Robert J.S. "Bob" Ross is Research Professor of Sociology and the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise in Clark University. The son of a teacher and a garment worker and the grandson of garment workers, Ross has cared deeply about workers and their conditions and has been learning and teaching about these matters since 1994. He is Vice-President of the Sweatfree Purchasing consortium, an organization of nineteen cities and states which are working to remove sweatshop labor from the supply chains of their public purchasing of uniforms. The author of Slaves to Fashion: Poverty and Abuse in the New Sweatshops, Ross has written extensively on the global apparel industry and labor conditions and workers’ rights in it. His writings on these and other issues have appeared in variety of professional and journalistic sources.

Leyla Acaroglu (A-jar-a-loo) is a sustainability strategist and leading proponent of systemic life cycle based sustainability. She is the founder and director of Eco Innovators, designer, social scientist, strategist and educator she is a creative force who finds innovative and inspiring ways of catalyzing change. Her work spans a range of fields and projects including the development of one of the first online life cycle assessment tools - 'Greenfly', creative director of the award winning sustainability education project 'The Secret Life of Things', designed the 'Design Play Cards' and in 2012 was an Artist in Residence with Autodesk. She lectures at RMIT University where she is also undertaking her PhD in designing change. Leyla was invited to speak at TED2013 in Longbeach, has been named one of Melbourne's Top 100 People of Influence, was a judge on the ABC TV show The New Inventors, radio presenter, op-ed writer for the New York Times, and has won several awards including two Melbourne Design Awards and a CORE77 design award for her work. In her humorous and compelling talk, Leyla explores why we need to rethink sustainability..