Alison Kinn Bennett

Alison is a Senior Advisor in US EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention and an Adjunct Instructor in American University’s Kogod School of Business. Alison has focused her 20+ year career on leveraging private sector innovation and billions in federal spending to support cleaner and greener supply chains for all. She co-founded two influential networks within EPA—the Green Building Workgroup and the Sustainable Products Network—which bring together policy and technical staff to advance comprehensive, market-based approaches to furthering EPA’s mission.

Since 2001, Alison has served in the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) Program, representing EPA in the development of private sector sustainability standards within the US Green Building Council, Sustainable Sites Initiative, ASTM, NSF, and UL, among others. In addition to the Cradle to Cradle Product Innovations Institute Stakeholder Advisory Council, Alison has represented EPA on the advisory committees of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, ISEAL, and the UN Sustainable Public Procurement Program. In 2016, Alison and her team released Recommendations of Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels—a game changer in bringing clarity to the sustainability marketplace. Recently, Alison is leading a new effort at the Agency exploring innovative financing approaches for capital intensive pollution prevention projects in various manufacturing sectors.