Irrational Labs, Debrand & More Join SFF26
- SFF26 has added Amelia Eleiter of Debrand, Amanda Lee Smith of Monday, Chris Enlow of ISA Next-Gen Materials, Pauline Kabitsis of Irrational Labs, Austin Whitman of The Change Climate Project, and Emily Stochl of Pre-Loved to its October 28–30 MainStage lineup in Portland.
- Their collective expertise expands the Science of Adoption conversation across behavioral science, brand strategy, circular systems, resale, climate claims, and sustainability communication.
- Their sessions will examine why good intentions fail to become action, how brands can design for participation, what enabled resale to overcome friction, and how companies can communicate credible sustainability action amid changing claims requirements.
- Attendees will gain practical insight into moving sustainability beyond education and intention toward consumer participation, commercial value, and stronger organizational support.
PORTLAND, OR., SEPTEMBER 1, 2026 –SFF26 is welcoming six new voices to the 2026 MainStage, bringing expertise across behavioral science, brand strategy, circular infrastructure, resale, climate claims, and sustainability communication.
Making sustainability easier to adopt requires more than giving people better information. It requires understanding how decisions are made, translating insight into products and experiences people value, building systems they trust and will use, and communicating credible action without creating more friction.
That range is reflected in the latest group of speakers joining SFF26.
Amelia Eleiter (CEO & Co-Founder, Debrand): Since 2008, Amelia has helped apparel and footwear brands build systems for managing returned and collected products through reuse, recycling, and other next-life pathways. Her work at Debrand sits at the point where circular infrastructure, customer participation, and commercial viability meet. At SFF26, Amelia will share practical lessons from building take-back programs where consumer behavior and systems design intersect. Through the Re-Calvin case study, she will explain how transparency, customer communication, phased rollout, and feedback loops were used to understand participation and refine the program. Attendees will gain insight into how consumer response can inform stronger circular programs and connect participation to business value.
Amanda Lee Smith (Founder & CEO, Monday Creative): Amanda leads Monday, an insights, strategy, and creative agency working with brands including adidas, Arc’teryx, lululemon, and KEEN. Her experience connecting research and human behavior with brand strategy and creative execution gives her a practical understanding of how insight moves from observation to market. At SFF26, Amanda will moderate a conversation spanning consumer psychology, consumer research, and brand-side strategy. She will help connect the panelists’ perspectives while keeping the discussion focused on how brands can translate insight into products, propositions, and experiences designed for relevance, participation, and commercial traction.
Austin Whitman (CEO & Co-Founder, The Change Climate Project): Austin has spent more than two decades building markets for clean energy, energy efficiency, carbon credits, and ecosystem services. At The Change Climate Project, he helped lead the transition from Climate Neutral Certified to The Climate Label, evolving both the certification requirements and how participating companies communicate their climate action. At SFF26, Austin will bring firsthand experience from the point where technical climate standards become consumer-facing claims. His perspective will help attendees understand how changing accountability expectations affect the brands expected to implement them and how companies can translate complex climate work into credible, defensible communication without retreating from the conversation.
Emily Stochl (Circular Fashion Journalist & Creator, Pre-Loved): Emily is the creator of Pre-Loved, a multimedia platform for vintage dealers, secondhand shoppers, and resale professionals. For more than eight years, she has reported on the business and culture of resale, with work appearing in Vogue Business, BBC, GQ, Refinery29, WWD, and Glamour. At SFF26, Emily will moderate a conversation examining why shoppers embraced resale despite the searching, unpredictability, and friction it often requires. Her ongoing work with vintage dealers, secondhand shoppers, founders, and industry leaders gives her the context to connect different perspectives and draw out what other sustainable products, services, and business models can learn from resale’s mainstream adoption.
Chris Enlow (Associate Chief Sustainability Officer, ISA Next-Gen Materials): Chris works across business strategy, products, and responsible manufacturing at ISA Next-Gen Materials. His career spans Peace Corps service, nonprofit work, raw material supply chains, and corporate sustainability leadership, giving him experience navigating sustainability from both the strategic and operational sides of a business. At SFF26, Chris will moderate a conversation examining how accountability requirements can create new barriers to adoption. His experience across product strategy, supply chains, compliance, and customer communication will help keep the discussion grounded in the decisions companies face as they work to maintain credible action amid changing expectations.
Pauline Kabitsis (Senior Behavioral Scientist, Irrational Labs): Pauline helps teams turn psychology into measurable product results. She has worked across more than 15 countries with UN agencies, startups, and Fortune 500 companies, partnering with organizations including LinkedIn, Airbnb, and TikTok to improve adoption, engagement, and retention through choice architecture and field experiments. At SFF26, Pauline will explain the behavioral forces behind the gap between what people say they value and what they actually do. Drawing on applied behavioral science, she will help attendees identify how friction, cognitive bias, trust, identity, and social influence affect adoption and why more education, messaging, or motivation often fails to change behavior.
About SFF26
SFF26 is the 2026 annual flagship conference hosted by the Sustainable Fashion Forum, taking place October 28–30, 2026, in Portland, Oregon. Centered on the Science of Adoption, this year’s conference examines why strong sustainability solutions don’t automatically gain traction and what it takes to move them from intention to adoption. Designed for fashion operators, sustainability executives, and senior decision-makers, SFF26 brings together behavioral science, consumer psychology, cultural insight, and market data to explore how companies can build consumer demand, strengthen internal support, and demonstrate the commercial value of sustainability. Tickets are available now. Get your ticket to SFF26.
About the Sustainable Fashion Forum
The Sustainable Fashion Forum (SFF) is an independent media company covering the people, ideas, and forces defining the future of sustainable fashion. SFF advances the industry’s sustainability conversation by challenging conventional thinking, surfacing overlooked perspectives, and connecting ideas across disciplines. Drawing on business strategy, science, policy, behavioral science, consumer psychology, culture, and market dynamics, SFF examines how change happens through independent journalism, original analysis, podcasts, and live experiences. For more information, visit www.sustainablefashionforum.com and follow @thesustainablefashionforum on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Join the Conversation at SFF26
Tickets are available now. Join sustainability leaders exploring how consumer behavior shapes whether sustainability initiatives gain traction, create business value, and continue earning investment.
Kantar Joins SFF26 as Strategic Insights Partner
