TEDxAtlanta speakers share fresh perspectives on sustainability, innovation and action.
Every June 5, the world marks World Environment Day, the UN’s biggest day for getting people to actually do something about the planet. It has run since 1973, and each year millions of people across more than 150 countries use it to push for cleaner air, less waste, and a healthier environment.
It is easy to treat a day like this as a far-off, global thing. But you do not have to look to a UN summit to find people working on it. Some of them are right here in Atlanta.
Here are three TEDxAtlanta speakers worth revisiting this World Environment Day, each tackling the environment from a completely different angle: the places we build, the things we wear, and the ground beneath our feet.
Decarbonization and a Greener Future
Sandeep Ahuja
Sandeep Ahuja wants sustainable design to be the easy choice, not the hard one. She is co-founder and CEO of Cove, an AI platform that helps architects and engineers model a building’s energy and carbon performance early, when changes are still cheap to make. She has presented at the UN Environment Assembly and co-authored “Build Like It’s the End of the World,” a practical guide to decarbonizing architecture, engineering, and construction. Her argument is that better buildings start with better decisions at the drawing board.
How to Be a Sustainable Online Shopper
Tia Robinson
Tia Robinson builds clothes only after someone orders them. As founder and CEO of Atlanta-based Vertical Activewear, she runs a vertically integrated, on-demand model that cuts out the overproduction driving fashion’s waste problem, where 30 to 40% of garments never sell. A trip to Ghana, where she saw beaches buried under discarded clothing, sharpened her conviction. Her talk, “How to be a sustainable online shopper,” puts real power in the hands of the person at checkout.
What I Learned Walking 100 Miles of Georgia’s Coastline
James Marlow
James Marlow has spent his career in clean energy, including leading Atlanta’s Southface Institute and working on more than 350 solar and energy storage projects. But his talk takes a quieter path. In “What I Learned Walking 100 Miles of Georgia’s Coastline,” he reflects on the restorative power of nature and what a long walk along the coast taught him about our relationship to the natural world. It is a reminder that protecting the environment starts with paying attention to it.
Start where you are
Three Atlanta thinkers, three very different answers to the same question: how do we take better care of the place we live? Watch their talks this week, then follow TEDxAtlanta for more ideas worth acting on.
And stay tuned. Our 2026 mainstage conference lands October 2 and 3 at Atlanta International School in Sandy Springs, with the TEDxAtlanta Youth Conference following on October 3. Rooted in Atlanta’s spirit of reinvention and momentum, this year’s theme, Bold. Brave. Unbreakable., celebrates ideas that challenge convention, confront complexity, and imagine stronger futures in a rapidly changing world. Subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to hear speaker announcements, ticket news, and more ideas like these.
