Sustainable Apparel and Textiles Conference USA

3rd - 4th June 2026

New York City, USA

Katy O’Brien

Head of Sustainable Innovation

New Balance

Katy O’Brien currently serves as the Head of Sustainable Innovation at New Balance.  She is a passionate leader committed to driving positive impact in the global footwear and apparel industry.  Leveraging her background in engineering and master’s degree from MIT in system design, she built the data-driven holistic strategies to reduce waste and decarbonize New Balance’s footwear supply chain. Katy possesses the unique ability to balance deep technical expertise alongside a big picture perspective and uses this balance to envision the system transformation required to build a more sustainable future for the industry. 

Katy O'Brien's sessionsView full agenda

Day 0

Time
Session title
Session type
17:00 - 18:00
Day 1

Time
Session title
Session type
10:50 - 11:30
Plenary
11:30 - 12:15
Collapsing the E and S in ESG: Protecting workers’ rights in the push to net-zero 
Sourcing Journal | Global Labor Institute, Cornell University ILR School | Fair Labor Association
Plenary
12:45 - 13:45
13:45 - 14:30
15:00 - 15:30
15:30 - 16:15
16:15 - 17:00
16:15 - 17:00
Breakout
17:00 - 18:00
Day 2

Time
Session title
Session type
10:05 - 11:00
The reality of resale, repair, rental: Can circular business models actually scale to compete with the linear system? 
Nuuly | Tersus Solutions | GUESS inc. | Yale University | Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Plenary
11:00 - 11:30
11:30 - 12:10
T2T targets: Would a fully recycled closed textiles loop truly benefit everyone? 
The Crisis of Stuff | Bank & Vogue | Reju | EILEEN FISHER
Plenary
12:10 - 12:45
Regenerative cotton: If it really is a win-win for all, why is it not more widespread? 
Spruell Farms | Victoria's Secret & Co | COTTON USA™ and U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol
Case study
12:45 - 13:45
13:45 - 15:15
15:15 - 15:45
Key takeaways and closing remarks 
Parsons School of Design