This event will explore opportunities, challenges, and risks embedded in the transition to regenerative and localized building product value chains. It will specifically focus on the intrinsic benefits of wood and other plant-based, long-life, locally sourced building materials for storing carbon, while critically considering practices of sustainable forest management, natural resource extraction, and bio-regional urban development.
Panel
Moderator:
Dr. Gediminas Lesutis
Dr. Gediminas Lesutis, Senior Political Economist, Bauhaus Earth
Dr.Gediminas Lesutis is urban political ecologist, focusing on intersectional perspectives to advance ecologically and socially just cities. His interdisciplinary research has been published in leading academic journals, and his first book, The Politics of Precarity (Routledge), came out in 2022.
Speakers:
Nasra Nanda
Nasra Nanda, CEO, Kenya Green Building Society. Chairperson for Africa Region, World Green Building Council Honorable Member of County Assembly, Nairobi
Nasra is the CEO and ESG Lead at the Kenya Green Building Society and a special elect Member of the Nairobi City County Assembly, where she champions sustainability with a focus on cities. A lawyer by profession, she is passionate about ESG, client relationships, and business strategy.
Prof. Dr. Edgar Pieterse
Prof. Dr. Edgar Pieterse, Founding Director: African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town
Prof. Edgar Pieterse is the founding director of the African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town. Edgar is Co-Chair of the African Mayoral Leadership Programme (AMALI), Provost of the Norman Foster Institute and a board member of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. His latest co-authored book is Cities Rethought (Polity).
Sonam Choden
Sonam Choden, Research Coordinator, ReBuilt Bhutan, Kaja Design Associates
Ms. Sonam Choden works with the ReBuilt project as the lead coordinator for research on the transition to a regenerative built environment in Bhutan. Ms. Sonam is passionate about ecosystem-based conservation and continues to advocate for systems thinking in natural resources management.
Prof. Dr. Phillip Misselwitz
Prof. Dr. Phillip Misselwitz, Co-CEO, Bauhaus Earth Chair of International Urbanism and Design (Habitat Unit) Technischen Universität Berlin
Prof. Philipp Misselwitz is an architect and urban researcher. His research focuses on the impact of planetary, social and ecological crises on architecture, urban development and urban-rural relations.