Cameron Sinclair
on When Sustainability is a Matter of Survival
Cameron Sinclair is the co-founder and 'eternal optimist' at Architecture for Humanity, a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings professional design services to communities in need. Over the past ten years the organization has worked in twenty six countries on projects ranging from school, health clinics, affordable housing and long term sustainable reconstruction. AFH’s work has included building clinics in Sub-Saharan Africa, community centers in South East Asia and the rebuilding effort after Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 South Asia Tsunami, and currently working in earthquake decimated Haiti.
Sinclair and Architecture for Humanity co-founder Kate Stohr have compiled a compendium on socially conscious design titled "Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises". He serves on advisory boards of the Acumen Fund, Detroit Collaborative Design Center and the Institute for State Effectiveness.
Sinclair is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2006 TED prize and the 2005 RISD/Target Emerging Designer of the Year. Recently he was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Along with co-founder Kate Stohr, was awarded the Wired Magazine 2006 Rave Award for Architecture for their work in responding to housing needs following Hurricane Katrina. In 2008 they were recipients of the National Design Award for demonstrating "that good design can indeed change the world."
As a result of the TED Prize he and Stohr launched the Open Architecture Network, the worlds’ first open source community dedicated to improving living conditions through innovative and sustainable design. In 2009 the network will host a global challenge to redesign educational facilities around the world.
In 2004,
Fortune Magazine named Cameron Sinclair was named as one of the
Aspen Seven, seven people changing the world for the better. In 2008 he was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and awarded the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for his work in elevating design in areas of need. That same year he was profiled alongside Cameron Diaz in the show ICONOCLASTS on the Sundance Channel and was named as one of CNNs’ Principal Voices.
Sinclair is a contributor to the
Huffington Post and blogs at
cameronsinclair.com.
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Mitchell Joachim
on Future Carborexic Cities
Mitchell Joachim is a leader in ecological design and urbanism. He is a Co-Founder at Terreform ONE and Terrefuge. He earned: Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MAUD Harvard University, M.Arch. Columbia University, BPS SUNY at Buffalo with Honors.
Dr. Joachim is faculty at Columbia University and Parsons. Formerly an architect at Gehry Partners, and Pei Cobb Freed. He has been awarded the Moshe Safdie Research Fellowship, and the Martin Family Society Fellow for Sustainability at MIT. He won the History Channel and Infiniti Excellence Award for the City of the Future, and Time Magazine Best Invention of the Year 2007, Compacted Car w/ MIT Smart Cities.
His project, Fab Tree Hab, has been exhibited at MoMA and widely published. He was chosen by Wired magazine for "The 2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To". Rolling Stone magazine honored Mitchell as an agent of change in "The 100 People Who Are Changing America". He was selected to be the Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design at the Unversity of Toronto for Spring 2010. Mitchell has also won the 2010 TED Fellowship.
Joachim blogs at http://archinode.blogspot.com.
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Steve Clark
on Twelve Terrific Tools to Help Us Save the Planet and Set Us Free
Steve Clark is the Walking and Bicycling Program Manager for Transit for Livable Communities, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, overseeing a 4 year, $22.5 million pilot program to improve conditions for walking and bicycling. He is the past president of the League of American Bicyclists, former bicycle coordinator for Boulder, Colorado and founder of the Minnesota Coalition of Bicyclists.
For many years he worked as an independent bicycle and pedestrian planning consultant while operating a 37-acre organic farm known as the BikeFarm. He has also manufactured utility bicycle trailers/garden carts, operated an alternative treatment facility for at risk youth and was the public information director for the Land Stewardship Project.
Known for his entertaining style, Clark has been a keynote speaker and workshop leader at many national, state and regional conferences.
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Brian Dunbar
on Can Cool Buildings Save a Hotter World?
Executive Director of the Institute for the Built Environment (IBE), professor of Construction Management at Colorado State University and c0-author of
147 Ways to Teach Sustainability. Professor Dunbar holds two degrees in architecture from the University of Michigan and is a U.S. Green Building Council LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional. Brian created the graduate emphasis in sustainable building at Colorado State and directs and teaches university and professional courses on sustainable building, including annual courses in Costa Rica and on St. John, USVI. Brian’s teaching, research, and project work focuses on environmentally sustsainable design and construction materials, methods, and systems.
Through IBE, an interdisciplinary research institute that engages faculty, students and industry partners in healthy and sustainable building issues, Brian has guided project work and facilitated design charrettes for the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, American Institute of Architects, cities, numerous school districts, and the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office. Brian has helped to direct several LEED certified projects and, since 2004, has annually been selected as a LEED faculty member by the USGBC. Brian is co-author of “147 Tips on Teaching Sustainability” and his sustainable building teaching and research has been honored and recognized by the AIA, the USGBC-Colorado Chapter, the Colorado Governor, the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, communities, businesses and universities.
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Doug F. Zentz
on ASHRAE Standard 189.1: High Performance Green Buildings
Doug Zentz is Program Coordinator for the HVACR programs at Ferris State University. He has taught junior and senior level HVAC system design for commercial buildings, including secondary hydronic system design and commercial air side system design. Additionally, he has taught the senior capstone design class since his arrival on campus in the fall of 2003 where eight different student groups have been recognized by ASHRAE in the annual international student competition.
He has been a speaker at ASHRAE, ARI, MEAC, and Lily workshops around the country on HVAC system fundamentals, advanced HVAC concepts, GREEN Buildings and educational experiences. He is co-advisor to the student ASHRAE organization at Ferris State University and works closely with all students for summer internships and employment opportunities after graduation. Doug is Chair of the Energy Committee at Ferris State, which created the first “Michigan Energy Conference” at Ferris in the spring of 2008 and continue to chair this committee for future initiatives in energy related events, curriculum, and growth. He has served two years on the Distinguished Teacher Award Committee and has served on the committee to create certification for online teaching at Ferris. Doug represents Ferris within West Michigan ASHRAE as a board member and officer and has been appointed to Region 5 Student Activities Chair for ASHRAE. He also is co-advisor to the student chapter at Ferris State University (largest ASHRAE student chapter).
Doug earned a Masters Degree from Ferris State University in Career and Technical Education in 2007 and a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Purdue University in 1980.
Prior to teaching, Doug held several positions in the HVAC community in the Metro Detroit area for approximately 23 years, which include over 18 years as a commercial/industrial Trane salesman where his primary clients included Ford Motor Company, industrial contractors (example; Durr Industries), professional design firms (example; Ghafari Associates), construction managers (example; Barton Malow), and other firms within the HVAC industry. Doug has transitioned four different HVAC courses to web-based learning and continues to teach via web-based learning to students from Southern California to Massachusetts.
Paul Clinton
on Xeriscaping and Harvesting Rain Water
Paul Clinton, ASLA, is a Landscape Architect, with Dakota Land Surveying & Engineering, Inc., Sioux Falls, SD. As a Registered Landscape Architect, and wetland delineator Paul leads a unique staff that delineates, develops wetland mitigation plans, monitors and manages wetlands. Our most recent sustainable design project include the Enemy Swim Day School native landscape, cultural area and trail system that connect the community to the school. In the spring construction will start at the Lake Area Technical Institute sustainable parking design. This project includes permeable pavements, rain gardens, bio-swale and xeriscape areas. We recently completed a master plan for sustainable landscape and outdoor education area for the City of Sioux Falls Household Hazardous Waste Facility.
Paul holds a Bachelors Degree in Landscape Design from South Dakota State University and a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Michael Twedt
on Greening Existing Buildings and Performing Green Audits
Mike Twedt is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of South Dakota and has been performing energy assessments, system and equipment economic feasibility studies and analyzing energy and bio-energy systems since 1992. He is currently the Director for the SDSU Energy Analysis Lab and the Wind Application Center where he is involved with several research projects dealing with energy conversion, wind energy development, bio-energy conversion, and bio-processing. Mike’s core specialties include energy analysis, energy efficiency, energy modeling, sustainable design, mechanical systems and HVAC design, industrial systems optimization, green manufacturing, economic justification analysis, and cost reduction analysis.
Doug Raynie
on Concepts in Sustainability
Dr. Doug Raynie is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at SDSU and owner of an analytical consulting company, Blue Sky Analytical, LLC. Dr. Raynie’s research focuses on environmental analysis and developing chemical processes which are more sustainable, such as greener leather processing or lignin utilization. His research group was recognized with the Plain Resolve award at the inaugural Plain Green Conference in 2008. He has taught green chemistry, and developed green chemistry education materials, locally and nationally for ten years. Prior to coming to SDSU, Dr. Raynie developed new analytical technology in the Corporate Research Division of the Procter and Gamble Company. He holds a B.A. from Augustana College in biology and chemistry, an M.S. in chemistry from SDSU and Ph.D. in chemistry from Brigham Young University.
Mitchell Hescox
on Environmental Stewardship and the Developing Poor
The Rev. Mitchell Hescox joined The Evangelical Environmental Network as President/CEO on August 1, 2009 and publisher, Creation Care Magazine. Previously Mitch pastored Grace Church in Shrewsbury, PA for 18 years leading a dying congregation to a 10-fold growth. While living in Southern Pennsylvania Mitch guided the local pastors association comprised of 12 different Christian traditions to join efforts in caring for the least of God’s children, locally, nationally, and internationally. Mitch chaired various task forces, teams, and action groups organized for empowering vital and caring congregations throughout the Northeast. Mitch has a love for God, heart for the poor, and a call to serve God’s Kingdom through efforts to mobilize The Church to love as Jesus loves and make disciples. Mitch has traveled the world leading mission teams, evangelism training, and before becoming a pastor, Mitch was a successful international businessperson serving the energy industry, Director, Fuel Systems, Allis Mineral Systems. He earned a Masters of Divinity, Magma Cum Laude, from Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC and a Bachelor of Science in Geosciences from the University of Arizona, Tucson. Mitch is married to Clare with four grown children and one grandson.
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David Chicoine
President, South Dakota State University
David L. Chicoine, PhD became the 19th president of South Dakota State University in January 2007, the third alumnus to serve as president of the state’s Morrill Act land-grant university and its largest comprehensive university.
As a policy economist in state and local public finance and rural economics, Professor Chicoine has been the co-author or co-editor of four books and has published more 100 academic journal articles, book chapters and professional papers. He serves on the board of directors of Growth Partnership, Ltd., the public-private partnership developing the SDSU Innovation Campus research park and as an ex-officio member of the board of managers of South Dakota Innovation Partners, LLC, that provides pre-seed capital and business development services to launch new research-derived, technology-based start-up projects. He is an independent director on the Monsanto Company board.
Prior to his appointment as president, Chicoine served the University of Illinois for 30 years as a professor of agricultural economics, department head (1988-1995), dean of the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (1995-2001) and vice president for technology and economic development (2001-2007).
A native of Elk Point, S.D., Chicoine earned his bachelor of science degree in economics from SDSU in 1969 and is a previous recipient of the Department of Economics Distinguished Alumnus Award. He completed master’s degrees from the University of Delaware and from Western Illinois University and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.
Joyce Coppinger
on Community Service Project and Building with Bales
Through her consulting business, ReBuild Associates in Lincoln, Nebraska, Joyce Coppinger helps develop building projects using strawbale and natural building methods and materials. She teaches strawbale and natural building through workshops and hands-on training in the Great Plains region, and writes articles for local, regional and national newspapers and magazines. Joyce is managing editor and publisher of
The Last Straw, an international 40-page journal of strawbale and natural building. She is co-coordinator of the Lincoln Green Building Group.
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Anita Kealey
on Re-Purposeful Living and Wear-Ever Green Fashion
Anita Kealey is the Creative Director and founder for the
Institute of Design & Technology of South Dakota, an alternative educational experience in design & entrepreneurial careers in fashion design, interiors & staging. IDTSD’s Green Design workshops explore sustainability in textiles and eco-friendly practices and reuse in fashion. The IDTSD summer Project: Design Boot Camps offer creative exploration of careers in design. Anita is president of
The Design Studio, Inc., an award winning and innovative design in contract design. She has received recognition over the past twenty five years for her dedication to historic preservation, kitchen design and creative design solutions in healthcare, hospitality renovation and new construction projects. Her work has been seen in many publications such House Beautiful, Old House Interiors, Signature Kitchen & Bath, Qualified Remodeler. This past year, she and her award winning projects were on HG-TV as well as a featured spread in Midwest Living Magazine. She is also the designer behind the
Evenings by Design Couture label as widely seen on the “red carpet” entertainment, inaugural and special event evening wear. After two decades of her designs gracing the Miss America runway, her eco-friendly up-cycled, gowns created of sustainable and reclaimed materials made their debut at the 2010 Pageant and the Oscars.
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Nathan Schock
on Communicating Green
Nathan Schock sees his role as a digital curator of news, information - and especially - best practices for green communications. Daily, he wades through hundreds of news feeds, tweets and podcasts to find the best information and serve it up to the readers of his personal blog, Greenway Communique, Twitter and his reading list. That work led Greenopolis to name Nathan to their list of The Top 50 Green Folks on Twitter. Nathan has been published in PRSA Tactics magazine and his writing is featured on the blog of leading digital CSR shop 3BL.
In his role as the director of public relations for POET, Nathan oversees media relations, community relations, social media and a variety of other aspects of communications for the largest producer of biofuels in the world. Nathan is a frequent contributor to the company's two blogs, Rhapsody in Green and Project LIBERTY. Through Nathan's leadership, POET has become well-known as a socially-networked biofuels company with presences established onYouTube, Flickr, Twitter, FriendFeed and many more. Much of the content is aggregated on the company's news page.
Nathan is the chair of the Public Relations Committee for Industrial & Environmental branch of the Biotechnology Industry Organization and contributes to their blog, Biofuels & Climate Change. He is President of the South Dakota Communicators Network. He is on the board of LifeLight Communications and volunteers as their communications director. His work for LifeLight, which puts on the largest free music festival in the country, won praise from PRWeek.
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Brian Thompson
on J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines’ Journey Towards Ever-Greater Sustainability
Brian Thompson is a 25-year veteran of the California wine industry, who has worked in all areas of fine wine production. For the last eight years, Brian has been the plant manager for J. Lohr’s Paso Robles winery, overseeing production of the 95,000-square-foot winemaking facility. In this important role, Brian has helped to develop and implement J. Lohr’s comprehensive sustainability program, shepherding such projects as the winery’s leading-edge water conservation program, which has saved more than 900,000 gallons annually since 2004. He was also J. Lohr’s project manager for the design and building of a state-of-the-art, 3-acre, 756-kilowatt solar photovoltaic tracking system adjacent to the winery—the largest system of its kind in the wine industry. As a member of J. Lohr’s Sustainability Committee, Brian helps to oversee both the big picture of J. Lohr’s sustainable program, and the real-world nuts and bolts that shape quality in a world-class winery. These efforts contributed to J. Lohr becoming one of the first wineries in California to earn the important third-party Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing distinction from the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance. Brian is also a member of J. Lohr’s Water Conservation team, and a longtime member of the American Society of Enology and Viticulture.
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Jihong Cole-Dai
on Global Warming: What Can Old Ice from Antarctica Tell Us?
Jihong Cole-Dai is a professor of chemistry at South Dakota State University. His research in environmental chemistry and global change involves the measurement of chemical components in polar ice cores and the reconstruction of the history of the atmospheric environment using those measurments. Cole-Dai has led field teams to Antarctica and the Arctic several times over the last fifteen years to collect ice cores and his research lab at SDSU is participating in an on-going national research project to extract a 3,400 meter deep ice core in West Antarctica. This research is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Cole-Dai has taught graduate and undergraduate chemistry at SDSU since 2000 and has mentored several graduate students in pursuit of advanced degrees in chemistry. In 2005, Cole-Dai received the
Dr. Sherwood and Elizabeth Berg New Faculty Research Award at SDSU; and he was named the
Distinguished Researcher of 2009 by the SDSU College of Arts and Sciences.
Doug Berven
on The Future of Renewable Energy (Panel)
Doug Berven joined
POET in March 2003 as Director of Business Development. He held that position for over four years before accepting a new role as Director of Corporate Affairs. In this position, Berven is actively engaged in the development of new business ventures, licensing opportunities, and corporate relations for POET domestically and internationally.
Playing an integral role for the largest producer of ethanol in the world, Berven has taken the initiative to actively promote renewable fuels. He works on several committees to strengthen the future of ethanol and serves as a board member on several POET Biorefining plants.
Prior to joining POET, Berven held various roles in banking, real estate development and medical consulting. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Berven is a native of South Dakota where he currently resides with his wife and two children.
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Tim Olsen
on Urban Agriculture as a Tool for Community Change
Rev. Tim Olsen is currently operations director of Sioux Falls Seminary's Summit House leadership training center within the low-resourced Sioux Falls neighborhood of Pettigrew Heights. One of Summit House's core values is living out models of creation care. Models include urban agriculture, xeriscaping, rain barrels, composting, and the building of a straw bale shed in cooperation with Architecture for Humanity. Tim is a Southwest Minnesota farm boy who worked for twelve years as a County Extension Agent in Minnesota and Northern New York State. Following a seminary education Tim served churches in Iowa and Minnesota. He describes himself as an everyday environmentalist who has gardened and landscaped sustainably in three states. There is a worm bin in his basement and compost cooking in his backyard. Recently, Tim was in Washington D.C. at the invitation of the Evangelical Environmental Network, in collaboration with the National Wildlife Federation and National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, to encourage Congress to move forward on climate change legislation. Tim has been married to his wife Marty for nearly 35 years. Tim and Marty have three children and four grandchildren.
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DJ Mittan
on So, You Get to Wear the EPA Hat...
DJ is the Environmental and Safety Compliance Coordinator for a local manufacturing company. She has a Bachelor’s degree in pre law and a Master’s degree in Industrial Management with an occupational safety and health emphasis from SDSU. DJ has 15 years’ of experience in industrial and construction safety, and 7 years experience in environmental compliance functions. She teaches construction safety, disaster preparedness/response/recovery, as well as First Aid/CPR/AED in the community. She is also the chair of the AGC Building Chapter’s Environmental Task Force, a group that strives to educate members on environmental compliance issues.
Dusty Johnson
on The Future of Renewable Energy (Panel)
Dustin “Dusty” Johnson was elected to the Public Utilities Commission in November 2004, becoming the youngest utilities commissioner in the nation. Since joining the commission, he has played a role in developing renewable energy resources, expanding broadband and wireless phone capabilities, keeping utility rates low and protecting consumers. His fellow commissioners elected him to serve as the commission chairman, a position he also held in 2007.
Dusty serves in leadership positions for a number of local, regional, and national organizations, including as a director for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Prior to joining the PUC, Dusty served Gov. Mike Rounds as the senior policy advisor for economic development, energy, corrections and transportation issues.
Dusty and his wife Jacquelyn live with their sons Max and Benjamin in Mitchell.
Randall Arendt
on Protecting Open Space Networks through Conservation Design and Transforming Highway Commercial Strips into Mixed-Use Corridors
Randall Arendt is a landscape planner, site designer, author, lecturer, and an advocate of "conservation planning". He received his B.A. degree from Wesleyan University (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and his M. Phil. degree in Urban Design and Regional Planning from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was a St. Andrew's Scholar. He is Senior Conservation Advisor at the Natural Lands Trust in Media, Pennsylvania, and is the former Director of Planning and Research at the Center for Rural Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he also served as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning.
- In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute in London.
- In 2004 he was named an Honorary Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and in 2005 he received the American Institute of Architects' Award for Collaborative Achievement.
- In 2008 he was awarded an honorary degree in Landscape Planning and Design by the Conway School of Landscape Design, in Conway, Massachusetts.
Randall is the author of more than 20 publications, including R
ural by Design: Maintaining Small Town Character, listed among 39 volumes recommended by the American Planning Association for "the essential planning library." His books also include
Conservation Design for Subdivisions: A Practical Guide to Creating Open Space Networks, and
Dealing with Change in the Connecticut River Valley: A Design Manual for Conservation and Development (now in its fourth printing).
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Karl Schmidt
on Designing a Home Scale Food Forest
Karl J. Schmidt is founder of
Glacial Lakes Permaculture, an educational non-profit based in Estelline, South Dakota. He received his training in permaculture, a design system for ecological and sustainable living, in Australia from Bill Mollison, the co-founder of the permaculture concept. He has also done permaculture training in Brazil. Karl has a particular interest in cold climate food forest design, and during Plain Green 08 won the Grand Prize in the Plain Action category of the ‘Do You Dream in Green?’ design competition for his half-acre food forest design for the northern plains. Nights and weekends he is a practicing permaculturist and an SDSU Extension Master Gardener; in the recent past, Karl has collaborated with other local permaculturists in offering ‘town talks’ and weekend workshops. By day, Karl is director of international affairs at SDSU where, among other efforts, he oversees the university’s many exchange and study abroad programs. He is an experienced classroom teacher, having taught at the university-level for 20 years; he recently taught a course entitled ‘Global Environmental Issues’ at SDSU and is working on developing additional sustainability-related study abroad opportunities for students at the university. One such international project involves collaborating with the ICPPC-Ecocenter in Stryszów, Poland in developing student service-learning opportunities.
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