LEYLA ACAROGLU
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LEYLA ACAROGLU
Sustainability & Circular Economy Provocateur, Designer, Sociologist, Experimental Educator and Impact Entrepreneur
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TALKS & CLIENTS

Leyla is frequently invited to share her knowledge and enthusiasm for designing a more sustainable, circular and regenerative future at events all over the world. She has presented both at prestigious conferences and for major corporations and organizations like the United Nations, as well as at not-for-profits and smaller events to support widespread positive impact.

Leyla is admired for energetic, humorous and inspirational keynote talks and interactive workshops on sustainability, design, the circular economy, systems thinking and creative change-making.

 
 

Photo credit - Meeli Küttim

Her unique communication style helps people think differently about the planet and our role within it. She is a master of designing highly-engaging interactions that ignite any audience.

Talk topics include: Disruptive Design, Advancing the Circular Economy, Sustainable Futures, Circular Systems Design, Positive Future Design, Disrupting Education, Systems Thinking, Designing the Future Now, Systems Change, Sustainable Business Transformation, and Sustainable Design, to name a few. Leyla custom builds all her talks for each client, ensuring a unique and tailored keynote experience for your audience.

 

CONFERENCE KEYNOTES

RSA: Royal Society of the Arts, London, July, 2023

Home Economics Institute, Brisbane, August, 2023

ALCAS Life Cycle Assessment Conference, Gold Coast, July, 2023

Australian Circular Economy Conference, Sydney, July, 2023

World Circular Economy Forum, Helsinki, May 2023

Munich Creative Business Week, Munich, May, 2023

World Design Capital Valencia, Design Policy Conference, November, 2022

Service Design Global Conference, Copenhagen, October, 2022

Brain Bar, Budapest, 2022

New European Bauhaus Festival, Brussels, June, 2022

UX-LX, Lisbon, May 2022

From Business to Buttons, Stockholm, Sweden, May, 2022

IIDA NY Leaders Breakfast, New York, USA, May, 2022

Jakobstad, Finland, Online, May, 2022

IDEC, Online, March, 2022

Business Council for Sustainable Development, Portugal, December, 2021

Shared Services Forum UK, 2021, Online, November, 2021

Design Council, Design for Planet Festival, Dundee, November, 2021

COP26, Glasgow, October, 2021

TechBBQ, Compenhagen, 2021

Mind the Product, Barbican, London, 2021

Digodium Talks, Online, 2021

Adobe Summit, Online, 2021

DataFest, DATA Lab Scotland, Online, 2021

Y-Oslo, Oslo, Norway, Online, 2021

Sustainable Communities, Sarasota, USA, Online, 2021

SITRA Finish Innovation Fund, Finland, Online, 2021

EIMID, Castelo Branco, Portugal, Online, 2020

Design Talks Business Summit, Poland, Online, 2020

Industrial Designers Association America (IDSA), Online, 2020

Carbon Footprint Summit, Poland, Online, 2020

Conference on World Affairs, Bolder, Colorado, 2019

USGBC Greenbuild, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2019

House of Beautiful Business, Lisbon, Portugal, November, 2019

Change the Change Conference, San Sebastian, Spain, 2019

CECE Summit, Brussels, Belgium, 2019

United Nations Environment Assembly: UNEA-4, Nairobi, Kenya, March, 2019

AMEXCAP, Mexico City, Mexico, 2019

Cidade Mais, Porto, Portugal, 2019

Me Convention, Frankfurt, Germany, 2019

Swiss Energy & Climate Summit, Bern, Switzerland, 2018

Waste Management Sustainability Forum, Arizona, USA, 2018

TOCCertified, 2018, Brussels, Belgium

Amuse UX Conference, Budapest, Hungry, 2018

Zero Waste Conference, Vancouver, Canada, 2018

Interaction 18, Lyon, France, 2018

Sustpack, Chicago. USA, 2018

Global Outlook Conference, Oslo, Norway, 2018

Planning Institute of Australia Annual Conference, Perth, Australia, 2018

Circular Economy Hotspot, Glasgow, Scotland, 2018

Circular Design Forum, Berlin, Germany, 2018

Space 10: Made in Space, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2017

Cradle to Cradle Congress, Freiburg, Germany, 2017

The Conference, Malmo, Sweden, 2017

United Nations, PAGE Ministerial Conference, Berlin, Germany, 2017

FixFest, London, United Kingdom, 2017

SIKT, Kristiansand, Norway, 2017

Solutions to Climate Change, Huelva, Spain, 2017

Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy Congress, Stuttgart, Germany, 2017

One Young World Summit, Arizona, USA, 2016

Big Ideas, Hosted by Amcor at Interpack, 2016

Light City, Baltimore, USA, 2016

Summit @Powder Mountain, Utah, USA, 2016

Greenup, Dominican Republic, 2016

Giflex Congress, Italy, 2016

TEDactive, Whistler, Canada, 2016

SIVA Conference, Norway, 2015

AIGA National Conference, Philadelphia, USA, 2014

Recycling Council of British Columbia (RCBC), Vancouver, Canada, 2014

Epicentro Festival of Social Innovation, Guadalajara, Mexico, 2014

Australian Packaging Covenant ThinkTank, Sydney, Australia, 2014

Innovation and Sustainability for Consumer Packaging Conference, Seoul, South Korea, 2013

TED Conference, Longbeach, California, USA, 2013

Bonier GRID, Stockholm, Sweden, 2013

Green Leaders Summit, Sydney, Australia, 2013

Closing Keynote @ UX-LX, Lisbon, 2022

CORPORATE CLIENTS

HP, USA

Decathlon, France

Reckitt, Europe

American Express, Europe

OLX Group, Global

SONAE, Portugal

LinkedIn, UK

Avery Dennison, US

Sanofi, USA

BNP, Portugal

NOVA, Portugal

GFT Design, Spain

Sundberg-Ferar, USA

Adobe, USA

BMW Foundation, Germany

Arcelik, Turkey

LinkedIn, United Kingdom

Klarna, Sweden

Tommy Hilfiger, Netherlands

Unily, United Kingdom

EDP, Portugal

Siemens Industrial, Europe

FJORD, London

IKEA, Sweden

Unily, UK

Heineken, Vietnam

Would Sustainable Business Development Council (WSBDC)

SEAC, Thailand

OXFAM, Thailand

IDEO, UK

ING Direct, Australia

AUTODESK, USA

CSIRO, Australia

PRE Consultants, Netherlands

Environment Victoria, Australia

Ellen MacArthur Foundation, UK

ProChile, Chile

Citywire, UK

Google, UK

Gates Foundation, USA

AIGA, USA

BMW Designworks, USA

NN Group, Netherlands

Leyla speaking to business leaders in Norway

Leyla speaking in Norway

ORGANIZATIONS

Dantia, Hunter Region, 2023

What Design Can Do, Selection Committee for f World Circual Design Competition, 2023

Carcavelos CEO Council, Nova Business School, Portugal, 2021

The Royal Court, Norway

United Nations Headquarters New York

National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Australia

Centre for Sustainability Leadership, Australia

Leadership Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

Craft Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

Design Forum Finland

Conclave Art for Change 21, UN, Paris, 2018

Leyla leads a workshop at Innovation & Sustainability, 2017, Korea. Image: @atlatitude.com

Leyla leads a workshop at Innovation & Sustainability, 2017, Korea. Image: @atlatitude.com

Change the Change Conference, 2018, Spain Pictured with Co-Executive Director of Greenpeace International, Bunny McDiarmi (left) and National Geographic oceanographer Sylvia Earle after their keynote talks.

Change the Change Conference, 2018, Spain Pictured with Co-Executive Director of Greenpeace International, Bunny McDiarmi (left) and National Geographic oceanographer Sylvia Earle after their keynote talks.

Panel at the United Nations Partnership For Action on the Green Economy (PAGE) Ministerial Conference in Berlin, Germany

Panel at the United Nations Partnership For Action on the Green Economy (PAGE) Ministerial Conference in Berlin, Germany

UNIVERSITIES

Minneapolis School of Art and Design, USA

Iowa State University, USA

Monash University, Australia

Swinburne University, Australia

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia

University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia 

Canberra University, Australia

TU Delft University, Netherlands

Savannah School Art and Design (SCAD), USA

New York University, NYC

Polytechnic University Milan, Italy

KOC University, Istanbul, Turkey

School of Visual Arts, (SVA) NYC 

NOVA

 

In-Person or Live Online, Leyla brings an incredible amount of energy, knowledge and inspiration to her audiences.

 

EVENT TWEETS

TESTIMONIALS

Featured
Sir Jonathon Porritt, Founder, Forum for the Future
Sir Jonathon Porritt, Founder, Forum for the Future

"I really loved Leyla's presentation –  she is such a powerful advocate for new ways of thinking about the world and its resources – very inspirational."

 

 

Judee Bendiola, Head of Marketing & Communications, Service Design Network Global Conference
Judee Bendiola, Head of Marketing & Communications, Service Design Network Global Conference

"Leyla’s keynote at the Service Design Global Conference 2022 was such a huge success! On the Copenhagen stage, she opened our first day with high energy and her valuable presentation was well-received by the whole community. She was definitely on fire to inspire everyone to constructively affect change through our individual agencies and how as Service Designers we can actively have the ‘Courage to Design for Good’!"

Trish Hyde, CEO, Australian Packaging Covenant
Trish Hyde, CEO, Australian Packaging Covenant

"Wow. Awesome. Amazing. Leyla is a synapse - with her energy, passion, knowledge and humour, she ignites every neuron in the audience, and frees people to think and design sustainably."

Kike Correcher, Program Director, World Design Capital Valencia
Kike Correcher, Program Director, World Design Capital Valencia

“Leyla is able to instantly lighten up the atmosphere and own the stage with her powerful discourse. Her keynote was the perfect finale for our Design Policy Conference, full of energy and hope. Leyla is not only a Champion of the Earth: she is also a champion for design as our best ally to tackle the climate challenge.”

Melissa Kanerva, Design Forum Finland
Melissa Kanerva, Design Forum Finland

“Leyla was an absolutely magical speaker at the Design <3 Circular Economy event in Helsinki! She inspired and empowered the participants to start exploring circular design, disruptive design and systems thinking. Thank you, Leyla, for making change!”

Simon Caspersen, Director of Communications, SPACE10
Simon Caspersen, Director of Communications, SPACE10

"Leyla did a super engaging talk at Made in Space that the audience really loved - she is a visionary, progressive thinker that, in an optimistic and constructive way, can address some of the big challenges we face as a human race and still leave a room uplifted and filled with hope." 

Isabelle De Keyzer, Senior Advisor, Environment and Sustainability, International Union of Railways
Isabelle De Keyzer, Senior Advisor, Environment and Sustainability, International Union of Railways

“The enlightening keynote of Leyla Acaroglu reminded the workshop participants that it is essential to turn to systems thinking and to focus in priority on the needs to be met when designing products and services to avoid waste at their end of life. Her enthusiastic and solution-oriented speech sparked intense discussions and was the perfect intro for our workshop on circular outflows in the railway sector”.

Brock Macdonald, CEO, Recycling Council of British Columbia
Brock Macdonald, CEO, Recycling Council of British Columbia

"Leyla Acaroglu is an amazing speaker, and her concept of using environmental folklore to simplify and explain complex systems is brilliant.  She engages even the most cynical to her thought-provoking conclusion that design and innovation can lead to a more sustainable future.” 

Barbara Fowler, SustPack 2016 Conference Organizer
Barbara Fowler, SustPack 2016 Conference Organizer

"Leyla Acaroglu's keynote set the tone for the rest of the day on how packaging can be regenerative and have a central role in the fight against food waste, in educating the consumer and in changing behavior to a more environmentally conscious one. She was an outstanding speaker and brought great energy and content to open the day."

Alejandro Buvinic, Director, ProChile
Alejandro Buvinic, Director, ProChile

"Leyla's first visit to Chile was in the frame of LAB4+, an iconic event of innovation of the Pacific Alliance (Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico). Her way of thinking makes the public very engaged and explores new ideas into internationalization of innovation."