Maya Karkour is an Environmental Consultant, an Eco-Entrepreneur, and the Managing Director of EcoConsulting which she co-founded in London, UK in 2003 and then established in Beirut, Lebanon in 2008. EcoConsulting is a specialized sustainability consultancy with a focus on reworking the relationship between businesses, institutions, municipalities, corporations, households and the Environment through greater energy-efficiency, better resource use, pollution mitigation, as well as healthier and circular solutions. Maya oversees or has directly worked on numerous projects aiming at reducing their environmental footprint –including the eco-renovation of Casa Batroun, first project in the Middle-East to achieve the British BREEAM “Excellent” certificate in 2014 and the Lebanese Architects Sustainability Award in 2017. She also conducts eco-building, sustainability, circular economy and environmental seminars & workshops on a regular basis. Maya has been actively promoting the Circular Economy and sustainable practices in Lebanon through workshops, as the local representative of the Circular Economy Club in Beirut, and more recently by launching the Circular Hub of EcoConsulting. She has also been coaching environmental start-ups or entrepreneurs with innovative entrepreneurial solutions. Maya has been a keynote speaker or moderator at various sustainability/environmental conferences in Lebanon and other countries. She has organized and animated a panel in 2017 on Agriculture & Climate Change, has been selected to coach all presenters and moderate an event for the EU Delegation in Lebanon in December 2019, entitled “Towards a Green Society in Lebanon?”, and was invited as a speaker on “Enabling a Circular Economy” at the CSR Lebanon Forum in October 2019. Maya holds an MSc (hons) in Environment from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is a LEED Accredited Professional, a BREEAM Licensed Assessor, a Low Carbon Energy Assessor, and holds certificates in the Circular Economy and Permaculture. She is currently the President of the Lebanon Mountain Trail Association and is heading its environmental Education Committee.

Sara Jaber is a Senior Sustainability Engineer at EcoConsulting since 2011 working on BREEAM and LEED assessments, as well as other eco-building services including thermal modelling. Sara holds a MEng in Applied Energy and a BEng of Mechanical Engineering from the American University of Beirut. She is also a LEED Accredited Professional and a Certified Energy Manager. Sara participates as a Group Coordinator (for Indoor Environmental Quality) in the Technical Committee for the development of the standard for Building Environmental Performance with LIBNOR. Sara has been a lecturer on various workshops with EcoConsulting since 2013. She was also a speaker at the Built It Green Lebanon conference in 2015 to present the Criteria for Green Buildings in Lebanon. This year, Sara has been selected as a Future Energy Leader in the World Energy Council’s FELL18 program. In her free time, you will most likely find Sara in her kitchen cooking up a storm (follow her cooking adventures @kitchenonthe9th !), or hiking through the Lebanese mountains. She is an amateur wild herbs forager, learning the secrets of the trade from her mother