Day 2 Speaker:

The Path to True Sustainability

Bridgett is President of the Cradle-to-Cradle Products Innovation Institute.  The Institute was founded in December of 2009 by a group of design, science, business, government, and sustainability leaders. In supporting the foundation of the Institute, the architect William McDonough and chemist Dr. Michael Braungart are giving the Cradle to Cradle methodology that they originated to an independent, peer-audited, non-profit institute that conducts open-source research in a transparent manner.  Through transparent criteria and Cradle to Cradle® (C2C) certification, the Institute seeks to precipitate a paradigm shift to encourage sustainable product design and manufacturing that eliminates waste.

Bridgett came to the Institute with a long history of involvement in environmental protection and efforts to protect natural resources for future generations.  Most recently, she spent five years as Director of the California Department of Conservation, overseeing a budget of $1.4 billion and 700 employees in 14 offices around California.  As Director, she was responsible for a wide variety of programs, including the California beverage container recycling program.  California recycles more than 42 billion beverage containers a year, the worlds largest such program.

Bridgett also oversaw several other programs, including Land Resource Protection, which protects California's rich agricultural land and tracks changing land-use patterns; the California Geological Survey, which studies and maps earthquakes, landslides and volcanoes; and the Bureau of Mine Reclamation, which cleans up mines left over from California's Gold Rush days, along with ensuring the safety of new mines.

Bridgett moved to California from Charlotte, North Carolina, where she helped create a recycling education program.  She also led a $220 million bond campaign to acquire land to protect the region's water quality, and organized campaigns to create neighborhood parks and ball fields.  She also helped found the Carolinas office of The Trust for Public Land, one of the nation's largest national land preservation organizations.