The Future of Earth and Biodiversity Week
The Future of Sustainability: Re-Generation Rising
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Hear from innovators who are moving us to the active ‘do more good’ principle of regeneration, and seeding a flourishing future for people, places, and planet.
As we face the challenges of climate change, inequality and environmental degradation, we know to simply sustain is not enough. We want to see a world where people and communities harness their potential to be sources of health and regeneration for all life on earth. Because people and planetary needs are intertwined, our problem solving should be too.
Discussion
- #Community and place-based action #Environment #Health & wellbeing #Social innovation
| Transmission of simultaneous interpretation | Provided |
|---|---|
| Language of interpretation | Japanese and English |
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Track Programme
- * Programme times and content are subject to change. Any changes will be announced on this website and via the ticket booking system.
- * The schedule is subject to change depending on the organiser's circumstances.
- Time and
Date of
the event -
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2025.09.15[Mon]
17:30 ～ 18:30
(Venue Open 17:00)
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- Venue
- Pavilion
- IHG Hospitality Suite (UK Pavilion)
Programme details
Join us in London, Osaka and online for the third event in our global partnership with the RSA at Expo 2025.
To join the event in person in Osaka Expo, please register here:
https://www.events.great.gov.uk/200292408.
Due to limited venue capacity, participation will be confirmed once registration has closed on 7th September.
To join the event in London or online:
please click on Book Now ( https://www.thersa.org/events/2025/09/the-future-of-sustainability-regeneration-rising/ ).
Those attending in person will receive an invitation code by email, while those participating online will be sent a viewing link 24 hours before the event.
As we face the challenges of climate change, inequality, and environmental degradation, we know that simply sustaining is not enough.
To achieve this, we need a radical reimagining of our current systems – from economic and political to food and energy. And we need a new collective story for humanity. One that celebrates our fundamental interconnection with all life on Earth and galvanises collaborative action.
Linking speakers in the historic Great Room of the RSA in London and the UK Pavilion at Expo 2025, this event will hear from the next generation of disruptors, influencers and innovators who are building new movements to move us from the passive ‘do less harm’ principle of sustainability, to the active ‘do more good’ principle of regeneration, and seeding a flourishing future for people, places, and the planet we all share.
Cast
Moderator
©Dvora.photography
Lucy Siegle
writer, broadcaster, public speaker (London)
Lucy Siegle is a writer, broadcaster and public speaker, known as The Original Green, on ecological issues and sustainability who has been at the heart of contemporary conservation and environmentalism for two decades. As a reporter on BBC 1’s The One Show, she has been following the problem of single use plastic and wider ecological issues since the show began in 2007. Through her work as a journalist she is credited with mainstreaming action on plastic, fossil fuel fibres and the quest to make fashion a cleaner, fairer industry. She is author of five books including To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing out the World? (Harper Collins 2011, nominated for the Orwell prize) and Turning the Tide on Plastic: How Humanity (and you) Can Make Our Globe Clean Again (Orion). She is co-producer and stars in the Netflix hit documentary, The True Cost.
For 14 years she wrote the first popular sustainability column in a national newspaper, The Observer and is also known for her interviews and features with high profile environmentalists, from Sir David Attenborough to Bjork. In order to get more eyes on sustainable fashion, Lucy co-founded the Green Carpet Challenge with Livia Firth, working with designers from Armani to Stella McCartney and A-list talent.
An accomplished live performer and champion of net zero business and policy, Lucy is in demand as a host, chair and keynote speaker. Lucy is a professional speech writer for major high level climate events, including COPs. Since 2017 Lucy has worked on climate advocacy with the British musician and UN environment ambassador, Ellie Goulding. Lucy is a trustee for Surfers Against Sewage and an ambassador for WWF UK and The Circle.
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Carolyn Davidson
Commissioner General for UK at Expo 2025 (Osaka)
Carolyn has led the UK's presence at Expo 2025 as Commissioner-General since March 2024, a role she took on full-time from January this year. Prior to that she was British Consul-General in Osaka from August 2021. A career diplomat her previous roles include Ambassador to Guatemala and Honduras (2015-19), High Commissioner to Zambia (2008 – 2012) and Deputy Head of Mission of the British Embassy in Slovakia (2004-08), all roles she job-shared with her husband, Tom Carter.
She has a degree in Modern Languages from Bristol University (1986), a MBA from the Open University (2011) and speaks French, German, Spanish and Japanese.
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Speakers
Amy Meek
Co-Founder, Kids Against Plastic
An environmental campaigner since the age of 12, Amy started the educational charity Kids Against Plastic with her younger sister. Since then, Kids Against Plastic has engaged a team of over 280 young people around the world as part of the KAP Club, and their Plastic Clever scheme has had over 1800 schools and numerous cafes and businesses sign up since its launch in early 2019. Plus, we’ve collected over 100,000 pieces of plastic litter along the way and developed an app to log it.
Through her work, Amy has spoken to kids around the UK, ministers in all three Parliaments in Great Britain, business conferences internationally from Seoul to Barcelona, and diplomats and young people at the UN Headquarters in Geneva. She is a two-time TEDx speaker, speaking firstly at TEDx Exeter alongside my sister in 2018, and most recently at TEDx Geneva 2021.
For their work, Amy and her sister have been recognised with the Prime Minister’s Points of Light Award, the Pride of Britain 2021 Green Champion Award, and a British Empire Medal (BEM).
Alongside her charity, Amy is a keen writer, with my books Be Plastic Clever and Be Climate Clever published by DK in 2020 and 2022 respectively.
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Tessa Devreese
Programme Lead, ReLondon
Tessa leads ReLondon’s built environment sector work, facilitating the mainstream adoption of circular practices in the construction industry. She advises on policy development and ambitious pilot initiatives, aligning (local) government and industry. She currently directs two flagship projects: one enhancing accountability and transparency in circular-economy planning commitments, the other developing a construction material-flow model for London. Before joining ReLondon, she worked at C40 Cities supporting global megacities tackle embodied emissions from construction.
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Brendan Barrett
Professor, Institute for International Initiatives, The University of Osaka
Brendan is a professor in the Institute for International Initiatives at the University of Osaka. He teaches several courses including ethical and regenerative cities, and climate change in the Asia Pacific region. He is climate change, science communication, and documentary producer and teaches young scientists how to produce videos on social issues. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (UK) since 2018. Brendan first came to Japan in 1986 and undertook research at the University of Kyoto on Japanese environmental policies. His doctorate compared local environmental sustainability in Japan and the UK. Brendan has spent most of his professional career in Japan, working with the United Nations and now at the University of Osaka. He is lead educator on two MOOCs dealing with Ethical Cities and co-authored a 2020 book on the topic. He is currently developing a project on NextGen Cities with award-winning filmmaker, Citt Willaims.
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Co-organiser
Royal Society of Arts
The Future of Earth and Biodiversity Week
The Future of Sustainability: Re-Generation Rising
Hear from innovators who are moving us to the active ‘do more good’ principle of regeneration, and seeding a flourishing future for people, places, and planet.
As we face the challenges of climate change, inequality and environmental degradation, we know to simply sustain is not enough. We want to see a world where people and communities harness their potential to be sources of health and regeneration for all life on earth. Because people and planetary needs are intertwined, our problem solving should be too.
-
2025.09.15[Mon]
17:30～18:30
(Venue Open 17:00)
- Pavilion
- * Programme times and content are subject to change. Any changes will be announced on this website and via the ticket booking system.
- * The schedule is subject to change depending on the organiser's circumstances.
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The Future of Earth and Biodiversity Week
