Ashley brings over five years of experience in the energy sector, assisting both public and private organizations in achieving their sustainability objectives. She spent more than a decade with a top Energy Service Company (ESCO) and has taken on a leadership role in Business Development at SOFIAC. As a LEED-accredited Green Associate, Ashley is eager to help organizations navigate the challenges of the Canadian climate crisis.  

Dr. Zahra Bhojani is a dynamic leader in sustainability, spearheading impactful initiatives that drive innovation and advance environmental responsibility across the industry. She serves as the Sustainability and Enterprise Plastics Lead at Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada’s food and pharmacy leader. In her role, she drives strategies to transition to better plastic packaging, reduce overall plastic use, and eliminate harmful plastics—clearing a path toward a more sustainable future. 

A trailblazer in her field, Dr. Zahra plays a crucial role in championing an industry-first collaboration with another major retailer and several consumer goods brands. This groundbreaking initiative designs a reuse system pilot for select products in Canada and marks a significant stride toward circular economy practices. She also advocates and supports the broad adoption of the Consumer Goods Forum’s Golden Design Rules for Plastic Packaging, supporting supplier partners to enhance sustainability. 

Renowned for her courageous, empathetic, and pragmatic leadership style, Dr. Zahra understands the intricate links between business, environmental stewardship, and societal well-being. Her tireless dedication to solving complex challenges drives transformative, system-wide change, inspiring positive impact across the entire industry. 

As CEO, Allen is responsible for leading Circular Materials through the development of Ontario’s new blue box recycling system while expanding the organization’s operations into other provinces, starting with New Brunswick. His mission is to support producers with a robust not-for-profit service offering that advances the circular economy, delivers national harmonization of extended producer responsibility (EPR) services and harnesses competitive procurement to provide the best value for producers.
Prior to joining Circular Materials, Allen served as the President and CEO of Return-It, British Columbia’s very successful used beverage container management program in Canada. In this role, Allen oversaw the modernization of Return-It’s collection network, which consists of more than 170 collection sites, including Return-It depots, Express Plus and Express & GO stations. Return-It has routinely exceeded a 75% recovery rate for used beverage containers in British Columbia, and its network has supported the collection of new materials, including waste electrical and electronic equipment.
Allen also served as the Managing Director for Recycle BC, the first 100% EPR program for paper and packaging in North America where industry assumed full financial and managerial responsibility for the residential recycling system.
Allen currently serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Washington State Recycling Development Centre.

Lauren Adey is a seasoned communications and marketing expert, with nearly 15 years experience in the retail industry, most notably at Nordstrom, Joe Fresh and Tanya Taylor. As the Vice President, Marketing and Retail at Cool Climate Club (CCC), Lauren leads programs that connect the world of retail with measurable climate action. CCC partners with forward-thinking brands and their customers to plant and preserve Canadian forests. They pair this process with proprietary technology and turnkey marketing that helps retailers monitor and share their impact. 

Wil Bell is a Building Solutions & Decarbonization Lead for Modern Niagara’s Energy Solutions team. As a Professional Engineer and Certified Energy Manager, with a focus on creating a more inclusive & sustainable future, Wil uses his experience designing & developing district energy plants, heat pump replacement initiatives, and large energy efficiency improvement and GHG reduction projects, to help commercial, industrial and public sector organizations reduce their carbon footprint and total energy expenditure.