Embedding circularity into Brisbane 2032

With Brisbane 2032 fast approaching, join us for a lively and interactive session exploring the circular economy as a catalyst for a sustainable Olympic legacy. Ashleigh Morris, CEO & Co-Founder of circular economy consultancy Coreo, will share her vision for Brisbane 2032 and challenge us to help create the first Olympics to truly embed circularity, from design, through execution, to a legacy that delivers recurring value.

We'll then jump into real world examples that demonstrate the art of the possible and showcase circularity as a powerful driver of value and resilience:

- Clothing and footwear: Aleasha McCallion, co-founder of the Circular Economy Textiles Program at Monash.

- Infrastructure: Leanne Griffin, Australasia Circular Economy Service and Skills Lead, Arup

- Food: Nicky Atkin, Senior Strategy Manager at BWD Strategic

There will be plenty of opportunity for Q&A. Look forward to seeing you there!

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Speaker bios

Ashleigh Morris, Co-Founder and CEO of Coreo.

Ashleigh has transformed a pilot project into Australia’s most awarded circular economy consultancy. Her strategic leadership has driven remarkable growth, earning Coreo an honour on the Australian Financial Review Sustainability Leaders List in 2024.

Ashleigh’s expertise in circular economy and systems thinking is highly sought after by government leaders and major companies such as Woolworths, Stockland, Rio Tinto, and L'Oréal. This has led to her being named a Top 100 Global CSR Influencer and an Australian ASEAN Emerging Leader. She was also recognised as Brisbane’s Young Business Person of the Year in 2020 and honoured as one of Queensland’s Outstanding Young Leaders in the inaugural 40 Under 40 Awards in 2023.

Ashleigh’s global impact includes being an invitee to the 73rd United Nations General Assembly and a speaker at the World Circular Economy Forums since 2019, and was appointed to guide the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Legacy in 2022.

Aleasha McCallion, Circular Economy Transitions Project Manager, Monash Sustainable Development Institute

Aleasha is Monash Sustainable Development Institute's Circular Economy Transitions Project Manager, and works in a transdisciplinary capacity between MSDI and faculty-based colleagues across Monash, building and managing partnerships with external academic, industry and government stakeholders to achieve program outcomes in advancing the transition to a circular economy in Australia. In 2019, Aleasha and colleagues co-founded the Circular Economy Textiles Program which investigates what is required to transition the textile, clothing and footwear (TCF) industry in Australia to a circular economy model. In 2020 Aleasha co-led The Renewal Workshop’s circular education programs, circular mapping and recycling projects with major brand partners in AUSNZ. Aleasha has worked in the fashion industry for over 15 years and holds a Master of Fashion (Entrepreneurship) from RMIT and a Bachelor's of Home Economics, Agricultural Sciences (Consumer Textiles) from UBC.

Leanne Griffin, Australasia Circular Economy Service and Skills Lead, Arup

Leanne is a highly skilled complex engagement and sustainable impact specialist, with experience working on some of Australia’s largest major infrastructure projects. She has diverse knowledge across sustainability, circular economy, energy, recycled and reused materials, water recycling and rehabilitation, social housing, infrastructure, and the social, environmental and cultural sectors.

Leanne is Arup’s Australasia Circular Economy Service and Skills Lead, Arup’s Queensland Sustainability Program Lead and Circular Australia’s Industry Taskforce Chair. She co-authored the Arup-Circular Australia Circular Markets Report which mapped Australia's current and future circular value chains for lithium-ion batteries, textiles, low carbon concrete, green iron and green steel and plastic bottles.

Leanne also recently led ecologiQ, Australia’s only dedicated transport program optimising the use of recycled and reused materials and bringing circular economy thinking to Government policy and procurement. The award-winning program worked across Victoria’s $100B Big Build and has set a new benchmark for government delivery across sustainability, innovation and infrastructure.

Nicky Atkin, Senior Strategy Manager, BWD Strategic

In her first week in the corporate world, Nicky was described as a ‘kid in a sweet shop’. As the challenges got bigger, maintaining her everyday curiosity became harder. That was until she followed a trail of breadcrumbs (in the form of food waste) into a career in sustainability.

Nicky is a Senior Strategy Manager at BWD Strategic, a sustainability consultancy. She has delivered many double materiality assessments to help organisations determine their sustainability priorities (considering both stakeholder impacts and sustainability-related financial risks and opportunities), and developed sustainability strategies to determine how an organisation should respond to the identified priorities. Nicky has helped a number of organisations to develop circular economy action plans and secure buy-in from leadership teams on the benefits of the circular economy, as both a financial and non-financial driver of value.

Nicky has an MBA in Circular Economy and wrote her thesis on the barriers and enablers to scaling regenerative food systems. Prior to BWD, Nicky spent 3.5 years at a consultancy in London and 6 years working in supply chain at a UK food retailer Tesco.