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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Register now.
TEDxAtlanta speakers share fresh perspectives on sustainability, innovation and action.
Every year, the world produces more than 400 million tons of plastic. Half of it is designed to be used once. Only 10% gets recycled. And about 11 million tons end up in our water—rivers, lakes, seas and oceans—every single year.
To put that in perspective, that’s the weight of 2,200 Eiffel Towers.
Plastic pollution is more than a waste problem. It’s a global challenge that affects our health, our communities and our climate. That’s why June 5—World Environment Day—is a reminder to not only understand the impact of plastic waste, but to advocate for solutions that help build a more sustainable future.
Here are just a few ideas from creators and inventors from the TEDx and TED stage who are taking action on the waste problem:
TEDxAtlanta 2021 speaker alum Aurora Robson is an award-winning debris artist known for her meditative work intercepting the plastic waste stream. She creates art that explores issues related to the culture of disposability and consumerism.
In this TEDxMtHood talk, Morgan Vague describes her research with microbiologist Jay Mellies on the wild world of microbes that eat plastic. With more plastic than fish projected in our oceans by 2050, this groundbreaking research could offer a surprisingly natural (and tiny) hero in the fight against pollution.
TED Fellow Suzanne Lee delivers a boundary-pushing idea that opens a window into the world of biofabrication—where living cells, not factories, are the future of material production. From replacing plastic to rethinking cement, she explores how biology can help us redesign some of the most wasteful parts of modern life. It’s not science fiction. It’s sustainable innovation, and it’s happening now.
This World Environment Day, join us in reflecting on the future you want to help create—and take one small step to protect it.
