CRRA2019

Founder / Executive Director

Michael is a certified Master Gardener, a former elementary school teacher, and the Founder and Executive Director of L.A Compost. Michael has over 8 years of experience building gardens and compost systems throughout the County of Los Angeles as well as other parts of the country. Michael has grown LA Compost from a group of volunteers collecting organics with bikes to a decentralized network of community compost hubs that span across the most populated county in the country.

Community Composting  is an integral piece to the overall organics recycling effort across California. By taking on a more decentralized approach towards organics, and connecting with the individuals who dispose of them daily, community composters have the ability to activate  entire neighborhoods to engage with the whole story of food. Michael Martinez, of L.A. Compost will discuss what it means to create a “human network” of composters across the most populous county in the country and how larger haulers and municipalities can collaboratively work together.

Founder and Director

Kourtnii Brown has spent 15 years working to strengthen international environmental policy and build community resilience to climate change, with field experience across the Asia-Pacific region. Kourtnii received a MA in International Politics from American University, and a BA in International Affairs from The George Washington University. She completed Uptima Business Bootcamp's entrepreneur accelerator program in March 2016, where she developed the cooperative plan and strategy for Common Compost with support from the Oakland community.

Community composting is an important facet of a diverse composting infrastructure, and provides education to help catalyze larger scale municipal efforts. Yet, too often state and local government policies hamper the ability of community composters to operate alongside franchised waste management corporations, as well as to qualify for contracts, funding, and access to organic material. Kourtnii Brown, policy consultant with the Sustainable Economies Law Center, will address what policymakers and stakeholders can do to support community scale composting efforts in terms of identifying legislative definitions, best management practices, and regulatory exemptions that standardize and ensure well-operated community composting sites. The presentation will provide a short overview of the legal and policy trends impacting each stage of the composting process, including 1) organic material generation, 2) hauling, 3) composting, and 4) distribution of compost.

Climate Change Innovations Advisor

Calla Rose Ostrander is an activist and organizer in the environmental movement.

She brings together philanthropists, government leaders and businesspeople to build new climate-beneficial social and economic structures.

Calla Rose is currently working to scale the healthy soils movement from California to the rest of the United States, along with collaborators like Dr. Whendee Silver and John Wick of the Marin Carbon Project and the philanthropist Jena King.

Calla Rose has worked directly in climate policy, having co-authored the climate action plans for both the City and County of San Francisco as well as Aspen, Colorado.  In San Francisco, her work helped support the adoption of 100% renewable energy by the city.