Main focus: #environmentaljustice
Twitter handle: @zwXchange
Website/blog: https://zerowastexchange.org
Languages: English
City: Hamburg
Country: Germany
Topics: privilege, zero waste, inclusivity, climate justice, environmental justice
Jenna is 38, Canadian and a recovering hyper-consumerist. After working for 18 years in the fashion industry, she quit her job, no longer able to tolerate the rampant ethical and environmental abuses characteristic of the industry and embarked on 18 months of volunteer based environmental activism. In 2016 she and her husband co-founded an environmental community project called zerowasteXchange. Today she works as the community manager of ThoughtWorks Hamburg and has shifted the focus of her activism towards integrating social and economic justice into environmentalism.
Examples of previous talks / appearances:
In February 2018 zero waste blogger Lauren Singer (Trash is for Tossers) made waves with her claim that “anyone can go zero waste,” an assertion that has been questioned for its failure to acknowledge the ways in which structural inequality affects people’s abilities to perform various types of consumerism, including zero waste consumerism. This talk is a call for reflection on the role played by privilege in environmental activism, including zero waste activism. Together we will explore privilege, what it is, whether or not zero wasters and environmental activists have it and how we can leverage our personal privilege in the pursuit of social justice as well as environmental justice. We will also discuss environmental racism and ways to make our own activism inclusive and contextualised by awareness of structural inequality.
This talk is in: English