Fossil fuels are all around us, and not just when it comes to transport and electricity. In your closet, your kitchen, your medicine cabinet, even your walls, petroleum products are hiding in plain sight. Our daily lives are built on embodied carbon in the most literal sense. And unlike metal, glass, or plant-based materials, they return cleanly to neither industry nor the earth. They degrade, but never disappear.
Decarbonization is about more than renewable energy. It means remaking the stuff of our everyday lives, and with it the supply chains, design decisions, and consumer habits that put that stuff in our hands. This conversation brings together materials innovators, designers, and industry experts working on sustainable alternatives, from new recycling technologies to bio-based alternatives for petroleum-derived textiles, packing materials, and cosmetics. Together they will explore the innovations that could help us move past plastic, and how we can get those sustainable materials out of the lab and into our homes.
Program
- 11:45am – Doors Open
- 12:00pm – Welcome Remarks
- 12:15pm – Panel Discussion
- 1:15pm – Networking
- 2:00pm – End
iCal / Outlook
Event start time
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New York
12:00PM
Speakers
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Bio
Preeti Arya
Associate Professor of Textile
Development and Marketing
Fashion Institute of TechnologyDr. Preeti Arya serves as an Associate Professor within the Department of Textile Development and Marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City. Her instructional portfolio includes the following courses: Introduction to Textile Science, Textile Finishes, Textile Product Development, and Performance Textiles. She holds a Ph.D. in Textile Science and Technology. Her research focus spans various areas including sustainability in chemical finishes, textile processing, performance textiles, natural composites, and closed-loop textile production systems.
Dr. Arya has a prolific track record of disseminating her findings through publications and presentations at numerous research conferences. She is known for her openness to collaboration with both academic researchers and industry professionals, actively fostering research initiatives and advancements. Her insights have been sought after by various magazines and journals, and she frequently graces industrial conferences as a keynote speaker due to her expertise in the field. She has been interviewed and published in journals and media publications like the Sourcing Journal, Vogue Greece, CNN, Huffpost, Robin Report, Forbes personal shopper, NBC news, New York Times Deal Book Summit, to name a few.
With over twenty-five years of combined experience in academia and industry, Dr. Arya stands as a vocal proponent of sustainable practices within the textile industry. She consistently champions this cause across diverse professional platforms, academic-industrial conferences, and seminars. Notably, she has secured several academic grants to support her research endeavors as well as procure essential equipment for her department.
Moreover, Dr. Arya is deeply committed to nurturing the next generation of researchers, actively involving students in her research projects and facilitating their participation in conferences, both within academia and the industry. Her dedication to student mentorship extends to supporting their endeavors in securing opportunities for professional growth and networking, which also resulted in her receiving FIT’s most prestigious “Faculty Excellence” award in 2024.
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Bio
Christopher Latouche
Founding Principal
Research GalleryChristopher LaTouche is a Jamaican-American landscape architect, researcher, and creative director. He is founding principal of Research Gallery LLP (RGL), a research-driven architecture practice working across agroecology, culture, and built work. Before founding RGL, he worked with organizations like Sasaki Associates and MASS Design Group, helping them think deeper about the future of architectural practice. He currently teaches landscape architecture theory at Uganda Martyrs University and is completing his landscape architecture licensure in New York through the experience-based pathway.
A notable project from the practice is Ital Coffee Trading Co., a materials lab centered on zero-waste Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, sourced from his family’s farm in St. Andrew Parish, Jamaica. The lab researches every part of the coffee plant, including skin, pulp, parchment, and silverskin, converting them into new materials, including 3D printing filament, paper, fertilizer, and even roasted coffee itself, in collaboration with friends at Pratt Institute and Princeton University.
Christopher’s operating system is based on a constant working relationship with musicians, producers, and DJs, believing music to be the most experimental space for opening new conversations and making them palatable amongst the masses. His creative work spans artists including Clipse and Khruangbin, and organizations across sports and technology, including Amazon, Apple, the NFL, the NBA, and Spotify. He received a Grammy nomination for his work on Kendrick Lamar’s Live from Paris film in 2023.
Christopher and RGL operate out of Brooklyn, New York, St. Andrew, Jamaica, Tokyo, Japan and Cape Town, South Africa, and maintain a global network of distinguished collaborators.
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Bio
Patrycja Kucharczyk
Founder
TreelessPatrycja Kucharczyk is a co-founder of Treeless, an ETH Zurich spin-off established in 2021, dedicated to ending plastic pollution by enabling the transition to bio-based, fossil-free material production using organically grown nanocellulose, free from toxic PFAS chemicals. Treeless Pack focuses on sustainability, circular economy principles, and offers scalable, innovative alternatives to fossil-based materials across industries. Their mission is to lead the way in creating a greener future through advanced material science. Patrycja holds a Master’s degree in Biotechnology from her studies in Poland and the Netherlands, and a PhD in Biomedical Science from the University of Bern. She has a wealth of experience in microbiology, health science, and project management, with a passionate focus on driving sustainable innovations.
Moderator
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Bio
Faith Legendre
Fellow
Aspen InstituteFaith Legendre is an accomplished advisor and strategist with more than 20 years of experience working with over 200 organizations worldwide via explorative, innovative, collaborative, and pioneering approaches to help advance planetary and human health. She enjoys building key partnerships through unlikely connections to create a better future for all those in the ecosystem.
She has initiated successful prototypes across consumer packaged goods, fashion, farming, mobility, and other industries. She authored a publication on the Circular Economy focused on technical commons, which can be found here.
Faith mentors students in biomimicry, sustainability, circularity, entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurship, and advises universities and companies on concepts that help them better prepare for the future. She is also an inclusion and diversity champion and ambassador.
She holds certifications as a Design Thinking Facilitator and a Natural Foresight practitioner. In addition, she is experienced and award-winning in innovation, customer experience, training, quality, and performance.
Assembly
This event is part of Assembly, the main Swiss stage at Climate Week NYC 2026. As world leaders gather in Midtown Manhattan, Swissnex assembles Swiss and global voices – from private sector innovators and researchers to artists and policymakers – in the East Village for three days of communal climate thinking and action. Assembly speaks to deliberation and democracy – the idea that communities must collectively define their futures – as well as the ongoing, creative, improvisational process of constructing those futures from the pieces of our present.
Partners
This event is presented by Swissnex in collaboration with Research Gallery.
