Some people talk about change and others actually make it. At the TEDx Hiriya event held yesterday at the Recycling Park, nine leading Arab and Jewish Israelis gathered to showcase social change in action.
At least a few of the nine participants at the TEDxHiriya event have been featured previously on Green Prophet.
Joseph Cory from Geotectura, one of Israel’s leading proponents of green building and innovative design solutions, discussed his multi-disciplinary and open source approach to design and research.
The Vertigo Dance Group was present as well. The group is one of the first that we know of in the world that works with able and disabled dancers to create eco-social performances in special outdoor locations.
Majda Natour (below), the principal of the green Alzahraa school in Qalansawe that recently scooped a green globe – one of Israel’s most prestigious environmentally-related accolades – discussed how she came to develop a school for Arab children that focuses specifically on sustainability.
Mark Talesnick, a professor in the Technion’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department that has produced a slew of innovative clean tech solutions, sums up his vision thusly. “I am an engineering academic. For years I did what academics are expected to do. Over the past few years I have found, hidden inside of me a mountain of passion to make the world a better place for generations to come. I try to promote change by giving students the opportunity and platform to have real impact. I am counting on them to carry out what needs to be done. Leadership to change can be taught!!!”
Amiad Lapidot founded Eretz Carmel, an amazing organization that has singlehandedly helped tens of thousands of households in Israel learn how to separate their waste to boost recycling capacity. He also built his own ecological home as a showcase.
Ori Shavit is a food journalist and a leader in Israel’s extraordinary emergence as a vegan-friendly nation. A trained chef, she regularly organizes and hosts vegan cooking workshops, provides vegan culinary counseling and lectures in different venues.
Adina Tal helped to establish the world’s first theater for deaf and blind performers. The fascinating Nalaga’at (do touch) Center at Jaffa port in Tel Aviv has since evolved into a world-renowned facility that explores the darkness and silence that exists in all of us.
Kira Radinsky, Ph.D founded SalesPredict, a sales technology company that pioneers artificial intelligence-based, predictive analytics solutions to business. She has also developed predictive algorithms that recognize the early warning of globally impactful events, such as riots and diseases.
Eran Ben Yemini founded Green Course – a student environmental organization that promotes environmental change through activism and leadership development. He is also the founder and chairman of the Green Movement party which focuses on leading environmental acts in the Knesset, which, incidentally, plans to be solar secure by 2014.
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
Sustainability I think I am going to be sick, people dieing and starving and we have time to talk about sutainability. I think I am going to puke everywhere……..Though its nice to see Muslim sisters in the spotlight but this topic makes me sick..Sustainability when people are dieing and struggling. I think I think I am going to puke……………We hhave christians creating new bibles every day, Muslims hoarding everything, jewish acting like greedy basterd subhanallah Allah give me strength, somebody hold me back