Michael Owens has been producing events on the built environment for more than 15 years. Now, he turns his focus to the upcoming Sustainable Facilities Summit, set to take place in Lake Tahoe, CA, from June 23 to 25, 2013. The event aims to go beyond the typical topics of LEED certification, green design, retrofitting and rebuilding to really encompass how buildings can champion efficiency. The Tahoe event is scheduled to bring the likes of major companies like Walmart and Microsoft together with green-minded city governments like San Francisco, Portland and Austin.

“It’s really about sharing ideas,” Owens says of the inspiration for the summit. “[The attendees] are not usually on panels together, so it is a nice opportunity to learn across industries.”

Jon Christensen, adjunct professor at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, has a career-spanning history dealing with environmental issues as a journalist for countless notable magazines, journals and other publications. Now, Christensen is settling into a new role with UCLA that began in 2012. Christen calls Los Angeles a “great global, diverse city facing global environmental challenges and opportunities.” UCLA offers the setting to study these challenges and opportunities in an ever-changing urban environment.

“[Humans] are leaving a signature in the geological record,” Christensen says. “Shifts in the geological record define geological eras. It’s very clear that we’re now in a different kind of era.”

Kevin Anton‘s 30-plus-year career working in metals and mining led him to become the Vice President and first Chief Sustainability Officer in Alcoa‘s 125-year history. Alcoa is the largest integrated aluminum company in the world, tracing the metal step by step from mining all the way to putting products on the shelf. Perhaps the most important aspect of aluminum is its infinite recyclability. Recycling the metal only takes 5% of the energy used to create it, and it can be back on the shelf or placed into a product quickly and effectively.

“Sixty-five percent of aluminum cans get recycled,” Anton explains. “If you look at aluminum in cars or aluminum in buildings, they both have recycling rates approaching 90% or more. We’re keeping aluminum out of the landfills. There is a larger market for recycled aluminum than there is recycled aluminum available.”