, during which time she authored Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook, testified in Congress, and launched the Save the Food campaign, a national media campaign that has generated over $75M in donated media to date. Her work on food waste has been featured by John Oliver, NPR Science Friday, Dr. Oz, New York Times, Martha Stewart, and hundreds of other outlets. She spends far too much of her spare time devising ways to get her two small kids to throw less food on the floor.

Climate Collaborative Agriculture Workshop Panelists

Calla Rose Ostrander, Strategic Advisor, Phoenix Rising Resources

Calla Rose is a Strategic Advisor to individuals and organizations dedicated to the well-being of people and planet. She specializes in climate change and agricultural policy, science communications and movement building. Since 2013 she has worked to support the advancement of carbon farming, compost production and climate beneficial material economies in California. In partnership with John Wick and the partner organizations of the Marin Carbon Project, Calla Rose has supported the successful scaling of regenerative agriculture to the state scale through strategic organization, economic development, local and state policy, and communications.

From 2008-2013 Calla Rose served as the Climate Change Projects Manager for the City & County of San Francisco where she created and managed internal sustainability and GHG reporting systems and inventories, the San Francisco Carbon Fund, and community-wide climate planning. While with the Canary Initiative at the City of Aspen, 2005-2008, she co-authored Aspen’s first Climate Action and Adaptation Plans, created the ZGreen green business and events program, and launched the first municipal carbon credit program in the county. Prior to her work in municipal climate policy she was a Communications & Development Fellow for Rocky Mountain Institute, and worked in ecological economics with Seattle based Earth Economics.

Ben Couch, Sustainability Manager at Traditional Medicinals, Inc.

Bio coming soon!

Future of Food: Climate Wins Panelist

Mike Forbes, Executive Vice President and General Manager of California Olive Ranch

Mike built and currently leads a team responsible for building the California Olive Ranch brand, creating a national distribution presence, and delivering superior customer service.  California Olive Ranch is now one of the top selling brands of olive oil in the United States.  It has gained presence in over 20,000 stores, the kitchens of over 20 James Beard Award Winning chefs, and has been recognized by Cooks Illustrated, Food & Wine, the New York Times, and other leading food authorities.

In addition, Mike has played a key role in the 2014 acquisition of Lucini Italia, an importer of premium Italian specialty foods, from Molinos USA.

Mike discovered California Olive Ranch on a wine tasting trip to Napa Valley and has been enamored ever since!  He loves working for a company that is so focused on creating a quality product and building a California Olive Oil Revolution that mirrors what happened in the wine industry.

Prior to California Olive Ranch, Mike held Marketing roles at General Mills, Procter & Gamble, and Fortune Brands.  In these roles he launched over 15 new products, created multi-million dollar integrated marketing campaigns, and advised C level executives on major strategic decisions.  Mike also served as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he helped a diverse array of companies, school districts, and museums on strategy issues.

Mike holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BBA with Honors from the University of Wisconsin.  Mike lives in Oakland, California.  In his spare time, Mike enjoys cooking, hiking in the hills around the Bay Area, and spending time with his four year old daughter.

Caryl Levine, CoFounder/CoCEO of Lotus Foods

Co-founder and Co-CEO Lotus Foods – was awarded the Outstanding Value Chain engagement award for their work creating market incentives and supply chains for pioneering small-scale farmers using the More Crop Per Drop™ rice production method, which is raising farmer wages and outputs and reducing on-farm methane emissions by 40%. After a 17-year career fundraising in higher education, Levine, along with her husband Ken Lee, founded Lotus Foods in 1995 and leads innovation, marketing and sales as Co –CEO.

Jenny Lester Moffitt, Undersecretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture

Jenny Lester Moffitt is a 5th generation California farmer and Undersecretary at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, where she was Deputy Secretary from January 2015 – February 2018. Appointed to these positions by Governor Jerry Brown, Jenny works to engage stakeholders on issues that affect ranchers and farmers, including climate change, land use, water policy, and food security. Prior to joining CDFA, Jenny spent 10 years as Managing Director at Dixon Ridge Farms, her family’s organic walnut farm and processing operation. Growing up on the farm she would later help manage, Jenny learned firsthand the importance of taking care of the land and the people that farm it – and the value in fostering economic growth and well-being. As a farmer and policymaker, Jenny understands the critically important role agriculture plays in sustaining our environment, rural communities and economy.

Ben Mand, CEO of Harmless Harvest

Ben Mand is the CEO of Harmless Harvest, the pioneer and leader in U.S. refrigerated premium coconut water. Harmless has been built on a fundamental belief in “constructive capitalism” – an ecosystem-based approach to business that integrates all the stakeholders to achieve better products and outcomes for all. Over the past 20 years, Ben has built his career building and leading responsible businesses. It all started in the late 90s when Ben took a sabbatical from consulting to volunteer on an organic coffee farm in Costa Rica, discovering a passion for working closely with farmers and working with food at the source. He’s worked in various brand marketing and innovation roles at leading companies including General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, and Interbrand. Most recently, Ben oversaw all marketing, innovation and creative strategy for Plum Organics, a leading organic baby food brand. Under Ben’s tenure, the brand quickly accelerated from #3 to #1 in the category. He’s been featured at industry events including SXSW, Natural Products Expo and Advertising Week – speaking about everything from socially minded business practices to marketing with empathy.

Mathieu Senard, CoFounder/CoCEO, Alter Eco

Mathieu started his career at the age of 18 as a volunteer in the refugee camps at the border of Cambodia and Thailand where he spent a year running an orphanage for the NGO “Krousar Thmey”. That defining experience convinced him to spend his time and energy serving the underprivileged in the third world and developing countries. With degrees in business and communication, Fair Trade was the ideal intersect to achieve social change through business. He co-founded Alter Eco in the US in 2004 with Edouard Rollet. Today, Alter Eco sources 30+ organic, fair trade and carbon compensated products from 15 cooperatives of small-scale farmers throughout Central & South America and Asia. The brand is distributed in all 50 US states as well as in Canada.


Naturally Bay Area is a 501(c)(6) non-profit member organization that was formed earlier this year to connect entrepreneurs, investors and corporate innovators in the food and natural products community in Northern California. Naturally Bay Area is the first regional affiliate of Naturally Boulder, which has been the catalyst for Colorado’s dynamic natural products community and companies for more than a decade.

Naturally’s mission is to stimulate growth, entrepreneurship and exceptional leadership in the Northern California food and natural products industry; foster sustainable and responsible best practices in our industry; and facilitate collaboration and mutual support among our members.


The Climate Collaborative was born from a belief shared by natural food leaders that our industry has great potential to do much more to reverse climate change by working together.  The idea grew from a phone call between Jessica Rolph and Lara Dickinson – both in different parts of the country and both personally and professionally feeling the effects of climate change. Lara committed to making this the next OSC2 Collaborative Project and along with Jessica, Nancy Hirshberg and Katherine DiMatteo of SFTA, the team developed a plan. From the start, New Hope Network partnered with the Collaborative and committed their resources and enthusiasm to driving climate action in the industry. The Climate Collaborative launched on Climate Day at Expo West on March 8, 2017.

The Climate Collaborative was approved by the OSC2 and SFTA boards as a joint project in September 2016. In April 2017 the Sustainable Food Lab, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit, became the Climate Collaborative’s partner and fiscal sponsor.


 

New Resource Bank is a triple-bottom-line bank serving values-driven businesses and nonprofits that are building a more sustainable world. We see money as an agent of positive social, environmental and economic change and believe banking can transform the economy into one that serves all people and the planet. We put deposits to work for good by lending to organizations that benefit our communities and preserve our planet.


To Sensiba San Filippo, knowledge is the effective and appropriate application of experience, training, and instinct. They build it, use it, share it, and ultimately, help you benefit from it by tailoring its knowledge from all relevant disciplines within the firm to your company’s needs. In today’s marketplace, only a business armed with current, relevant and multi-faceted financial knowledge can make the critical decisions that will determine whether it succumbs, survives, or succeeds. SSF will help you obtain that knowledge.

To bring you the most effective, useable knowledge, our service teams are organized by industry with specialty focus groups. Each group is tasked with not only knowing the economic, regulatory and environmental factors affecting the industries we serve, but in applying this knowledge to you in a timely manner.

SSF’s focused and integrated service team efforts provide the value your business deserves and the knowledge your business needs to succeed in today’s changing marketplace.