Sustainable Business and Design Conference: 2022 Pathways to Impact: Where Sustainability Meets Inclusion

FIT’s 16th annual Sustainable Business and Design Conference: Pathways to Impact centers on four core themes that highlight the intersectionality of sustainable practices. Over the course of two intensive days, attendees will be immersed in keynotes, talks, and panel discussions providing pathways to Social Justice x Social Responsibility, Environment x Materials, Consumption x Waste, and Design x Business. The speakers are trailblazers in numerous facets of sustainability and emphasize the FIT community’s commitment to best practices in all its operations—including student projects, faculty and staff initiatives, and campus facilities.Pathway Speaker Zinnia Kumar in conversation with Dr. Karen Pearson, Professor of Science and Math. Zinnia Kumar is a Chartered CIEEM Ecologist, Environmental Sustainability Consultant, Conservation Biologist, and fashion model.Zinnia Kumar, Ecologist, Biologist, Environmental Sustainability Manager: Zinnia Kumar is a chartered CIEEM ecologist, conservation biologist, environmental impact awareness advocate, and environmental sustainability manager, addressing circularity in fashion, media, and natural resources sectors. She has worked for the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), the Department of Environment, Ecology, and Evolution Research Centre, and the Australian Museum, and she has worked to protect World Heritage sites and Ramsar convention wetlands.Her research, writing, podcasts, and talks have been featured by The Royal Society, Science, Time, the New York Times, Forbes, Vanity Fair, Vogue, among others. Zinnia will soon be launching a social impact agency called The Dotted Line.Dr. Karen Pearson, Professor, Science and Math, Fashion Institute of Technology: Karen Pearson, PhD, is a professor of Science and Math at FIT and is the co-chair of the college’s Sustainability Council. She has won a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, has been noted as one of the 100 Most Inspiring Women in STEM, and is a recipient of FIT’s President’s Award for Excellence. Pearson has done extensive work in the development of interdisciplinary STEAM curricula and programming at FIT and is the recipient of multiple research and program awards, including those from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts. Her research outside of the classroom is focused on the design, synthesis, and application of new materials that have potential in low-energy devices, such as thin-film transistors (TFTs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs)