Sustainable Communities 2008: Featured Participants

For decades Stewart Brand has been deeply committed to the issues of sustainability, global consciousness and long-term thinking. He has advanced thinking about technologies and tools that could empower individuals to bring about profound change. As the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, Brand deeply influenced the "back-to-the-land" movement of the 1970's. A 1972 edition of the catalog sold 1.5 million copies and won a National Book Award in the United States. In founding CoEvolution Quarterly, Brand published full-length articles on topics in the natural sciences, arts and social sciences with the intent to spread knowledge to the educated layperson.
In 1985, Brand helped establish one of the first-ever thriving online communities, the Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link or WELL. He is a co-founder of The Long Now Foundation, which seeks to encourage "slower/better" thinking as a counterpoint to today's "faster/cheaper"; mind set.
Brand has long been fascinated by cities; how and why they are changing and the long-term implications for civilization. Recently, he's been exploring the idea of the emerging "City Planet," a world of megacities largely populated by the young; vibrant communities of squatters that are redefining environments, economies, and social norms.

Named by Time Magazine as a “hero of the planet,” Judy Corbett is an invaluable human resource in the field of sustainable development. With the Local Government Commission, the non-profit group she co-founded, Corbett has published more than 50 policy guidebooks for local government officials on topics including community water sustainability, hazardous waste reduction, recycling, energy conservation and alternative energy, sustainable economic development, and resource-efficient land use patterns. She served as co-developer of the highly acclaimed Village Homes, a model for sustainable development located in Davis, CA. Corbett has coauthored three books on resource efficient land use and building design, most recently Designing Sustainable Communities: Learning from Village Homes.

Peter Calthorpe is one of the most honored and influential professionals in urban planning and architecture, combining his experience in both disciplines to develop an environmental approach to community development and urban design. After studying architecture at Yale, Calthorpe joined the Farrallones Institute as Director of Design. Later, working as a project designer at the California Office of the State Architect, Calthorpe helped design the Bateson Building, a model energy efficient state office building.

Since forming Calthorpe Associates in 1983, his work has diversified to incorporate, in community and regional planning, the same principles of sustainability exhibited in his work as a designer of buildings. A founding member of the Congress for New Urbanism, he originated the concept of transit-oriented development has helped guide a generation of urban planners to think about the sustainability of their designs. His pioneering regional planning efforts around the world include Envision Utah, Envision Central Texas and the post-Katrina regional plan for Southern Louisiana. Peter Calthorpe was named one of 25 "innovators on the cutting edge" by Newsweek Magazine for his work redefining the models of urban and suburban growth in America.

In addition to a robust career as a practitioner, Calthorpe has lectured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and South America, and has taught at U.C. Berkeley, the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Books by Calthorpe include the seminal Sustainable Communities with Sim Van der Ryn, The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream, published in 1993, and The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl co-authored by Bill Fulton, which explains how regional-scale planning and design can integrate urban revitalization and suburban renewal into a coherent vision of metropolitan growth.

Jacky Grimshaw works with the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago where she directs the center's transportation and air quality program and is responsible for the center's research efforts, computer modeling programs, and community development activities. She has extensive experience developing consensus in support of less-polluting transportation options and initiating programs that assist the revitalization of inner-city neighborhoods. Grimshaw previously served as the Deputy Director for Economic Development for the City of Chicago and worked for the Chicago Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. She is a member of the President's Council for Sustainable Development and the Advisory Board of the Surface Transportation Policy Project. Grimshaw holds a bachelor's degree from Marquette University and attended the Public Policy Institute at Governors State University.

As the California Advocacy Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Ann Notthoff represents NRDC on issues of statewide environmental concern. Most recently, she joined State Senator Darrell Steinberg and Tom Adams of the California League of Conservation Voters in the effort to advance Senate Bill 375, which ties the delivery of transportation dollars in California to land-use development. Since 1978 her work has centered around coastal management and ocean protection, including coastal zone management, offshore oil and gas, marine ecosystem protection, coastal water quality and ocean governance.

In the 1980's she spearheaded a successful effort to end new oil and gas drilling off of California's coast, a large step in the advancement of environmental policy, and has successfully lobbied for legislation requiring automakers to reduce global warming pollution.

Peter Schwartz is cofounder and chairman of Global Business Network. An internationally renowned futurist and business strategist, Peter specializes in scenario planning, working with corporations, governments, and institutions to create alternative perspectives of the future and develop robust strategies for a changing and uncertain world. He has used his skills in large-scale scenario planning to frame and quantify the issue of sustainability at a global scale.

Peter is also a venture partner of San Francisco-based Alta Partners, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the board of trustees of the Santa Fe Institute, the Long Now Foundation, and the World Affairs Council. His book, The Art of the Long View, is one of the significant texts in scenario planning and is used in business schools worldwide.

Sim Van der Ryn has been at the forefront of integrating ecological principles into the built environment for more than 40 years, creating solutions driven by nature's own intelligence. Described by the New York Times as the "intrepid pioneer of the eco-frontier," Van der Ryn has authored several influential books, and won numerous honors and awards for his leadership and innovation in architecture & planning. Sustainable Communities, which he wrote with Peter Calthorpe, helped a generation of architects, planners and designers come to terms with the environmental impact of modern human settlement.

Van der Ryn was an early innovator, pioneering systems now taken for granted, from solar roof panels to rainwater catchment systems. He founded the Farallones Institute, which served for several decades as a pioneering center for teaching and research in appropriate technology and sustainable design. As California's State Architect, he introduced energy efficient design and renewable energy to California, sparking a national trend. His thirty years as a theoretician and hands-on Professor of Ecological Design at UC-Berkeley are widely recognized as one of the driving forces behind the green architecture and sustainable design movements.

Shelley Poticha is the president and CEO of Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit-Oriented Development. As an influential rail advocate, Poiticha has co- authored The New Transit Town: Best Practices in Transit-Oriented Development, Hidden in Plain Sight: Capturing the Demand for Housing Near Transit, and The Next American Metropolis with Peter Calthorpe. Prior to Reconnecting America, she worked with CNU as the Executive Director, launching a number of key initiatives including environmental preservation and alternative transportation policies.