Full Circle Summit: Sessions At-A-Glance
FEBRUARY 12-13, 2026 | SAN ANTONIO, TX
Preview our Sessions
Browse our outstanding lineup of sessions that focus on our Summit themes: Buildings & Cities, Communities & Systems, and Economics & Innovation. Final agenda with detailed times + locations will be published in early January 2026.
Thursday, February 12
Sessions: 8:00am - 2:30pm
Offsite Tours: 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Happy Hour: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Friday, February 13
Sessions: 8:00am - 2:30pm
Industry Roundtables: 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Restored By Light (optional): 5:00pm - 8:00pm
Opening Keynote: Jo-Anne St. Godard, Circular Innovation Council of Canada (CIC)
Moderated Panel: Christopher Moken, Co-Founder at Circular San Antonio; Richard Fetchick, VP Business Insights at greater:SATX; Cory Ames, Co-Producer at bigcitysmalltown
The Circular Innovation Council of Canada (CIC) is a national charity that believes shifting production and consumption in a circular economy simultaneously supports environmental, economic, and social outcomes. Through efforts like the Circular Opportunity Innovation Launch Pad (COIL), CIC’s work supports collaboration, innovation, policy, and education, which are all enablers of the circular economy.
CEO Jo-Anne Godard will highlight the enormous opportunity the circular economy presents globally, anchoring her vision with on-the-ground examples from the CIC’s work in Canada, from food to construction to technology.
An engaging panel will follow to anchor the rest of the Summit.
Day 2 Keynote: Amy Aussieker, Envision Charlotte + Charlotte Innovation Barn
Moderated Panel: Shanon Miller, Director at City of San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation
The Innovation Barn in Charlotte, North Carolina is a physical hub for education, collaboration, and innovation designed to turn waste into opportunity — Charlotte’s sustainability playground. Pilot projects and programs focused on reuse of plastics, textiles, food, and construction & demolition materials are housed in a community-serving space that includes a coffee shop, aquaponics lab, teaching kitchen, and more. The barn is activated year-round with events including a Halloween costume swap, field trips, summer camps, and so much more.
Physical hubs like the Innovation Barn are essential to advancing material circularity in cities. They provide a tangible space for innovation and experimentation, bridging the gap between design, implementation, and community engagement. This keynote will “bring” attendees to the Barn, highlight its impact, and discuss steps for communities to launch a Barn of their own.
Building Resilience: Plenary featuring Kelly Alvarez Dornan, Ha/f Climate Design
Moderated Panel: Stephanie Phillips, Senior Manager, Deconstruction & Circular Economy Program at City of San Antonio
Where does a building actually come from? This engaging plenary will showcase how sourcing local and focusing on circularity across multiple areas — materials, labor, culture, art, etc — helps build better buildings and is the foundation of a truly resilient city. Kelly Alvarez Dornan will discuss his own experience as an architect working across multiple continents, detailing how prioritizing the unique materials, building knowledge, and culture of individual communities helps improve environmental, social, and economic outcomes. He offers an inspiring outlook on the future of design and construction — and the challenging but exciting road it will take to get there, together.
Charis Park as a Circular Neighborhood Commons: From Asphalt Lot to Living System
Kaidan Nguyen, Coral Studio; Taylor Bates, Sunset Ridge Collective; Sarah Clavieres, Sunset Ridge Farmers Market
What happens when a church parking lot is reimagined as a circular, community-serving park? In this session, Sunset Ridge Collective & Coral Studio landscape architects will share how an underutilized expanse of asphalt in San Antonio was transformed into Charis Park, a neighborhood green space designed as a living example of circular economy principles in the built environment.
Scaling Circularity: From Building Designs to County-Level Integration
Kathleen Hetrick, Luke Lombardi, and Amy Stanfield, Buro Happold
This session will explore will explore five principles for circular design in the built environment: early decision making, thinking local, creating circular ecosystems, asking product questions, and integrating deconstruction from the start. Presenters will then show how these principles are applied in two Buro Happold case studies:
SPARC Kips Bay (Building-Level): A groundbreaking transformation of Hunter College’s Brookdale Campus in Manhattan into nearly two million square feet of advanced academic, healthcare, and life sciences facilities, this project aims to divert 95% of waste from landfills through design for disassembly, material reuse, and recycling, strengthening New York City’s circularity ecosystem.
San Diego County Circular Economy Assessment (County-Level): The San Diego County Circular Economy Assessment rethinks the linear system by reducing waste in food systems, construction, and textiles. Through stakeholder engagement and analysis of county-level waste data, the assessment identifies regional challenges and opportunities to build a comprehensive understanding of material flows and actionable interventions.
Creating Research-to-Market Pipelines for Circular Science
Shawn Blumberg, Southwest Research Institute (SWRI)
How can we address our reuse and recycling problem from a chemical transformation and process design perspective? This session, guided by researchers from the Southwest Research Institute, will discuss the role a regional research ecosystem plays in tackling circularity. With an expert panel representing various target sectors, including synthetic textiles and automotive applications, we will explore the innovation opportunities that lie within these problem spaces. Panelists will discuss the current challenges faced in these sectors, identifying key areas where innovative approaches can lead to enhanced efficiencies and reduced environmental impact. The conversation will also delve into the types of investments needed to advance these innovations, focusing on how collaboration among stakeholders can drive successful outcomes.
Educating a Circular Workforce
Dr. Andrea Caldwell Marquez, UT-San Antonio; Dr. Ben Miele, University of the Incarnate Word; Shanon Miller, City of San Antonio
This engaging panel discussion will focus on building a robust circular workforce through innovative K-12 programs, trades training, and strategic city-sponsored initiatives. Our expert panelists will explore how educational institutions are integrating circular economy principles into their curricula, preparing students for careers in sustainable industries. We will highlight successful trades training programs that equip workers with essential skills for circular jobs, as well as initiatives from local governments and regional economic development authorities. This panel will showcase best practices, successful case studies, and actionable strategies for creating a skilled workforce that is ready to meet the demands of a circular economy while balancing sustainable growth and community resilience.
Tech as a Circular Economy Enabler
Rotem Gurasadovsky, Corundum Systems Biology; Charlie Cottingham, Roble; Kyla Broz, Women & Climate; Ting Zhang, Glacier
Explore the transformative role of technology in advancing the circular economy across various industries in this dynamic panel. Featuring insights from key experts in the tech ecosystem, this discussion will focus on how innovative technologies can facilitate sustainable practices in sectors like construction, food, consumer products, plastics, textiles, and beyond.
Panelists will share their perspectives on the opportunities technology presents for driving circularity, as well as the barriers that need to be addressed for successful implementation. Engage with experts as they discuss real-world examples, emerging trends, and collaborative approaches to overcoming challenges in deploying circular economy solutions.
Scaling Up: Case Studies for Deconstructing Large-Scale Commercial Structures
Anli Ni, KL&A Structural Engineers; Chris Kendall, KL&A Structural Engineers; Dr. Chris Rausch, The University of Texas at Austin Digital Harvest Lab
What do you do with a decommissioned hospital or entertainment venue? In Boulder, Colorado, a hospital was deconstructed, recovering 161 tons of structural steel for direct reuse in community projects, including a new fire station. In Austin, Texas, the Frank Erwin Center’s memorabilia and furniture were relocated and given new homes in athletics facilities around campus, and anything that wasn’t used was sent to the Surplus REuse Store on the J.J. Pickle Research Campus. This session will dive into how these massive projects were undertaken, including data collection, partnerships, and project planning. Presenters will also share tangible project outcomes — landfill diversion, community benefits, budget impacts, lessons learned — and discuss how similar projects can be made possible in other cities.
Scaling Pilots to Overcome Barriers to Food Waste Diversion and Food Access
Moderated by Stacy Savage, Zero Waste Strategies
This engaging session will bring food stakeholders together to ideate around advancing and scaling solutions to food waste, specifically emerging and pilot solutions. Additionally, this session will offer tools, resources, and a roadmap for businesses ready to take measurable action toward sustainable food management, turning excess food into an asset for social good rather than waste.
Breaking the Donation Chain: Strategies for Textile Reuse
Moderated by Ericka Leigh, Sewn Apart
Amid an unprecedented textile waste crisis, current infrastructure and donation systems are buckling under excessive clothing consumption. While upstream interventions following the Rana Plaza disaster have begun addressing production-side issues, downstream waste management remains fragmented and overwhelmed. The predominant solution—exporting pre-loved clothing to developing nations—perpetuates waste colonialism and environmental racism by shifting burdens to countries lacking proper infrastructure, while also discouraging post-growth transformation.
This session explores alternative solutions, including research that centers municipalities as ideal catalysts for textile waste management; creative upcycling; mending; and much more.
Designing for Circular Impact in the Built Environment
Marcus Hopper, Gensler; Michael Britt, Lake|Flato
When linear approaches are standard practice in the built environment, what does circular design look like? Learn about several examples that reveal the challenges and opportunities of implementing circular principles, including a story about a 16-acre site in Comal (40 minutes away from San Antonio) that was once capped with concrete and covered with warehouses, but was largely returned to its natural state by restoring habitat and reusing much of the existing materials on site. Panelists will translate these lessons into broader scalable design approaches for businesses and communities alike.
Circularity in the Airport Environment
Dr. James Wood, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is considered one of the most innovative airports in the sustainability sphere. From energy resiliency and alternative fuels to their award-winning terminal composting program, DFW is setting the tone for institutional innovation and positive environmental change in North Texas. This session will give an overview of DFW’s waste and circular economy initiatives, and illustrate how these programs have yielded both lasting environmental benefits and increased resilience.
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Moderated by Ericka Leigh, Sewn Apart
Amid an unprecedented textile waste crisis, current infrastructure and donation systems are buckling under excessive clothing consumption. While upstream interventions following the Rana Plaza disaster have begun addressing production-side issues, downstream waste management remains fragmented and overwhelmed. The predominant solution—exporting pre-loved clothing to developing nations—perpetuates waste colonialism and environmental racism by shifting burdens to countries lacking proper infrastructure, while also discouraging post-growth transformation.
This session explores alternative solutions, including research that centers municipalities as ideal catalysts for textile waste management; creative upcycling; mending; and much more.
Everything Comes Back: Designing Circular Supply Chains for
Marcus Hopper, Gensler; Michael Britt, Lake|Flato
When linear approaches are standard practice in the built environment, what does circular design look like? Learn about several examples that reveal the challenges and opportunities of implementing circular principles, including a story about a 16-acre site in Comal (40 minutes away from San Antonio) that was once capped with concrete and covered with warehouses, but was largely returned to its natural state by restoring habitat and reusing much of the existing materials on site. Panelists will translate these lessons into broader scalable design approaches for businesses and communities alike.
Tours
Full Circle attendees will have the opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes tour of an example of circularity in practice in San Antonio.
Pullman Market Circular Food Ecosystem
Tour Guide: Kevin Fink, Chef/Partner, Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group
Located in a former glass manufacturing warehouse, Pullman Market houses produce from more than 150 Texas growers and producers alongside local artisan products and Michelin-starred restaurants. This tour will highlight the unique food circularity ecosystem within the market itself from a chef and restauranteur’s perspective.
Lake|Flato Office Renovation
Tour Guide: Dan Stine, Director of Design Technology, Lake|Flato
Lake|Flato Architects recently undertook a renovation of their own circa 1920 office building in downtown San Antonio, including transforming a former parking garage into a vibrant, nature-filled courtyard. This tour will highlight the deconstruction, material, and technology strategies that helped this project become WELL v2 Certified™ at the Platinum level, the highest level offered.
SAWS Wastewater Treatment Plant
Tour Guide: Heather Ginsburg, Field Educator, San Antonio Water System (SAWS)
This plant manages an environmental trifecta by recycling highly treated effluent water for industrial use and commercial landscaping, including capturing biogas generated during the sewage treatment process and selling it through a commercial gas pipeline — the first project of its kind in the nation. Organic compost is made from the remaining solids from the treatment process. San Antonio is the only city in the United States with major programs that cost effectively reuses all three wastewater treatment byproducts. This highly engaging tour will dive into all aspects of this process.