WiserEarth Governance

Inquiry: The primary inquiry of my life (though not always with these words) is how do we make the system changes needed so that human and organizational creativity naturally lead toward sustainable and restorative practices? My thoughts on this have changed substantially over the years - and it's still a quest.

Work: I am research director at BuildingGreen, publisher of Environmental Building News (EBN), the GreenSpec Directory of green building products, and the online resource BuildingGreen Suite. I provide technical and research support, write the occasional EBN article, update criteria for GreenSpec’s product screening process, and collaborate on a variety of consulting projects - and I totally love what I do.

Path: As a child I had a direct and intensely personal connection to the natural world. This morphed into a stewardship commitment while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail after high school. Studying environmental science at Brown led to the realization that demand for resources drove environmental degradation – and that supply/demand economics had more power than science in determining policy and market behavior and the resulting environmental impacts. So I went to work at an energy efficiency engineering consulting firm to focus on the demand side of the equation (learning engineering on the job).  During that time it became obvious to me that efficiency would be overshadowed by increased production unless the underlying dynamic was changed so that industry was environmentally benign or even restorative. This led me to an internship at Rocky Mountain Institute, and then to MIT for a dual MS in technology policy and materials engineering.  After MIT I dabbled in consulting/contracting work  - for the Toxics Use Reduction Institute, and a few other places, before finding work at BuildingGreen in my hometown of Brattleboro, VT.

Process: The process has been one of traveling further into industrial/organizational/engineering realms to acquire the tools I felt I needed to do the work I feel called to – and a concurrent cycle of connection, loss, and reconnection to my spiritual and emotional center. I have now come full circle in many ways. I have rooted myself back in community, place (Brattleboro, VT), and spirit. Professionally and in my studies, I followed the line of power and impact only to discover (1) the extent to which it seems people at all ranks and positions can feel disempowered - or empowered, and (2) the extent to which today’s problems are system level issues which have to be addressed through people’s collective wise engagement in the face of radical uncertainty.

Interests: I tend to be obsessed with standards, certifications, infrastructure, taxation systems, and other behind-the-scenes rules that determine how we engage with the world,  and in my own little way, I get to play with some of these at work. I'm also frequently amazed by how often, despite my engineering training and focus on ACTION, I tend to return to the need for - and transformational potential of - quality dialogue (my father's CII world). I have to get outdoors a lot to stay sane (hiking, kayaking, skiing, etc., etc.), and love to create (pottery, sculpture, murals, gardens, etc., etc.), The scope of my interests is limited primarily by time, and by self-imposed activity limits that provide both balance and time for reflection in my life.