Sara Blenkhorn is Director of Innovation at the Buckminster Fuller Institute, where she's redesigning how founders and institutions govern, own, and structure themselves for the AI era. She founded Canada's first circular economy lab for the fashion industry, the Textile Lab for Circularity, which brought 25 competing fashion brands into one coalition. She is a C40 Women4Climate award recipient and has shaped climate policy across multiple levels of government, including Vancouver's Zero Waste 2040 strategy, which she led. She's a serial builder with a track record of reviving legacy institutions through deep listening and strategic reset, leading a successful turnaround for Social Venture Network (SVN). Her working belief: design the right conditions, and people show up for each other.

At the festival

Where to find Sara

Friday · October 30
11:30–11:50 AM
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
1100 Chestnut St, Vancouver, BC V6J 3J9
Get directions to H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (opens in a new tab)
Life-Centred AI and Who Owns What We Build
Sara on life-centred design and who gets to own what we build.
Add to calendar
Friday · October 30
12:10–12:20 PM
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
1100 Chestnut St, Vancouver, BC V6J 3J9
Get directions to H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (opens in a new tab)
Questions with the speakers
Life-centred design and planetary resilience, then both on stage taking questions.
On stage with Andrew Zolli.
Add to calendar

Times are Vancouver time and can still move. See the full program

Start here

Explore
Textile Lab for Circularity
The lab she founded to pull 25 competing fashion brands into one coalition to keep BC's textiles out of landfill.
Explore
Social Venture Network
A coalition of purpose-led executives founded in 1987. When it was facing collapse, she rebuilt it from the ground up.