President and Founder, Green For All

Van Jones is the founder and president of Green For All where he is working to combine solutions to America’s two biggest problems: social inequality and environmental destruction by creating. Van is also a founder of a new national coalition that is promoting the idea of a national “Clean Energy Jobs Corps” as well as the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. He is the recipient of several awards including the 1998 Reebok International Human Rights Award, the international Ashoka Fellowship, selection as a World Economic Forum “Young Global Leader," and the Rockefeller Foundation “Next Generation Leadership" Fellowship.

Principal
Behnisch Architekten

Since founding the office of Behnisch Architekten Büro Innenstadt in 1989, Stefan Behnisch has directed the design of dynamic, award-winning buildings that promote sustainability within the built environment.
With a design portfolio that includes public buildings, sports facilities, offices, schools, and museums, Behnisch oversees a wide range of global projects at all scales striving to design inclusive buildings that provide maximum benefit to the community as a whole.

Behnisch recently served as the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Architecture. He has been awarded numerous design honors, and was recently designated an “Environmental Champion” by EnvironDesign Journal and Interiors & Sources.

President
Majora Carter Group, LLC

"Green-Collar Jobs" are attracting press and pundits, but few have actually marshaled the resources to get unemployed Americans trained and placed on pathways out of poverty in this growing economic sector. Majora Carter has. Born, raised, and continuing to live in the South Bronx, her work takes her around the world to improve the quality of life in environmentally challenged communities. She founded Sustainable South Bronx in 2001 and implemented the highly successful Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) program— a pioneering green-collar job training and placement system -- seeding communities with a skilled workforce that has both a personal & economic stake in their urban environment. She is currently president of the green-collar economic consulting firm the Majora Carter Group, LLC.

She is a MacArthur "Genius" Fellow who started 2007 as one of Newsweek's "25 To Watch", ended the year as one of Essence Magazine's "25 most Influential African Americans". She has been named one of the "50 most influential women in NYC" by the NY Post for the past two years, and "NYC's most influential environmentalist" by the BBC World Service. Majora is currently recording a special national public radio series called "The Promised Land" for 2009 release.

President
National Trust for Historic Preservation

When Richard Moe became the seventh president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, he brought to the position a lifelong interest in history and a career-long commitment to public service. Since 1993, Moe has led the organization in its mission to save the nation’s diverse historic places and create more livable communities for all Americans. Under his direction, the National Trust has greatly strengthened its financial base, reaffirmed its commitment to expanding and diversifying the organized preservation movement, become an outspoken and effective advocate of controlling sprawl and encouraging smart growth, and launched innovative initiatives to demonstrate preservation’s effectiveness as a tool for community revitalization and for sustainable development.

Director
Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering,
Yale University

Known as “The Father of Green Chemistry,” having coined the term in 1991, Paul Anastas has worked to develop the field over the past 17 years. He joined the Yale faculty in 2007, where he serves as Director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering, which advances the sciences, education and use of sustainable technologies. Anastas focuses his research on the design of safer chemicals, bio-based polymers, and new methodologies of chemical synthesis that are more efficient and less hazardous to the environment. He has published nine books and numerous papers on the subject of science and technology for sustainability.

Founder and Managing Director
Nth Power, LLC

Nancy Floyd is Founder and Managing Director of Nth Power, the most experienced venture capital firm funding startup companies in the growing sector of energy technology. Nth Power is widely known as the driving force behind many of the market leaders in renewable energy, energy efficiency, advanced materials and clean transportation.

Ms. Floyd has led Nth Power’s investments in Silicon Energy (Nasdaq: ITRI), Northern Power (Nasdaq: DESC), Smartsynch, Serveron, SpectraSensors and Propel Biofuels. She has been an advisor to the National Renewable Energy Lab, was a board member of Sustainable Asset Management in Zurich, Switzerland and is an active member of E2. She also helped organize the Northwest Business Leaders for Clean Energy campaign and was appointed by Governor Ted Kulongoski to serve on the Oregon Economic and Community Development Commission.

Environmentalist and Author

Bill McKibben is an American environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming, alternative energy, and the risks associated with human genetic engineering. He has written several books and is a frequent contributor to various magazines including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Mother Jones, and The National Geographic. In 2007, he founded Step It Up, which organized hundreds of rallies to demand that Congress enact curbs on carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Most recently he founded 350.org, an international campaign to unite the world around the number 350, the safe upper limit for atmospheric CO2 which we have currently exceeded.

Director
The National Center for Environmental Health, CDC

Howard Frumkin works to maintain and improve the health of the American people by promoting a healthy environment and by preventing premature death, avoidable illness, and disability caused by toxic substances and other environmental hazards. Before joining the CDC, Frumkin was professor and chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, and professor of medicine at Emory Medical School. There he founded and directed the Environmental and Occupational Medicine Consultation Clinic. In 2004 he was named the Environmental Professional of the Year by the Georgia Environmental Council. He is the author or co-author of over 100 scientific journal articles and chapters, and has written numerous books.

Director
Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI)

Leith has worked with universities for the last 10 years to achieve organizational change in the pursuit of environmental sustainability. In March of 2000 she established the HGCI, becoming the Director of this emerging organization. She also co-instructs the Harvard Extension School course, Sustainability - The Challenge of Changing Our Institutions. She is the recipient of several awards including the Young Australian of the Year, NSW Environment Category, for her work in establishing the Environmental Management Program at the University of New South Wales, Australia; a Churchill Fellowship to research best practice in university environmental management; and most outstanding paper for her contribution to the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Russell Unger, Executive Director, USGBC New York

Dan Geiger, Executive Director, USGBC Northern California

Chris Ladner, President, ecoIntegration and Chair, Past-Chair USGBC Arkansas

Martha Jane Murray, Policy Associate, Clinton Climate Initiative and Founding Chair USGBC Arkansas

Convener

Jerome Ringo, President, Apollo Alliance