Rochelle March
Rochelle March is a sustainability and artificial intelligence (AI) strategist, educator, and data scientist. She is co-founder and principal of People Places Words Actions (PPWA), a sustainable innovation studio, and an adjunct professor at the University of Vermont (UVM), where she teaches the university’s first Applied AI for Sustainable Business course in its Sustainable Innovation Master of Business Administration (MBA) program.
Rochelle has over a decade of experience calculating impact, designing sustainability strategies, and applying machine learning to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) products. At SustainAbility, she advised consumer brands including Unilever, Nestlé, and Mattel. As Global Head of ESG Product at Dun & Bradstreet, she launched the company’s first ESG product suite, delivering supply chain insights on more than 85 million companies. Career highlights also include creating one of the first datasets on corporate impact on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at S&P Global and being issued a patent for an ESG ranking methodology. Her work has been cited by The Economist, The Guardian, and GreenBiz.
Monday Dec 7
Joint Connection & Development Network and Sustainability & Product Stewardship Council Program | AI Education and Innovation
AI & Sustainability 101: Building a Baseline for Responsible Growth
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming how organizations operate, creating new opportunities while introducing emerging environmental, operational, regulatory, and governance considerations. This session will demystify key AI concepts and terminology relevant to sustainability, giving attendees a shared vocabulary and foundational understanding of how AI technologies work.
The discussion will connect these concepts to real-world environmental and business implications, helping participants better understand AI’s sustainability opportunities, risks, benefits, and tradeoffs. Attendees will explore AI’s balancing act – from the energy, water, and land use demands associated with data centers and computing infrastructure to hardware, supply chain, and operational considerations.
At the same time, the session will examine how AI can advance sustainability goals through improved data analysis, resource and energy efficiency, emissions measurement, optimization, and better-informed decision-making. The session will also address the evolving state, federal, and corporate landscape and introduce key governance, data privacy, and responsible-use considerations for organizations.
Speaker:
Rochelle March, Co-Founder and Principal, People Places Words Actions (PPWA)
Sustainable Innovation Powered By AI
Building on the foundational concepts explored in AI & Sustainability 101, this interactive session will move from understanding AI to seeing how it can be applied to real-world sustainability challenges.
Through live demonstrations, Neta AI and Turing Labs will showcase how AI-powered tools can support more sustainable product and packaging innovation. Neta AI will explore applications for sustainable packaging, while Turing Labs will demonstrate how AI can accelerate R&D and formulation.
Attendees will see these technologies in action and gain a practical look at how AI can help teams evaluate options, uncover insights, and make more informed decisions as they develop the next generation of products and packaging.
Speakers:
Grace Lam, Co-Founder, Neta AI
Manmit Shrimali, CEO & Founder, Turing Labs