Action Plan Summit Participants' Biographies
| Ray C. Anderson Founder and Chairman Interface, Inc. |
Susan B. Anderson Director Office of Sustainable Development City of Portland |
| William S. Becker Executive Director Presidential Climate Action Project University of Colorado at Denver |
Robert J. Berkebile Principal BNIM Architects, Inc. |
| Brian T. Castelli Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Alliance to Save Energy |
Rita R. Conrad Executive Director Oregon Progress Board |
| Robert Costanza Professor Gund Institute for Ecological Economics Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources University of Vermont |
Tabitha A. Crawford Senior Vice President Sustainability and Innovation Actus Lend Lease |
| Jane E. Elder President Jane Elder Strategies |
Paul R. Epstein Associate Director Center for Health and the Global Environment Harvard Medical School |
| Ira R. Feldman President and Senior Counsel Greentrack Strategies |
Richard W. Guldin Director, Quantitative Sciences Research and Development USDA Forest Service |
| Maureen Hart President Sustainable Measures |
James E. Hartzfeld Managing Director InterfaceRAISE Interface, Inc. |
| H. Theodore Heintz, Jr. Indicator Coordinator White House Council on Environmental Quality |
Scot Horst Chair LEED Steering Committee U.S. Green Building Council Horst Inc., A 7group Company |
| Nancy Jackson Executive Director Climate and Energy Project The Land Institute |
David E. Langness Vice President of Public Relations Fraser Communications |
| Elwin M. Larson Executive Vice President Environmental and Resource Management HDR, Inc. |
Jonathan Lash President World Resources Institute |
| Chris P. Laszlo Managing Partner Sustainable Value Partners, LLC |
Gary Lawrence Principal Global Leader for Urban Strategy Arup |
| L. Hunter Lovins, Esq. President Natural Capitalism Solutions, Inc. |
Navin Nayak Director Global Warming Program League of Conservation Voters |
| Michael F. Northrop Program Director Sustainable Development Program Rockefeller Brothers Fund |
Robin I. O'Malley Director Environmental Reporting Program The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment |
| J. Morgan Pitts Research Director Presidential Climate Action Project University of Colorado at Denver |
Laurette A. Reiff Project Coordinator Presidential Climate Action Project University of Colorado at Denver |
| Jeffrey D. Rickert Policy Director Helios Strategies |
Matthew P. Ries Managing Director Technical and Educational Services Water Environment Federation |
| Randall E. Solomon Executive Director Sustainable State Institute EJ Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy Rutgers University |
Richard W. Sumpter Planning Coordinator Kansas City Regional Office United States Environmental Protection Agency |
| Betsy Taylor Chair 1Sky |
Heidi VanGenderen Senior Advisor on Climate Change and Energy Office of the Governor State of Colorado |
| Christopher T. Walker United States Director The Climate Group |
Carol A. Werner Executive Director Environmental and Energy Study Institute |
| Michaella Wittmann Director Sustainable Design Solutions HDR, Inc. |
Michelle Wyman Executive Director ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability U.S.A., Inc. |
| Anita M. Zurbrugg Assistant Director Center for Agriculture in the Environment American Farmland Trust |
Ray C. Anderson
Founder and Chairman, Interface, Inc.
The story is now legend: the "spear in the chest" epiphany Ray Anderson experienced when he first read Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce, seeking inspiration for a speech to an Interface task force on the company's environmental vision. Thirteen years and a sea change later, Interface, Inc., is approximately 45 percent towards the vision of "Mission Zero," the journey no one would have imagined for the company or the petroleum-intensive industry of carpet manufacturing which has been forever changed by Anderson's vision. Mission Zero is the company's promise to eliminate any negative impact it may have on the environment, by the year 2020, through the redesign of processes and products, the pioneering of new technologies, and efforts to reduce or eliminate waste and harmful emissions while increasing the use of renewable materials and sources of energy.
An honors graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology, Ray learned the carpet trade through 14-plus years at various positions at Deering-Milliken and Callaway Mills, and in 1973, set about founding a company to produce the first free-lay carpet tiles in America. Today, he commands the world's largest producer of commercial floor coverings and interior finishes. Interface has diversified and globalized its businesses, with sales in 110 countries and manufacturing facilities on four continents.
In 1997, Ray described his vision for his company, then nearly a quarter-century old, that stands true today: "If we're successful, we'll spend the rest of our days harvesting yester-year's carpets and other petro-chemically derived products, and recycling them into new materials; and converting sunlight into energy; with zero scrap going to the landfill and zero emissions into the ecosystem. And we'll be doing well … very well … by doing good. That's the vision."
The once captain of industry has eschewed a luxury car for a Prius and built an off-the-grid home, authored a book chronicling his journey, Mid-Course Correction, and become an unlikely screen hero in the 2004 Canadian documentary, "The Corporation." He appears as a master commentator on the Sundance Channel's 2007 series, "Big Ideas for a Small Planet," and was named one of Elle Magazine's heroes in their 2007 Green Awards coverage. He's a sought after speaker and advisor on all issues eco, including a stint as co-chair of the President's Council on Sustainable Development during President Clinton's administration.
Anderson has been lauded by government, environmental, and business groups alike. In 1996, he received the Inaugural Millennium Award from Global Green, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev, and won recognition from Forbes Magazine and Ernst & Young, which named him Entrepreneur of the Year. In January, 2001, he received the George and Cynthia Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development. He also has been honored by the Georgia Conservancy, Southface Energy Institute, SAM-SPG (Switzerland), the U.S. Green Building Council, the National Wildlife Federation, the Design Futures Council, the Children's Health and Environmental Coalition, the Harvard Business School Alumni (Atlanta Chapter), the International Interior Design Association, the Southern Institute for Business & Professional Ethics, the Possible Woman Foundation International, the World Business Academy, LaGrange College, and the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. Interface has been named to CRO magazine's (formerly Business Ethics magazine) 100 Best Corporate Citizens List for three years. In 2006, Sustainablebusiness.com named Interface to their SB20 list of Companies Changing the World, and in 2006 GlobeScan listed Interface #1 in the world for corporate sustainability.
Ray serves on the boards of The Georgia Conservancy; Ida Cason Callaway Foundation; Rocky Mountain Institute; the David Suzuki Foundation, LaGrange College, Emory University Board of Visitors, the ASID Foundation, and Melaver, Inc. He is on the Advisory Boards of the Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment and the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, and is an honorary advisor to the President of Peking University. He holds honorary doctorates from Northland College (public service), LaGrange College (business), N.C. State University (humane letters), University of Southern Maine (humane letters), The University of the South (civil law), and Colby College (law), Kendall College (art), and Emory University (science).
Susan B. Anderson
Director, Office of Sustainable Development, City of Portland
Susan Anderson is the Director of the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development (OSD) -- a municipal agency working to ensure the environmental and economic health of Portland's businesses and neighborhoods. OSD brings government and business together in creative ways to solve community problems and create a vision for change.
Since 2000, Susan has led a movement toward sustainable practices in a city that has become recognized world-wide for its ability to envision policies, programs and educational outreach that turn concepts into practical solutions with measurable results.
OSD is responsible for city wide solid waste collection and recycling, energy conservation, renewable energy resources, sustainable construction practices, utility regulatory issues and a variety of environmental programs. OSD is the lead agency for implementing Portland's Local Action Plan on Global Warming -- A local plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 10 percent by 2010.
In 1993, under Susan's leadership at the Portland's Energy Office, the city became the first in the U.S. to adopt a global warming policy. To implement that policy, Susan promotes a consumer-oriented approach. "For example, that's what the whole green building program is about - energy efficiency integrated with creating a wonderful space where people want to live and work. We've seen the market take off when we've listened to the consumer, and given them what they want."
Over the years, Susan has worked with more than 30 communities to promote resource efficiency, the use of renewable resources and sustainable practices in commercial facilities, housing, transportation, land use planning and economic development. She is a frequent speaker at national and international symposiums on sustainable development and business/government partnerships.
Prior to her work with the City of Portland, Susan was director of an environmental consulting firm. She also held positions with the Oregon Department of Energy, was an environmental land use planner and a public relations professional.
She holds undergraduate and advanced degrees in Economics, Environmental Science and Urban and Regional Planning.
William S. Becker
Executive Director, Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP)
Bill Becker is the Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project and the organizer of the "National Leadership Summits for a Sustainable America", a series of four conferences in 2006 and 2007 to advance America's sustainability in a time of global warming.
The Presidential Climate Action Project is one of several initiatives that have emerged from the summits so far. Another is the "Wingspread Principles on the U.S. Response to Global Warming", a document authored by Bill and signed by many of the nation's climate leaders to begin speaking in a unified voice about the nation's responsibility to address climate change.
Before he joined the University of Colorado at Denver in January 2007 to direct the Presidential Climate Action Project, Bill was senior advisor to the Global Energy Center for Community Sustainability and an adjunct faculty member in the Colorado Energy Research Institute at the Colorado School of Mines. He served both functions while on sabbatical from the U.S. Department of Energy, where he was Director of DOE's Central Regional Office, overseeing a staff of 30 and nearly $50 million annually in federal programs to commercialize energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. He retired from DOE on Jan. 1, 2007.
Bill is regarded as a national expert on sustainable development. After the Great Flood along the Mississippi River in 1993, he organized and led a team of experts to help two communities relocate from the floodplain and rebuild on higher ground with sustainable designs and technologies. In 1996, he founded and directed DOE's Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development and its Smart Communities Network web site, the "granddaddy" of sustainable community resources on the internet.
More recently, he organized and led a team of US sustainable design experts to Beijing to help Chinese officials "green" the Olympic Village for the 2008 Olympic Games. In 2006, he participated on a small team of experts who traveled to Thailand to provide advice on tsunami reconstruction. Also in 2006, he was one of three national experts deployed by the State of Louisiana to help residents of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans plan "sustainable reconstruction" after Hurricane Katrina.
Bill began his diverse career at age 19 as a combat correspondent for the U.S. Army in South Vietnam, where he won a Bronze Star medal for his news reporting and photography under fire. After the war, he worked as a writer/photographer for the Associated Press; published his own weekly newspaper in rural Wisconsin; and served as editorial writer and columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, WI. After he left journalism for a career in public service, Bill worked as associate director of the Wisconsin Energy Extension Service, research director for the Wisconsin State Senate, Executive Assistant to the Wisconsin Attorney General, Counselor to the Administrator and Chief Counsel for Advocacy at the U.S. Small Business Administration in Washington, DC, and special assistant to two Assistant Secretaries for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at DOE.
Bill's interest in sustainable development began in the 1970s when, as editor and publisher of the newspaper in Soldiers Grove, WI, he proposed and helped implement a pioneering project to relocate the community from a floodplain and rebuild it as the nation's first solar village. The project was a pioneering example of nonstructural flood prevention – an approach in which people move out of harm's way rather than relying on engineering approaches to managing riverine ecosystems – and one of the nation's first community-wide solar energy projects. The project has been featured in the television documentary "River Town", as well as in several books, including two authored by Bill: Come Rain, Come Shine, and The Making of a Solar Village. Bill and his wife, Mary, live in Golden, CO.
Bob Berkebile
Principal, BNIM Architects
Bob is a leading authority in the field of sustainable design and is the founding chairman of the American Institute of Architects' National Committee on the Environment. He is a Principal of BNIM Architects, and Elements Consulting, and brings 40 years of diverse experience to the profession. Bob currently serves on the boards of The Nature Conservancy, Environmental Building News, The Center for Global Community, Athena and New Earth Organization; he was a member of the US Green Building Council board and currently serves on USGBC's Technical and Scientific Advisory Committee. He is highly regarded by fellow professionals for creating beautiful environments that are restorative and pedagogical. He has conducted numerous sustainable design charrettes and workshops for the White House, DOD, DOE, NPS, FEMA and the Canadian Provincial Architects. He has lectured extensively at universities including Harvard, Cambridge, Stanford and Rice and at international conferences including The Earth Summit in Rio and UN or NSF conferences in Scotland, Sweden and Antarctica. Bob utilizes diverse collaborative teams, integrated design and creates new approaches and tools to restore social, economic and environmental vitality.
In 1993, following the Mississippi flood, Bob was asked to assemble a team of fifty national experts to consider new federal guidelines for disaster response and he has since led and/or participated in teams to rebuild or relocate communities in Illinois, Missouri and the Texas Medical Center in Houston following Tropical Storm Alison.
Some of his representative projects include the Noisette Development (a 3,000 acre redevelopment) in North Charleston, several benchmark projects for healthy, efficient facilities at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston, a new headquarters for the Eugene, Oregon Water & Electric Board, a learning center promoting sustainability and conservation ethics at Shelburne Farms, Vermont, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources headquarters in Jefferson City, and the Missouri Department of Conservation's Urban Conservation Campus in Kansas City.
Brian Castelli
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Alliance to Save Energy
Brian Castelli brings nearly 30 years of national and international experience in the energy field, including expertise in energy efficiency, renewables, emission reductions, and electricity demand reduction, to the Alliance to Save Energy as executive vice president and chief operating officer. Prior to joining the Alliance's senior management team in July 2005, Castelli ran his own energy consulting firm.
Among his varied endeavors, he was the federal energy liaison for the California Energy Commission, one of the nation's premier state energy offices; a principal with the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, a one stop shop helping businesses and states adopt high-level strategies for saving energy and cutting pollution; and a consultant to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) where he organized a High Technology Council (comprised of communications and information technology leaders) to advise EPRI's Intelligent Grid program.
Castelli also consulted with the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) where, on behalf of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, he conducted a series of public workshops in 14 western states on advanced, highly-efficient turbines and fuel cells that involved manufacturers, developers, utilities, and state and federal energy and environmental officials. As a presidential appointee, Castelli served as chief of staff to the U.S. Department of Energy's assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy from 1994 to 2001. He managed 550 staff and more than $1 billion in programs and research, development, and deployment initiatives and directed the development and implementation of energy policies and programs.
Castelli also led and participated in missions to Western Hemisphere, European, and former Soviet Union countries and was also deeply involved in developing energy-efficiency measures for the eventual closure of the nuclear reactors in Chornobyl, Ukraine. Prior to DOE, Castelli was appointed in 1988 by Gov. Bob Casey to the Pennsylvania Energy Office (PEO), for three years as deputy director for administration and public affairs and then as executive director, through 1994. As executive director he ran the commonwealth's energy policies and programs, managed the state energy office and the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority, and took the lead on responding to energy emergencies.
Notably, he developed a revolving loan fund for energy-efficiency measures and a "Green Buildings" program for cutting energy use and costs in all commonwealth-owned or operated buildings, and he drafted legislation for and implemented an alternative fuel program.
As the PEO's deputy director, Castelli's responsibilities included administration, budgeting, public information, and energy program policies. He also created more effective financial assistance and energy outreach programs and served as the PEO's liaison to delegations of state and federal legislators.
Earlier in his career, Castelli was vice president of finance for The National Center for Appropriate Technology; senior vice president and cofounder of CEXEC; and financial analyst with the Federal Energy Administration. He has authored many articles, studies, and reports on energy-related issues, served on various boards of directors, and made presentations in many state, national, and international forums and conferences.
Castelli holds two degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, a bachelor of science in chemical engineering and an MBA in industrial/environmental management from the university's Wharton School.
Rita Conrad
Executive Director, Oregon Progress Board
Rita Conrad has devoted nearly two decades to public policy in the areas of health policy and planning and, most recently strategic planning, performance measurement and indicators of societal wellbeing. She was lead author of Oregon's 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007 Benchmark Reports to the Legislative Assembly and the People of Oregon. Oregon Benchmarks measure the state's progress toward the state's strategic vision, called Oregon Shines.
Rita has been active in helping state agencies and other partners align their work to the statewide vision. In 2002, she wrote the first set of guidelines to state agencies on how to link their performance measures to Oregon Benchmarks. The guidelines have been included in the state's budget instructions for the last three budget cycles.
Now Executive Director of the Oregon Progress Board, Rita is preparing the Board to launch the Oregon Shines III process, which will update Oregon's unique, statewide strategic vision 20 years into the future. Oregon Shines "III" will be released in February of 2009, the state's 150th birthday. It will continue the tradition of addressing issues, strategies and measures for the triple bottom line- - economy, community and environment - at the societal level.
Rita received Bachelor's degree in Zoology and a Master's in Health Planning from the School of Preventive Medicine, Ohio State University. Her career is a mixture of public service and entrepreneurial joint ventures with her husband, including building and running a corporate retreat in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana and a consulting firm in Seattle.
Robert Costanza
Director & Professor, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics
Dr. Robert Costanza is the Gund Professor of Ecological Economics and Director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont.
Prior to moving to Vermont in August 2002, he was director of the University of Maryland Institute for Ecological Economics, and a professor in the Center for Environmental Science, at Solomons, and in the Biology Department at College Park.
Dr. Costanza received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 1979 in systems ecology, with a minor in economics. He also has a Masters degree in Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Florida.
Dr. Costanza is co-founder and past-president of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) and was chief editor of the Society's journal: Ecological Economics from its inception until 9/02. He currently serves on the editorial board of eight other international academic journals. He is past president of the International Society for Ecosystem Health. In 1982 he was selected as a Kellogg National Fellow, in 1992 he was awarded the Society for Conservation Biology Distinguished Achievement Award and in 1993 he was selected as a Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment. In 1998 he was awarded the Kenneth Boulding Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions in Ecological Economics. In 2000 he received an honorary doctorate in natural sciences from Stockholm University. He has served on the Scientific Steering Committee for the LOICZ and AIMES core project of the IGBP; the US EPA National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT); the National Research Council Board on Sustainable Development, Committee on Global Change Research; the National Research Council, Board on Global Change; the US National Committee for the Man and the Biosphere Program, and the National Marine Fisheries Service Committee on Ecosystem Principles.
Dr. Costanza's research has focused on the interface between ecological and economic systems, particularly at larger temporal and spatial scales. This includes landscape level spatial simulation modeling; analysis of energy and material flows through economic and ecological systems; valuation of ecosystem services, biodiversity, and natural capital; and analysis of dysfunctional incentive systems and ways to correct them. He is the author or co-author of over 300 scientific papers. His work has been cited in more than 3,000 scientific articles since 1987 and more than 80 interviews and reports on his work have appeared in various media, including Newsweek, US News and World Report, The Economist, The New York Times, Science, Nature, National Geographic, and National Public Radio.
Tabitha Crawford
is owner of newly formed Rayan Solutions, a firm focused on clean energy and conservation through the development and capitalization of sustainable partnerships. Through Rayan, she is working with clean energy providers and the Department of Defense to help create the first net zero community including behavior modification programs for residents. The last four years, she was Senior Vice President of Sustainability & Innovation for Actus Lend Lease comprising 40,000 homes and 20,000 hotel rooms, including the world’s largest solar powered community. The sustainability programs created by Tabitha resulted in a new sales win rate increase of 45% and portfolio wide energy reduction of 5%--with a $70 million utilities portfolio.
Formerly CEO of Military Assistance Company, she created the first private link into Department of Defense payroll systems to resolve a $20 billion construction backlog. Tabitha has an MBA from Fairfield University, a Masters from the Graduate School of Retail Bank Management at University of Virginia, and a Bachelors in finance from the University of Louisville. A national advisor and speaker on sustainability programs, Tabitha is engaged with the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development and recently worked with the Sustainable Development Council for the Urban Land Institute and is a certified climate speaker from Nobel Prize Recipient Al Gore.
Jane Elder
Senior Advisor, Biodiversity Project
Jane has been actively engaged in communicating about environmental issues and advocating for protection of the natural world and human well being throughout her career. She is currently consulting on environmental communications for several nonprofit organizations, including the Presidential Climate Action Project, National Parks Conservation Association, the State Environmental Leadership Program and Biodiversity Project.
Between 1995 and 2005, Jane served as the founding director of Biodiversity Project – a nonprofit communications organization dedicated to raising public awareness about the diversity of life on Earth, its value to human well-being, and the need for public action to stem the tide of loss. Jane led projects to incorporate insights from public opinion research, education theory, social marketing, frameworks analysis and other approaches into public communications about biodiversity. This work served as a catalyst for new communications and education projects at leading zoos and aquariums, and across a diverse community of advocacy groups working on issues from sprawl to endangered species protection. In 2002 she received a Bay Foundation Biodiversity Leadership Award, which recognizes "individuals with proven capacity to help stem the loss of biological diversity."
Previously, Jane worked for the Sierra Club's Midwest office, serving as a field organizer, Congressional lobbyist and policy specialist. She founded the Sierra Club's Great Lakes program and helped lead the successful ten-year effort to protect 100,000 acres of Michigan Wilderness. Jane also served as director of Ecoregion Programs – a national program to develop conservation strategies for the major ecologically defined regions of the U.S. She received the Michael McCloskey award in 1994, for "a distinguished record of achievement in national or international conservation causes."
Jane loves quilting, gardening, watercolor, and Shakespeare performed live and uncut. She is married to Bill Davis, executive director of the State Environmental Leadership Program. They have a 1 2 -year-old son, Colin, who hates global warming. They live in Madison, Wisconsin.
Paul Epstein
Associate Director, Center for Health and the Global Environment,
Harvard Medical School
Paul R. Epstein, M.D., M.P.H. is Associate Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School and is a medical doctor trained in tropical public health. Paul has worked in medical, teaching and research capacities in Africa, Asia and Latin America and, in 1993, coordinated an eight-part series on Health and Climate Change for the British medical journal, Lancet. He has worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to assess the health impacts of climate change and develop health applications of climate forecasting and remote sensing. He also served as a reviewer for the Health chapter of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and is coordinating the international project Climate Change Futures: Health, Ecological and Economic Dimensions, with support from Swiss Re and the United Nations Development Programme. This project involves scientists, UN agencies, NGOs and corporate/financial sector leaders in the assessment of the new risks and opportunities presented by a changing climate.
Ira Feldman
President & Senior Counsel, Greentrack Strategies
Ira Feldman, president and senior counsel of greentrack strategies, has cut an interdisciplinary swath across three usually distinct spheres: "big picture" environmental policy; environmental law and regulation; and environmental management. He originated the "greentrack" (or dual track/alternate path) approach to environmental regulation and management; championed the implementation of a new generation of environmental management tools; created voluntary environmental excellence initiatives; and advanced the state of the art in environmental auditing and disclosure. Today, he is widely recognized as a leader in linking the regulatory and non-regulatory trends that form the basis of strategic environmental management and sustainable business practices.
Ira's projects, presentations, research and writings reflect his focus on the interrelated concepts of regulatory innovation, environmental performance metrics, environmental management systems, stakeholder engagement, and ecosystem services. These diverse professional interests and a unique interdisciplinary academic background inform his articulation of environmental issues within the broader constructs of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility (CSR) and within the environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework becoming increasingly relevant to the financial sector. As Professor Feldman, he has taught these topics at the University of Pennsylvania in both the Wharton School's Environmental Management Program and Penn's Masters of Environmental Studies Program. He is also an adjunct professor at American University's Washington College of Law.
In the US , Ira has played a leading role in defining future domestic policy directions through his participation as a member of the Environmental Management Task Force of the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD); the Multi-state Working Group on Environmental Performance (MSWG); and the advisory board of the National Environmental Policy Institute (NEPI). He was elected to the board of MSWG in August 2006. He currently serves on the board of Sustainability Now! and on the Council of Partners of the Environmental Law Institute (ELI).
At the international level, Ira participates in the alumni network of the Prince of Wales' Business and Environment Programme and the International Network for Environmental Management (INEM). Mr. Feldman attended the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) representing the Environmental Law Institute and the American Bar Association; his paper presented at this event in Johannesburg offered the business perspective on stakeholder engagement in environmental decision-making. Around the world -- in Latin America , Eastern Europe , the Middle East and Southeast Asia -- Ira has worked with governmental entities, multilateral organizations, NGO's, and industry organizations (from large multinationals to SME's) on a wide range of implementation, policy development, and training activities.
Ira has served as a peer reviewer on sustainability issues for organizations as diverse as DuPont, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the Resource Renewal Institute and he has planned and delivered numerous conferences, panels and multi-stakeholder dialogues on strategic environmental management and sustainability issues.
Ira was Special Counsel in the Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance (OECA) at US EPA Headquarters in Washington , DC . At EPA, he developed and directed the Environmental Leadership Program, EPA's first program on corporate environmental excellence; he pioneered the inclusion of EMS as injunctive relief in the enforcement context; and he led the revision of EPA's policies on environmental auditing and self-disclosure. Ira began his EPA tenure as Senior Attorney for hazardous waste enforcement (serving as the EPA lead on path-breaking RCRA settlements such as US v. Kodak and US v. United Technologies) and then as Special Assistant to the Director of Civil Enforcement. Among other responsibilities, Ira was EPA's liaison to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). Before joining EPA, Ira practiced environmental law in the private sector in New York and Washington , with particular emphasis on the environmental aspects of large-scale merger, acquisition, and real estate transactions.
Ira is perhaps best known for his leadership role in the development of the ISO 14000 series of standards in the US and at the international level, and for his early recognition of the policy and regulatory implications of voluntary environmental management standards. Ira attended eight international rounds of ISO/TC 207 as an "Expert" on the US/ANSI delegation. In the US Technical Advisory Group (USTAG), he served for six years as the vice chairman of the ST4 on "environmental performance evaluation" (EPE) relating to performance metrics. He founded and co-chaired the ISO 14000 Legal Issues Forum (LIF) to consider legal, policy, and implementation issues related to environmental management systems, and, more recently, he was selected to participate in the ABA - US EPA bilateral discussions with the Canadian Bar Association and Environment Canada on the relationship of EMS to environmental regulation.
Currently, Ira serves as an "Expert" on the US/ANSI delegation to the international working group convened by ISO to draft ISO 26000, a voluntary guidance on corporate social responsibility. In that ISO/SR process, he represents the US legal, consulting and academic communities in the "SSRO" (services, support, research) seat on the multi-stakeholder delegation. He served as head of the US delegation to the Lisbon round in 2006, and, at the international level, his SSRO peers selected him as their representative to the Chairman's Advisory Group (CAG) for 2006-2008.
Ira has also played a prominent role in the development of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and in raising awareness of the importance of GRI in outreach to various stakeholder groups and competing standards organizations. He served as a member of its initial metrics work group which produced the GRI exposure draft, and more recently as a member of the metrics task group which developed the current version of the GRI protocol for sustainability reporting. He participated in the UNCTAD expert group which developed an international standard for accounting and reporting of environmental liabilities (ISAR) and previously served on the North American steering committee for the UNEP Financial Initiatives, which focuses on the interface between the financial sector and the environmental management world. He currently advises EPA on the current use and potential role of environmental information in the financial sector.
An active member of the American Bar Association's Section on Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER), Ira chaired SEER'S "Sustainable Development, Ecosystems & Climate Change" Committee and he led the Section-wide Sustainable Development Initiative, a multi-Committee awareness-raising effort intended to weave sustainability concepts into the activities of the ABA. He has also served as Vice Chair of the Section's "Second Generation/Innovations" and "International Environmental Law" Committees as well as the Section's "Environmental Values and Ethics" Taskgroup. He is a leading participant in the ongoing consideration of multidisciplinary practice (MDP) issues in environmental law. Ira is also actively engaged in programmatic, publications and development activities at the Environmental Law Institute.
Dr. Richard Guldin
Director, Science, Policy, Planning, Inventory
and Information Research and Development
USDA Forest Services
Dr. Guldin is Staff Director for Quantitative Sciences for the Research & Development arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. He provides executive leadership for inventory and monitoring research programs, including the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, remote sensing research, and national assessments of renewable resource conditions. His staff is the definitive source for strategic-level information about current conditions of the forest resources of the United States, including analyses of recent trends and forecasts about potential future conditions at national, regional, and State levels.
For the past decade, he has been responsible for finding ways to more effectively bring recent research results to the policy-making process to improve the practice of science-based natural resources management. He has also been responsible for the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program—a $70 million/year program that monitors the status, health condition, and productivity of forests on all private and public lands in the United States and reports that information at national, regional, and State scales.
He and his staff represent the U.S.A. in several international processes focused on sustainable forest management. Dr. Guldin is the lead Forest Service representative to the Montreal Process Working Group—a voluntary organization of 12 countries with extensive temperate and boreal forests that are working together to develop and use criteria and indicators of sustainability (www.mcpi.org). His staff works closely with the United Nations' Food & Agriculture Organization to provide data and analyses about U.S.A. forests for FAO's global forest resource assessments and outlook reports. His staff has also provided technical assistance to Argentina, Chile, the Phillipines, Indonesia, and Mexico, helping those countries to initiate their national forest inventory programs. Dr. Guldin has also participated on international teams reviewing the progress of sustainable forest management research and development programs in both the Americas and Europe.
He serves the professional community through the Society of American Foresters and the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations. For IUFRO, he is leads the international taskforce on "The Forest Science-Policy Interface." He has authored more than 70 journal articles and spoken at conferences in the U.S., at the United Nations, and around the world. He is a Certified Forester® and a Registered Professional Forester.
Maureen Hart
Executive Director, Sustainable Measures
Maureen Hart is president of Sustainable Measures, a private consulting firm based in West Hartford, CT. She is serving as a member of the Summit Continuity Team. Her firm is dedicated to promoting sustainable communities, primarily through the development, understanding and use of effective indicators and systems for measuring progress. Its clients include communities, non-profit organizations, federal, state, regional, and local governments, foundations and private sector businesses.
Maureen is an internationally known expert on sustainability indicators and the author of the Guide to Sustainable Community Indicators, which is being used by many communities and organizations working on understanding and measuring progress toward sustainability.
She has developed and presented training courses and workshops on sustainability and indicators both nationally and internationally. She has provided technical assistance to community indicator projects, evaluated indicators and indicator sets, conducted research on measuring sustainability, consulted with businesses and business-related nonprofits on sustainable production indicators, and has helped foundations and other grant-making organizations define strategies and evaluate funding decisions for projects related to sustainable development. Current projects include working with the US Forest Service on indicators for planning and implementing green infrastructure and sustainable forestry and managing the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators web site.
Jim Hartzfeld
Managing Director, InterfaceRAISE
Jim Hartzfeld, is Managing Director of InterfaceRAISE. An environmentalist at heart, Jim holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri and an MBA from the Goizueta Business School of Emory University. Known as "EcoJim" at Interface, he shares the vision of Ray Anderson, Chairman and CEO of Interface, Inc., that business and industry can save the Earth and serve its shareholders.
Keeping pace with leading edge concepts, policies, and practices in sustainable development, Jim has served as a clearinghouse for ideas and concepts that continue to guide individuals and organizations ever higher in the quest to become more sustainable. Jim oversaw the development of the EcoSense programs, designed to set and keep Interface on its course of greater sustainability, and continues to facilitate global communication on environmental topics through involvement with all Interface businesses.
Jim is a former Chairman of the Board of the U.S. Green Building Council and has worked with such organizations as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) where he served as Ray Anderson's liaison. Working closely with PCSD, he helped organize the "National Town Meeting" held in Detroit, Michigan on May 2-5, 1999 where he appeared with Ed Begley, Jr. (Actor) in the opening ceremonies. He continues working closely with the US Green Building Council after having served two terms as Chairman of the Board. He resides with his wife and two children in Marietta, Ga.
H. Theodore Heintz, Jr.
Indicator Coordinator, White House Council on Environmental Quality
Ted Heintz is currently the Indicator Coordinator for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he serves on detail from the Department of the Interior. He has worked for Interior's Office of Policy Analysis in a variety of roles since 1976, primarily managing small groups of economists and policy analysts that deal with a broad range of resource systems and issues.
Since 1993, Mr. Heintz has worked extensively in the development of natural and environmental resource indicators. He has been a member of the Interagency Working Group on Sustainable Development Indicators (SDI Group) and has participated in on-going roundtables that are addressing criteria and indicators for sustainable resource management for forests, rangelands, minerals and water resources. He is currently on detail to the White House Council on Environmental Quality to lead an interagency working group that is developing plans for a national system of indicators on natural and environmental resources.
He holds degrees (B. E. E.) from Cornell University and Princeton University (M.P.A.)
Scot Horst
Chair, LEED Steering Committee, Horst, Inc. /A 7group Company
Scot Horst serves as chair of the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED
Steering Committee and is widely recognized as a leader in the sustainable design
movement. During his chairmanship, he has overseen the development of LEED for
Core and Shell, LEED for Schools, Revisions to LEED for Existing Buildings, LEED for
Neighborhood Development, LEED for Homes, LEED for Healthcare and extensive
work in the next version of LEED.
In 1992 Mr. Horst started Horst, Inc., where he develops innovative programs relating to materials and their environmental impacts. This includes extensive work with the cement industry and a blended cement carbon dioxide offset program with the Climate Trust in Oregon. He helps companies and institutions develop holistic approaches to decision making. Horst has served as an advisor to the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Parks, Pennsylvania's Governor's Green Government Council, worked with major universities, corporations, trade organizations and many others. Horst is a board member of the Green Resources Institute and serves on Advisory Boards for numerous other organizations. He has recently trained assessors for the India Green Building Council and represented the USGBC for numerous events including a recent green building trade mission to the UK.
Mr. Horst co-founded 7group, a multi-service green building consulting LLC, where he serves as President. As a LEED® Accredited Professional he has worked on over 70 LEED projects. At the USGBC Horst also sits on the LEED Version 3.0 Executive Group and the Technical Scientific Advisory Committee where he chairs the PVC Task Group. He is a LEED faculty member and, as a partner in 7group, reviews certifications for the U.S. Green Building Council and has been a contributing author to LEED Reference Guides.
Horst also serves as Vice President of Athena Institute International, the U.S. non-profit affiliate of the Canadian Athena Sustainable Materials Institute. In this capacity he is involved with a broad range of work related to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), including the U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database Project of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, regional database development and LCA education.
Mr. Horst speaks and lectures widely. He has authored, co-authored and presented over 150 papers and presentations nationally and internationally including Standards Frozen in Time, Cement and CO2 Offsets, The Durability of Structural Materials, Integrating LCA into LEED, LEED Lessons Learned, LEED, Technique and Transformation and LEED, Standards and Movements.
Nancy Jackson
Executive Director, Climate & Energy Project, The Land Institute
Jackson holds an MA in environmental history from the University of Kansas and for ten years commissioned and edited books in Development of Western Resources and CultureAmerica, a series she created for the University Press of Kansas. In Fall 2005, she was awarded a Dole Institute research fellowship for a national interview project on the red/blue divide in America, titled Common Cause in America. She served as Development Director for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and the Spencer Museum of Art at the Kansas University Endowment Association prior to starting the Climate & Energy Project with father-in-law Wes Jackson in February 2007. More distant background includes corporate finance, investor relations, and equities research.
David Langness
Vice President of Public Relations, Fraser Communications
David Langness is a senior communicator and public relations professional with more than 25 years of experience across a broad range of communications disciplines, including media and government relations, investor relations, electoral campaigns, marketing, strategic planning and development. He now serves as the Vice President of Public Relations for Fraser Communications in Los Angeles, California. Langness has created, managed and run communications departments for both non-profit and for-profit corporations, including UCLA, the Healthcare Association of Southern California, The National Health Foundation and Tenet Healthcare. He is a veteran of more than 2,000 media interviews and over a hundred news conferences, and he has media trained several hundred physicians, executives and media spokespeople.
Langness has extensive crisis communications experience, and has designed and driven media response campaigns involving multiple government and media investigations, civil and criminal trials, statewide and national legislative issues and Congressional hearings. Known nationally and internationally as a trusted and credible voice on a number of important issues, he has built a network of print and electronic media outlets that regularly rely on his expertise by interviewing and quoting him extensively. He is a recognized national expert in several areas of public policy, including environmental issues, healthcare reform, homelessness, drug and alcohol dependency and public health, and he often speaks to large audiences on these and other topics.
Langness, long a well-known media advocate, served as the chief spokesperson for the hospital community in Southern California for 12 years, as Vice President of Communications for the Healthcare Association of Southern California. He is a founding board member of Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles, the skid row health agency he helped establish in 1985. His extensive political and advocacy involvement includes two years on the executive board of Proposition 99, the successful 1988 Tobacco Tax Initiative on the California ballot. Langness currently serves on several boards of directors, including the Leadership Advisory Board of the Gallup Organization and on the boards of Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles and the Homeless Voicemail Project in the Bay Area.
Langness continues to write creatively as well, as the literary critic for Paste Magazine and as a novelist. His new novel was recently optioned for feature film rights by a major independent production company in Los Angeles. He has written for radio, television, major newspapers, wire services, multiple national magazines, Internet blogs and many books.
Langness has conceptualized, organized and led several disaster-relief airlifts to needy countries around the world, including the post-revolutionary Philippines; El Salvador during the guerilla warfare there and Kosovo and Albania during the NATO bombing. Immediately post-Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, he spent a month working with Tenet's six hospitals and thousands of displaced refugees in the region. Langness is also a decorated Vietnam veteran, serving as a conscientious objector medic in the 101st Airborne Division in 1970 and 1971. He and his wife Teresa, the writer and Executive Director of the global educational non-profit Full-Circle Learning, have four children, and live in Topanga, California.
Elwin Larson
Executive Vice President & National Director
Environmental & Resources Management Group, HDR, Inc.
Elwin Larson is an Executive Vice President and National Director for HDR's Environmental and Resources Management business group. This leadership role was built on a foundation of 35 years of engineering experience helping a diverse group of clients in finding ways to manage their resources for sustainable results. Upon arrival at HDR more than 17 years ago he took what was principally a solid waste management consulting group and grew it into one of the nation's largest environmental practices. Today, it is a home to nearly 1300 professionals engaged in: environmental sciences & planning, water resources, fisheries, waste management and industrial, federal facilities, military planning, power and energy, consulting and economics, community planning and urban design. The group is responsible for lead roles in the restoration of the Florida Everglades, reconstruction of storm protection systems along the Gulf Coast, management of forests in Canada, water resource planning in the desert southwest, aquatic habitat management in New York Harbor, and solid waste planning for the Cities of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. His power and energy group is proud to have amassed one of the industry's the largest portfolios of renewable energy projects including more than 6,800 megawatts of operating wind turbine capacity and 1.5BGY of ethanol from production facilities currently operating or under construction. His solid waste professionals are pioneers in zero waste management and the recipients of 8 national awards for environmental education from groups including The National Recycling Coalition, Keep America Beautiful, RENEW America, and the US EPA Administrator (Clinton Administration). His consulting and economics group provided the economic case for New York City's Congestion Pricing Program and created resource management programs for major cities earning national awards for Innovation in Government from the International City Managers Association and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. His carbon accounting team served as technical consultants (responsible for carbon foot printing and offsetting) to the C40 Major Cities Climate Summit held in New York City in May of this year.
As a professional engineer with specialization in environmental and civil engineering, Mr. Larson spent many years in both the public and private sectors prior to joining HDR in 1990. His background includes work in municipal and public administration, water and wastewater utility operations, environmental engineering, treatment plant construction and solid waste management. He was appointed by the Governor of Nebraska to serve two four-year teams as a member and served as chair of the Nebraska Environmental Control Council.
In 2006, Mr. Larson joined the Global Roundtable on Climate Change, a group of critical stakeholders from government and private industry around the world. Affiliated with the Earth Institute of Columbia University, membership in the Roundtable is by invitation only. Members work to build consensus on core scientific, technological and economic issues critical to developing sound public policies on climate change. He is also host to The Climate Group (based in HDR's New York City offices) a not-for-profit organization dedicated to encouraging positive collaboration between the world's largest cities and most powerful corporate CEOs. Inside HDR, Mr. Larson serves as Chair of the National Civic Affairs Committee and leads HDR's Strategic Initiative for Mentoring, Career Path, Recruitment and Diversity. Mr. Larson was instrumental in the development of HDR's Career Skills Development program, a training program which focuses on developing future leaders for HDR.
Jonathan Lash
President, World Resources Institute
Jonathan Lash is president of the World Resources Institute (WRI), a global environmental think tank that goes beyond research to provide practical solutions to problems of environment and development. During the past ten years under his leadership, WRI has pioneered the use of digital technologies to solve environmental problems, engaged the business community in helping to foster development that is sustainable, and created new mechanisms to empower civil society groups.
Mr. Lash served as co chair of President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development, a group of U.S. government, business, labor, civil rights, and environmental leaders that developed visionary recommendations for strategies to promote sustainable development. At various times, he served as a member of advisory groups to the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Trade Representative.
A frequent writer about issues of sustainability, Mr. Lash recently published "Business Advantage in a Warming World" in the Harvard Business Review.
A member of the Board of Generation Investment Management, the VIVA Trust, and the Avina Foundation, Mr. Lash has served as on a broad range of national and international groups, including: the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Round Table on Sustainable Development; the DuPont Biotechnology Advisory Panel; the Tata Energy and Resources Institute (India); the Keidanren Committee on Nature Conservation (Japan); the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development; the Pew Environmental Health Commission; and the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (Japan).
Before joining WRI, Mr. Lash directed the environmental law and policy program of the Vermont Law School, and headed the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. During his tenure in Vermont government, Mr. Lash helped write a score of innovative statutes on issues ranging from pollution prevention and solid waste management to protection of pristine streams.
A former Peace Corps volunteer and a former federal prosecutor, Mr. Lash also worked as a senior staff attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) from 1978 to 1985, litigating on issues related to public lands, federal coal leasing, strip mining, energy conservation, and synthetic fuels.
The World Resources Institute is an international environmental research and policy organization that creates solutions to protect the Earth and improve people's lives.
Chris Laszlo
Partner/Co-Founder, Sustainable Value Partners, LLC
Chris Laszlo is a partner and co-founder of Sustainable Value Partners, a strategy consulting firm working with senior leaders in some of the world's largest companies to transform societal opportunities and risks into sources of competitive advantage. He has led over 100 executive seminars and spoken widely on "Sustainability for business advantage" inside companies and at leading business schools including Case Weatherhead, Cornell, Kenan-Flagler, and the European business school INSEAD in the Advanced Management Seminar and CEDEP Executive Education program.
For nearly ten years, he was an executive at Lafarge S.A., a world leader in building materials, holding positions as head of strategy, general manager of a manufacturing subsidiary, and vice president of business development.
Prior to that he spent five years with Deloitte & Touche, where he consulted on strategy to global industry leaders.
Educated at Swarthmore College, Columbia University, and the University of Paris, Chris earned a Ph.D. in Economics and Management Science. His books include The Sustainable Company: How to Create Lasting Value through Social and Environmental Performance, Island Press, October 2003. (Paperback July 2005), and Sustainable Value: How the World's Leading Companies are Doing Well by Doing Good, (forthcoming January 2008) from Stanford University Press and Greenleaf Publishing.
Gary Lawrence
Urban Strategies Leader, Arup
As Urban Strategies Leader for Arup, the global consulting and engineering firm, Gary Lawrence provides thought leadership for strategic urban development throughout the firm's 87 global offices. A locally-grown asset, Gary's roots are firmly planted in the Pacific Northwest. As Redmond City Manager, Gary turned the first shovel of dirt on the development of Microsoft's campus. Then, as Planning Director for the City of Seattle, he led development of "Toward a Sustainable Seattle," the first sustainability-focused municipal comprehensive plan in the world.
National and international recognition of his work followed and Gary has subsequently served as advisor to the Clinton Administration's Council on Sustainable Development, the UN's Habitat II, the US Agency for International Development, the Brazilian President's Office, the British Prime Minister's Office, the European Academy for the Urban Environment in Berlin, and the Organization for Economic and Community Development (OECD) (Paris) on matters of sustainable development and environmental policy.
Gary's speeches and publications have formed the basis for the development of much of the current thinking on sustainable development and he is acknowledged by Wally N'Dow, the then UN Secretary General of Habitat, as having authored "the single most important contribution to the entire habitat process."
Despite his international recognition, no one has ever been able to lure Gary away from the Pacific Northwest. He now leads Arup's Urban Strategies consulting practice out of the Seattle office, driving Arup's vision to create communities of the present and future that address human need and environmental limitations. Gary is also actively involved in the local and national chapters of the Urban Land Institute, the American Planning Association, and the US Smart Growth Leadership Council. In Bellingham, Gary serves as Adjunct Professor at Huxley College of Environmental Studies at Western Washington University.
With its origins as consulting engineers, Arup is a global leader delivering innovative, practical design solutions to challenges in the built environment. Founded in 1946, Arup today is at work in more than 87 offices and 38 countries around the world. Its 9,500 engineers, designers, planners, and scientists are committed to their founder's vision of shaping a better world for the citizens of today and tomorrow.
L. Hunter Lovins, Esq.
President & Founder, Natural Capitalism Solutions
Hunter S. Lovins is the president and founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions and co-creator of the Natural Capitalism concept. In 1982 she co-founded Rocky Mountain Institute and led that organization as its CEO for Strategy until 2002. Under her leadership, RMI grew into an internationally recognized research center, widely celebrated for its innovative thinking in energy and resource issues. By the time Hunter left, the institute had grown to a staff of 50 people and a $7 million annual budget, half of it earned through programmatic enterprise. In 2001, Hunter was named one of four people from North America to serve as a delegate to the United Nations Prep Conference for Europe and North America for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. She served as a Commissioner in the State of the World Forum's Commission on Globalization, cochaired by Mikhail Gorbachev, and Jane Goodall. Lovins has co-authored nine books and dozens of papers, and was featured in the awardwinning film, Lovins On the Soft Path. Her latest book, Natural Capitalism, co-authored with Amory Lovins and business author Paul Hawken, was released in September 1999. It has been translated into a dozen languages and was the subject of a Harvard Business Review summary. Recent articles by Hunter have appeared in World Link, World Business Academy Review, American Prospect and Los Angeles Times. Trained as a lawyer (JD, Loyola University School of Law, Los Angeles), Lovins has managed international nonprofits, created several corporations, and is in great demand as a speaker and consultant. Her areas of interest and expertise include Natural Capitalism, globalization, economic development, governance, land management, energy, water, green realestate development and community economic development. She has taught at dozens of universities, including an engagement as the Henry R. Luce Visiting Professor at Dartmouth College. She is currently Professor of Business at Presidio School of Management in the first accredited MBA program in Sustainable Management.
Sustainibility in Action
Lovins has consulted for governments and the private sector, briefing senior management at such organizations as the international finance corporation, Interface, Inc., Bank of America, Allstate, Calvert Social Investment Fund, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and numerous utility companies. Lovins' public-sector clients have included the U.S. Defense Civil Preparedness Agency of the pentagon, Environmental Protection Agency, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Solar Energy Research Institute, and the German Federal Environment Agency. She has addressed such audiences as the U.S. Congress, The World Economic Forum at Davos, the World's Fair Energy Symposia, the Industrial Designers Society's WorlDesign, the Epiphany service at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the State of the World Forum, Bioneers, the Global Economic Forum, the World Watch State of the World Conference and hundreds of conferences and college symposia. She has appeared on numerous television shows including "60 Minutes," "Good Morning America," Pat Robertson's "700 Club," Today, Bill Moyers' "NOW," and hundreds of news programs.
Awards
Lovins shared a 1982 Mitchell Prize for an essay on reallocating utility capital, a 1983 Right Livelihood Award (often called the "alternative Nobel Prize"), a 1993 Nissan Award for an article on Hypercars, and the 1999 Lindbergh Award for Environment and Technology. She has received several honorary doctorates. In 2000 she was named a "Hero for the Planet" by Time Magazine, and received the Loyola University award for Outstanding Community Service. In 2001 she received the Leadership in Business Award and shared the Shingo Prize for Manufacturing Research.
Corporate Service
Lovins has served on the Boards of one government, three private corporations and many public interest groups. She advises numerous companies and nonprofits, including GreenMountain.com. She was a founding director of RMI's second for-profit spin-off, E source, until its 1999 sale for $18 million to the Financial Times group.
Personal
In her spare time, Hunter is a volunteer firefighter and an EMT. She is also President of Nighthawk Horse Company and is active in training polocrosse horses and competing at polocrosse and rodeo.
Navin Nayak
Director, Global Warming Project, League of Conservation Voters
Navin Nayak directs the League of Conservation Voters' The Heat Is On project, which is focused on making global warming a priority in the 2008 presidential primaries. Educated as an ecologist at McGill University, Navin has since worked with several organizations including World Wildlife Fund Canada where he helped pass a federal bill to protect public health from the effects of pesticides. Previous to joining LCV, Navin worked as an Environmental Advocate with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), where he focused on energy issues. His work centered on building congressional support for clean energy solutions while trying to curtail federal subsidies for the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries. As an expert on energy issues, Navin has appeared on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, CNBC, NBC, Fox News, and in numerous print publications including the Washington Post, NY Times, and Chicago Tribune.
Michael F. Northrup
Program Director, Sustainable Development, Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Michael Northrop directs the Sustainable Development program at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in New York City, where he focuses on global warming, forest protection and marine conservation. Northrop moonlights as a Lecturer at Yale University where he teaches a graduate course on environmental campaigns at the Forest and Environmental Studies School. Previous positions have included a stint as Executive Director of Ashoka, an international development organization that seeks and supports "public service entrepreneurs" working around the globe; at an investment Bank, First Boston in New York; and as a teacher at Anatolia College in Greece and at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia. Currently he serves on the Advisory Boards of Climate Change Capital in London, and The Climate Group also based in London, and on the board of directors of Oceana, a global marine conservation organization; the FSC Global Fund which supports sustainable forest management, SmartPower, which aims to increase demand for clean energy; and Princeton in Asia, which grants postgraduate fellowships for Americans to work in Asia. Northrop holds a master's degree in public policy with a specialization in international affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, where he was an English major as an undergraduate.
Robin I. O'Malley
Director, Environmental Reporting Program
The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment
The State of the Nation's Ecosystems: Measuring the Lands, Waters, and Living Resources of the United States. Mr. O'Malley came to The Heinz Center in November 1997 from the Department of the Interior, where he led U.S. Government efforts to establish a biodiversity information network throughout the Americas. From 1993 to 1996, he was Chief of Staff for the National Biological Survey, where he was responsible for numerous program development, budgeting, implementation, and outreach activities. Mr. O'Malley has also served as a Special Assistant to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt; Deputy Science Advisor within the Interior Department; Associate Director for Natural Resources at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ); and senior environmental advisor to Governor Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey; he has also held a variety of environmental positions within New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection involving financing of environmental infrastructure, hazardous site remediation, and solid waste management. He holds a master's degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York.
J. Morgan Pitts
Research Director, Presidential Climate Action Project
Morgan Pitts is Research Director for the Presidential Climate Action Project at the University of Colorado - Denver, and has been involved with the project since November of 2006. He is a recent graduate of Oberlin College, where he majored in Environmental Studies and minored in Politics.
At Oberlin, Morgan served on the Environmental Sustainability Strategic Planning Committee, which developed concrete action items for the college to improve its environmental performance. He also was one of the founders and chairs of the Environmental Policy Implementation Group (EPIG), an organization started in 2004 which worked with college staff, faculty and administration to implement Oberlin’s comprehensive environmental policy, formally adopted by the board of trustees in 2004.
During his tenure as co-chair, Morgan completed research projects on building performance and retrofits and worked with college administrators, faculty and the Board of Trustees to adopt LEED Silver as a baseline for new campus construction and major renovations.
In 2006, EPIG focused on issues of energy and climate, initiating a project called “The Light Bulb Brigade” which had teams of student volunteers go door to door in college housing exchanging incandescent light bulbs for CFLs, distributing information and engaging students in discussions about climate change and environmental issues. Concurrently, EPIG worked with now former President Nancy S. Dye to sign the American Colleges and Universities Climate Change Commitment, making Oberlin the first of its peer institutions to do so.
In April of 2007, Morgan became one of the founding partners of the Lotus Live Partnership – a national alliance of students at institutions of higher education dedicated to creating a sustainable future. He spoke at the organization’s first annual conference held at Stanford University on principles of ecological design and their application on college and university campuses.
Morgan received the Joyce Gorn Memorial Prize in Environmental Studies for his work engaging the Oberlin community around issues of sustainability and mentorship of younger environmental studies students. In his home state of Maryland, he has been recognized by the Baltimore Orioles and Deer Park Water for his environmental outreach work.
Laurette Reiff
Project Coordinator/Presidential Climate Action Project
Laurette Reiff is the Project Coordinator for the Presidential Climate Action Project.
Jeffrey Rickert
Director, Helios Strategies/SMI Incorporated
Jeff Rickert is the director of Helios Strategies. Helios Strategies is a new business unit of SMI Incorporated created to provide a range of services to clients and financial institutions with the goal of driving investment into the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors, helping to shape the policy landscape to make new energy firms viable and prosperous. The Helios tem will develop a current view of the policy landscape, helping institutions to make strategic decisions based on likely outcomes. It will also aid clients in engaging public policy to create the necessary supports to be competitive in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
Mr. Rickert comes to SMI from the Apollo Alliance, a clean energy coalition of more than 300 organizations that includes business, labor, environmental, and community-based groups dedicated to pushing for an investment agenda to achieve energy independence through clean energy and good jobs. Jeff Rickert served as the Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff for the Apollo Alliance. In that role, Rickert served as chief of operations, crafting the overall strategy for the organization with the President and Board of Directors, developing public policy concepts for the federal, state, and local levels, and working extensively with a wide-range of coalition members. Rickert also coordinated development, media and marketing, and online strategies working with both internal teams and outside experts.
Rickert has developed expertise in all aspects of energy policy, including renewable energy development, oil savings, carbon reduction, cap-and-trade, and energy efficiency policy and implementation. He has a background in industry research, having done extensive study of manufacturing, hospitality, health care, media, and technology. Rickert is regularly called upon for advice by federal policymakers, national organizations, business leaders, and labor unions. He has provided technical assistance to leaders and policymakers in more than 20 states.
Matt Ries
Managing Director of Technical & Educational Services, Water Environment Federation
Matt Ries is the Managing Director of Technical and Educational Services at the Water Environment Federation. In this capacity, he oversees the group that develops the technical program for WEFTEC, the largest annual water quality technical exhibition and conference in the world, and WEF's specialty conferences, workshops, and webcasts. He also manages WEF's training and educational programs designed for water quality professionals.
Before joining WEF, Matt spent over 10 years in consulting working on large-scale infrastructure planning, design, and construction projects in the water and wastewater sector. During this time, Matt worked on the first two wastewater treatment plant projects to register for LEED certification.
Matt has a BS in Civil Engineering from Valparaiso University and a MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. His undergraduate and graduate research focused on the application of appropriate water and wastewater technologies for use in rural areas and developing nations. He is a licensed professional engineer in Virginia and Maryland.
Randall E. Solomon
Founder & Executive Director, New Jersey Sustainable State Institute
Randall E. Solomon is the founder and executive director of the New Jersey Sustainable State Institute. Mr. Solomon's policy experience includes positions as a policy advisor on sustainable development for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, director of the States Campaign for the Resource Renewal Institute in San Francisco, and policy director for the non-profit New Jersey Future. He has participated on advisory boards for federal and state government, civic organizations, and has advised major corporations. In other positions he was a field researcher in ecology, a National Park Ranger, and served in the first class of AmeriCorps national service volunteers. He has a BS in Biology from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and an MS in Public Policy from the Bloustein School at Rutgers University. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in public policy at the Bloustein School, focusing on the social and institutional factors that govern the success of statewide and community sustainability efforts. He writes and speaks frequently on sustainable development, land use policy, and using indicators in public decision making.
Richard W. Sumpter
Planning Coordinator, USEPA Region 7
Richard Sumpter has worked for over 35 years in the public sector practicing management, policy analysis and strategic planning. He is a Certified Basic Facilitator in Total Quality Management and has extensive experience with the boards and staff of public and private not-for-profits. Sumpter has been with the USEPA since 1990 and, prior to that, was with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Since 1980, Sumpter has served as adjunct instructor at Park University, Baker University, St. Mary University and Avila University. He has facilitated more than 190 courses in Accelerated Adult Degree programs at Undergraduate and Graduate levels. Subjects in Business include: Strategic Planning (with a specially developed component on sustainability and the “triple bottom line”), Organizational Behavior, Legal Environment of Business, and Business Ethics. Developed and taught over 20 courses in Human Ecology based on principles of sustainability.
Dick was ordained a Catholic priest after attending Theological training at the St. Thomas Seminary in Denver, CO. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Park University and a Masters degree in Public Administration from Harvard.
Betsy Taylor
Chair, 1Sky Campaign
Betsy Taylor is the Chair of the 1 Sky Campaign, a new effort to help hundreds of organizations and leaders converge around a simple, bold set of proposals for federal action on climate change. She has a consulting practice providing strategic counsel to several philanthropists, foundations and non-profit sustainability groups. Her clients and projects are primarily focused in three primary areas:
- Strengthening the American progressive sector;
- Building greater capacity among American institutions and leaders working to address climate change; and
- Promoting an exploration of values, spirit and human consciousness as an avenue for promoting a more peaceful, just and sustainable society.
From 1998 until early 2006 Betsy served as founder and President of the Center for a New American Dream. The Center helps Americans live and consume responsibly for a better world. Prior to founding the Center, Ms. Taylor spent twenty years as a leader in the philanthropic and non-profit sector. She helped found the Environmental Grantmakers Association and served as its Vice-President. In her role as executive director of the Stern Fund, Ottinger Foundation and later the Merck Family Fund, Betsy played a leadership role in supporting successful campaigns to promote energy conservation, campaign finance reform, and economic justice. Earlier in her career she served as lobbyist, PAC deputy director and international representative for the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign in the early to mid-80s. More recently, Betsy helped launch the Iraq Peace Fund – a coordinated philanthropic response to the threatened invasion of Iraq that was the primary funding vehicle for pre and post-war advocacy for peaceful conflict resolution. In early 2003, she helped convene forty progressive leaders who together launched the National Voice – a short-term effort to maximize progressive non-partisan voter registration and participation in the 2004 elections. She is the author of three books, appears frequently in the national media, and is on the board of the Center for a New American Dream, CERES, Town Creek Foundation, Ottinger Foundation and the Garrison Institute. She has an M.P.A. from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a BA in psychology from Duke University. She is a member of Adelphi Friends Meeting and is married with two children in Takoma Park, Maryland.
Heidi VanGenderen
Senior Policy Advisor, Governor's Office of Policy and Initiatives, State of Colorado
Heidi serves as Senior Advisor on Climate Change and Energy in the Office of Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, Jr. Appointed to this position in May 2007, Heidi helps coordinate policy, programmatic and executive action addressing climate change and the Governor’s commitment to bring forward a New Energy Economy for the state. These efforts include effective coordination with communities throughout the state, as well as on a regional, national and international level. The Governor will issue a preliminary Climate Action Plan in the fourth quarter of 2007. That plan will have been informed, in part, by a series of stakeholder roundtables held in early fall 2007.
Prior to her current service, Heidi was Senior Associate to the Wirth Chair in Environmental and Community Development Policy at the University of Colorado where she organized, wrote and spoke about issues relating to sustainable development. The Chair’s mission is to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of public policy as it relates to sustainability.
As primary staff to the Energy Program of the Chair, Heidi focused on energy and climate policy during much of her tenure there. She also served as Deputy Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project, an effort to present a bold and decisive agenda on climate change and the related issues of energy and national security to the country’s next President.
She has an over twenty year work history on natural resource issues and in politics with work experience ranging from service to the United Nations Environment Programme to serving as Congressional staff. She is a graduate of Carleton College and is a third-generation Colorado native who has also enjoyed living in Washington, D.C., Boston and Chicago.
Christopher Walker
U.S. Director, The Climate Group
Mr. Walker is currently the US Director of The Climate Group, a coalition of corporations and sub-national governments committed to leadership on Climate Change, serving as a US director to operationalize the Climate Group in the US. Established the East Coast office in New York as well as leading US strategy and development. Concentrating on building US membership, convening dialogue leading to the low carbon economy as well as recruiting and implementing the Insurance and Financial Sector working groups.
Previously, Mr. Walker served as the head of Swiss Re's Sustainability Business Development, the unit charged with developing commercial applications to Swiss Re Sustainability commitments and in particular business opportunities in sustainability, ecosystem markets, emissions reductions and renewables. The unit examines business opportunities across a wide spectrum of financial service products including insurance, structured finance, third-party asset management and investments as well as the identification of risks to Swiss Re’s (re)insurance and investment activities. He also serves as a North American Sustainability Officer and government affairs liaison on climate change/ GHG emissions issues.
Initiatives:
- Oversaw the establishment an emissions trading capacity within Swiss Re
- Developed risk finance/transfer solutions to facilitate the development of renewable energy projects and the use of market mechanisms to reduce environmental/GHG impacts.
- Led the development of a European Clean Energy fund to finance energy efficiency and renewable projects throughout Europe.
- Conceived and developed ecosystem market pioneering “Footprint Neutral” program with UN Development Programme to assist corporate clients with complimentary to regulation carbon and “environmental footprint” commitments, project and corporate offset standards and credibility
- Led identification of the potential climate change exposure to Directors and Officers liability policies; achieved institutional acceptance for including issue in renewal/new business evaluation
- Published, lectures and frequently quoted on GHG/climate change risks and market mechanisms
While based at Swiss Re's Zurich headquarters, Mr. Walker created and advanced from concept to initiation the company's Greenhouse Gas Risk Solutions unit, specializing in Greenhouse Gas risk mitigation and opportunity innovation. In 2000, he created and led Swiss Re Group's worldwide GHG emissions market feasibility study determining the market facilitation role for Swiss Re.
An attorney, Mr. Walker, was appointed to the California Climate Change Advisory Commission, and is a member of the Presidential Climate Action Project at the Univ. of Colorado, on the board of advisors for The Conference Board’s Center for Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability Global Panel of Advisors, Newsweek’s Global Environment Leadership Conference, Aura Renewables, New Energy Finance publication, the Panama Canal Watershed Business Plan project at Yale University and the Climate Change Futures Study with Harvard University/ UNDP.
He received his BA in Government from St. John's University, attended the Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems at Georgetown and is also a graduate of the St. John's School of Law. Prior to joining Swiss Re in 1996, he practiced law in New York and New Jersey.
Carol Werner
Executive Director, Environmental & Energy Study Institute
Carol Werner serves as executive director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Ms. Werner came to EESI in late 1987 and was the director of EESI's Energy & Climate Change Program through January 1998. Ms. Werner has more than 20 years of public policy experience on energy and environmental issues.
Carol serves on the steering committees of the Sustainable Energy Coalition, the Surface Transportation Policy Project, the U.S. Climate Action Network; and the Environmental Advisory Committee of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy. She also currently serves on the Department of Energy's (DOE) State Energy Advisory Board, the board of the New Uses Council, the World Council of Churches Task Force on Climate Change, the National Center for Appropriate Technology, the editorial board of Biocycle, and is one of the stakeholders in the DOE/USDA Bioenergy Initiative. Carol was previously a member of DOE's Federal Advisory Committee on the Commercialization of Renewable Energy Technologies.
Before joining EESI in late 1987, Ms. Werner developed an energy efficiency/oil security project for Environmental Action. From 1985-1987, she served as the legislative director of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition.
Michaela Wittmann
Senior Vice President, National Director -- Sustainable Design, HDR Architecture, Inc.
As the founder and director of HDR Sustainable Design Solutions, Ms. Wittmann has been a leader in the sustainability and green building industry for more than twelve years. A strong proponent of matching sustainable strategies to the goals and characteristics of each project, she has worked closely with a multitude of clients to balance environmental, economic, and social equity goals. Her aptitude for leadership, innovation, and integration have led clients in all industry sectors to the successful completion of projects that have benefits such as reduced environmental impact, increased productivity, improved quality and reduced operations and maintenance expenditures.
Ms. Wittmann has worked on over 20 LEED projects, written sustainable guidelines for government agencies and organizations, trained over 3000 people in various aspects of sustainability, and worked on multi-million dollar infrastructure projects. Her clients have ranged from Federal agencies such as the General Services Administration, the Navy, and the Department of Defense, to state agencies such as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Oregon Department of Transportation, and include public and private clients such as Gilbane Construction Company, Metro Health Hospital, Sandia National Laboratories, and WestWorld Management, Inc.
Michelle Wyman
Executive Director, ICLEI -- Local Governments for Sustainability
Michelle Wyman currently serves as Executive Director for the ICLEI US Office. Prior to this position, she was the director of the Natural Resources Department for the City of Fort Collins (population 123,000), Colorado. Wyman previously worked in Washington, DC, for the law firm of Reed Smith LLP establishing a practice for public sector clients on sustainable development and environmental resource management. Her areas of expertise include sustainable development, environmental management systems and domestic and international public management. Wyman has been a consultant to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the International City/County Manager’s Association (ICMA). Wyman holds a master’s degree in public administration from New York University and an International Diploma in urban ecology and sustainable development from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Anita M. Zurbrugg
Assistant Director, Center for Agriculture in the Environment
American Farmland Trust
Anita Zurbrugg is Assistant Director of the American Farmland Trust Center for Agriculture in the Environment in DeKalb, Illinois where she provides legal and policy research in agricultural land use and conservation. American Farmland Trust is a national not-for-profit agriculture public policy organization headquartered in Washington, D.C and founded in 1980 to protect America’s productive farmland and encourage healthy farming practices. AFT’s research center, affiliated with Northern Illinois University, was founded in 1991 to oversee AFT's public policy research and sustainable agriculture program.
Prior to joining AFT in 2001, Ms. Zurbrugg, a licensed attorney, practiced agricultural and estate planning law in Illinois. Born and raised on a large family grain farm in DeKalb county, Illinois where she returned to farm with her late husband and family for several years, her background also includes high school vocational agriculture teacher, county horticulture advisor with the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service and former owner/operator of a landscape and horticulture consulting business. Zurbrugg’s J.D., and M.A. in public policy are from Northern Illinois University and her B.S. in agricultural education and landscape horticulture is from The Ohio State University.