Open to the Public Event
Thursday October 12, 6pm, Aspen Meadows
2004 Arctic Transect Expedition Leader, educator, polar explorer, photographer, writer and lecturer, Steger has become a voice calling for understanding and the preservation of the Arctic. Steger has led the most significant feats in dogsled exploration such as the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole without re-supply (1986), the 1,600-mile south-north traverse of Greenland - the longest unsupported dogsled expedition in history (1988), the historic 3,471-mile International Trans-Antarctica Expedition - the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica (1989-90), the International Arctic Project - the first and only dogsled traverse of the Arctic Ocean from Russia to Ellesmere Island in Canada (1995).
Historic feats for which Steger has received numerous honors and recognitions among others include: Explorers Club Finne Ronne Memorial Award (1997), National Geographic Society's First Explorer-In-Residence (1996) and National Geographic Society's John Oliver La Gorce Medal for "accomplishments in geographic exploration, in the sciences, and for public service to advance international understanding" (1995). He joins Amelia Earhart, Robert Peary, Roald Amundsen and Jacques Cousteau in receiving this prestigious award. Steger has been invited twice to testify before Congress on polar and environmental issues. He founded the Global Center of Environmental Education at Hamline University in 1991 and the World School for Adventure Learning at the University of St. Thomas in 1993. Steger is the author of four books: Over the Top of the World, Crossing Antarctica, North to the Pole and Saving the Earth.
Because of its remoteness, the great changes in the Arctic regions go unseen in our media. In 2007, Will Steger, John Stetson, Elizabeth Andre and Abby Fenton will join four Inuit hunters on a 1400-mile, four-month-long dogsled expedition across the Canadian Arctic’s Baffin Island. The 2007 I.C.E. Expedition will reach some of the most remote Inuit villages of the world to document the Inuit’s experience with climate change, and transfer images, sounds to online participants around the world. The expedition along with the documentary film will help educate about the plight of the Inuit people and will put a human face on a problem that will soon consume all of us.
Confirmed Presenters (alphabetical)
Since taking office in 2000, Mayor Rocky Anderson has been an outspoken advocate for protecting the environment. As Mayor, he committed Salt Lake City to abide by the Kyoto Protocol, and implemented numerous programs to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Along with Robert Redford and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), Mayor Anderson hosted the Sundance Summit in July 2005, where 46 mayors from across the U.S. met to discuss and plan action on climate change. Mayor Anderson has been invited to present to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in New Delhi and Buenos Aires, and national conferences across the U.S. to speak on Salt Lake City's expansive greenhouse gas reduction programs.
The Salt Lake City Green Campaign, called E2 (Economics and Environment) originally had a goal of reducing the local government's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to 21 percent below the Kyoto Goal by 2012. By 2005, the city had hit 105 percent of its goal, seven years early. “All of the changes we have done have been administrative, and with the help of citizens." Those actions have put Salt Lake City in the international spot light, garnering the city national and international awards.
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Michael Armstrong manages efficiency programs for the City of Portland, Oregon Office of Sustainable Development. He works on issues related to climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energy, green building, and sustainable food systems. Michael coordinated the public process that led to Portland's Local Action Plan on Global Warming, and tracks the implementation of local emission-reduction efforts. Michael received an MPA from Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs and attended Deep Springs College. --------------------
Bill Becker leads "The National Leadership Summits for a Sustainable America", a project that is engaging leaders from government and civil society to create an action plan that will make the United States more sustainable in a time of climate change.
Working with the Johnson Foundation, Bill has organized four summits in 2006-2007, each involving 40 selected leaders from government, business, academia, nonprofit groups and the investment community. The first summit, in June 2006, produced 28 action items. Among them are the "Wingspread Principles on the U.S. Response to Global Warming" - a document in which prominent Americans are speaking with one voice on how the nation should be addressing climate change - and "100 Days of Climate Change", a plan for how the next President can mobilize the federal government in his or her first 100 days in office to address global warming.
Bill currently is senior advisor to the Global Energy Center for Community Sustainability and an adjunct faculty member at the Colorado Energy Research Institute at the Colorado School of Mines. He is on loan to both organizations from the U.S. Department of Energy, where he specialized in energy efficiency, renewable energy technologies and sustainable community development for 15 years.
While at the Department of Energy, Bill developed critical networks with other agencies that are key to Federal leadership on climate action. He collaborated with the EPA, the Department of Agriculture, and other agencies on a variety of clean energy and sustainability initiatives. He served as co-chair of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Committee of the Environmental Council of States, and as DOE's representative on the Advisory Committee on Energy of the National Conference of State Legislatures. While at the SBA and DOE, he worked closely with the White House on initiatives during the Clinton and George H.W. Bush Administrations, including the President's Council on Sustainable Development.
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Beth Conover is a special advisor to Denver Mayor John W. Hickenlooper and Director of GreenPrint Denver. She has worked for 20 years on issues of resource conservation and development.
From 1989-1991, Conover worked on community development and reforestation projects in Zimbabwe, southern Africa. From 1994-1997, she was co-author of the Stapletone Development Plan for the redevelopment of the former airport in Denver, Colorado, and Director of Parks and Environment for the Stapleton Development Corporation.
As owner of Headwaters Consulting, LLC, from 1998-2003, Beth provided strategic planning and program development services to a wide range of public, private and nonprofit clients including the Green Industries of Colorado, the State of Colorado, The Nature Conservancy, Cherry Creek Stewardship Partners, and Mayor Webb's South Platte River Commission.
Beth joined Mayor Hickenlooper's administration as a policy aide in 2003 and became Special Advisor for Sustainable Development in 2005. Conover is a graduate of Denver Public Schools, has a B.A. from Brown University (1987) and dual master's degrees in environmental studies and public/private management from Yale University (1994). She lives in Denver with her husband, Ken Snyder, and two sons.
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Craig Cox directs the Interwest Energy Alliance, a trade association that brings the nation's renewable energy industry together with the West's advocacy community. "This consensus-based, collaborative approach to market development has proven to be successful since our inception in late 2002. Together, our members support state-level public policies that harness the West's abundant - and inexhaustible - renewable energy and energy efficiency resources." Currently the Alliance's primary states of focus are Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
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Roger Duncan is the Deputy General Manager of Austin Energy, the Municipal Utility for Austin, Texas. He manages Strategic Planning, Government Relations, On-site Generation, Demand-side Management, and Green Building for the Utility. Prior to joining Austin Energy, Mr. Duncan was Director of the Environmental Department for the City of Austin and was elected to two terms on the Austin City Council.
Mr. Duncan is currently co-chair of the Urban Consortium Sustainability Council and serves on the Board of Directors of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute and the Electric Drive Transportation Association. He also is a member of the Western Governor’s Association Committee on Energy Efficiency and was appointed by the Secretary of Energy to the Federal Energy Management Advisory Council. Business Week magazine recognized Mr. Duncan as one of the “Top 20 Individual Carbon Reducers” in the world.
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Jonathan Hurwitch is a Principal and Chief Operating Officer of Sentech, Inc.., an energy and environmental management consulting firm in Bethesda, MD. Sentech specializes in conducting technical, economic, policy, and communications studies for emerging distributed and alternative energy concepts for both government and commercial clients.
For the past six years, Mr. Hurwitch has been assisting organizations
in the State of Hawaii in creating a public-private partnership that
can conduct R&D projects that can lead to a reduction in the
state’s reliance on fossil fuels. The goal is for the state to rely
increasingly in its indigenous renewable energy resources, including
investigating alternative transportation fuels such as ethanol and
hydrogen.
Mr. Hurwitch is the Project Manager on a technical assistance contract for Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs and has assisted these DOE programs continuously for more that 25 years. Under this contract, Sentech provides technical and analytical assistance to many of the DOE energy efficiency and renewable energy programs including Solar, Wind/Hydropower, Geothermal, Biofuels, FreedomCAR, Hydrogen Fuel Cells and Infrastructure, Buildings, and the Federal Energy Management Program.
Mr. Hurwitch has assisted the US Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in renewable energy projects for more than a decade focusing on the management and communications aspects of the programs. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of the Solar Energy Industries Association and the Solar Energy Research and Education Foundation. In 2003 and again in 2005, he was asked to lead a task force to prepare an integrated Solar Energy Multi-Year Technical Plan which included a comprehensive perspective of all solar energy technologies and that was consistent with the President’s Management Agenda to show measurable progress via metrics for these R&D programs.
Mr. Hurwitch possesses a B.S. and M.S. in chemistry from the University of Miami (Fla.) and Georgetown University, respectively, and an M.B.A from the Virginia Polytechnic and State University (Virginia Tech).
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Kim Jordan is CEO and co-founder of New Belgium Brewing Company of Fort Collins Colorado. New Belgium has grown to 258 people in fifteen years and is the third largest craft brewery in the United States. Kim and her husband, Jeff Lebesch, started the company in the basement of their home in 1991. Prior to becoming entrepreneurs, Kim was a social worker and Jeff was an electrical engineer. The combination of those skill sets has been invaluable in their adventure of growing a business.
Kim has done everything from bottling and delivering beer to the designing of marketing materials to design input on the brewery. These days her time is spent on the bigger picture role of steering the company toward its long-term mission. She is currently a Director for the Brewers Association and Colorado Brewers Guild Boards, Ex Officio Board Member of the Beer Institute, and a member of a few Fort Collins community boards as well.
From the web site, "Founded by an electrical engineer (Jeff) and a social worker (Kim), it only makes sens that New Belgium has always looked for ways to be energy efficient and socially responsible. Through embracing new technologies, seeking out alternative forms of energy and reducing our waste stream, we strive to make smart business decisions and do well by the environment each and every day. We are currently focused on the following areas of environmental balance: Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions, Healthy Watersheds, Green Building, Reduce-Reuse-Recycle, and Living Sustainably."
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Susan Joy Hassol is a climate change analyst and communicator known for her ability to translate Science into English, making complex issues accessible to policymakers and the public. She is the author of Impacts of a Warming Arctic, the synthesis report of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, on which she worked for four years with 300 scientists from the Arctic and beyond. She testified about the impacts of Arctic warming before the U.S. Senate, and served as a media spokesperson for the assessment's findings.
Susan wrote HBO's global warming documentary, Too Hot Not to Handle, which premiered in April 2006. She was a lead author of Climate Change Impacts on the United States, the synthesis report of the U.S. National Assessment of the Consequences of Climate Change. She co-authored a chapter on Arctic climate impacts for a book titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, published by Cambridge University Press in 2006.
In addition to numerous articles, papers and books on the topic, Susan has served as Environment Fellow for the Aspen Institute, as Research Associate and Director of Communications for the Aspen Global Change Institute, and has been affiliated with Carnegie Mellon's Center for the Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change.
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Susan Innis is the Green Power Marketing Director at Western Resource Advocates, a regional law and policy center based in Boulder Colorado. Ms. Innis works with stakeholders in the Rocky Mountain Region to develop and implement local policies and programs to incorporate the use of renewable energy industry; the National Wind Coordinating Committee, Green-e, Colorado Renewable Energy Society, and the New Mexico Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy. Prior to joining WRA in 1999, Ms. Innis worked as an Urban Park Ranger in New York City and as a researcher with an international seahorse conservation organization. She has a BS in biology from McGill University (Montreal Canada) and is pursuing an MPA in public policy at the University of Colorado at Denver.
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Stephen Kanipe began working with Aspen and Pitkin County in March 1989 and was appointed Chief Building Official in May 1995. He directed the development of the Aspen/Pitkin Energy Conservation Code, the first energy code in the country to regulate energy use outside of the building envelope (snow melt, pools, spas), which has been in use since 1996. In 1999 he was appointed by the International Conference of Building Officials Board of Directors to serve on the International Energy Conservation Code Development Committee and served a chair in 2003. In 1999 Stephen was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Colorado Chapter of the International Code Council, a statewide organization of code officials and industry representatives.
Stephen’s community work includes a partnership with the Community Office of Resource Efficiency (CORE) to develop the City of Aspen Efficient Building Program; a point based tool that encourages the use of recycled materials, advanced IAQ and HVAC systems, engineered framing components and solar design. As President of the Aspen Waldorf Foundation Board of Directors, Stephen led a private school initiative that constructed four buildings totaling about 22,500 square feet of straw bale construction complemented with solar hot water, photovoltaics, natural finishes and recycled materials.
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Robert Katz became CEO of Vail Resorts in February 2006. He most recently served as the Company's Lead Director and has been intricately involved in guiding Vail Resort's strategic direction and operations since 1992. Since 1990, he has been associated in various capacities including as a Senior Partner of Apollo Management, L.P., an affiliate of the former majority shareholder in Vail Resorts. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School in 1988, and has lived in Boulder, Colorado since 2002. Mr. Katz is Chairman of the Board of iPCS, Inc., an affiliate of Sprint PCS. Mr. Katz is also a trustee for Third Way, a national strategy center for progressives.
Mr. Katz believes being responsible environmental stewards can result in a "green" bottom line, when the efforts involve consumer participation. Within the first several months of his tenure as Vail Resorts CEO, Mr. Katz made the landmark announcement in the travel and leisure industry that he was offsetting 100% of the Company's energy needs with wind power. This decision resulted in Vail Resorts being the second largest corporate purchaser of wind power in the United States. Less than a month later, he announced a groundbreaking partnership with the National Forest Foundation to raise money from the Company's consumers for forest recreation improvements, wildlife habitat and watershed restoration, and community-based forestry programs in the White River National Forest and National Forests of Lake Tahoe Basin.
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Patrick Keegan is Executive Director of the Colorado Energy Science Center, a non-profit organization that educates energy users about energy use and energy efficiency. Mr. Keegan has 25 years of experience in energy efficiency, renewable energy or climate programs. He spent over 10 years managing energy efficiency programs for the State of Washington. He worked as a consultant to electric utilities on demand side management programs before moving to Washington D.C., where he started up a climate change program for an international nonprofit organization. He was hired by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to support energy and climate change technology initiatives in developing countries. Mr. Keegan became CESC’s first Executive Director in January 2001.
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Jonathan Kevles served in the Los Angeles Office of Economic Development and as Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, where he was responsible for business attraction, retention and expansion with a focus on smart growth projects and nurturing specific industry clusters including environmental technologies. In 2003, Jonathan became the Regional Administrator for the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) where he focussed on three blighted LA city communities. In a career shift to focus on Urban Sustainability, Jonathan joined Rocky Mountain Institute in 2006 as a Fellow, where his focus is helping cities succeed in their efforts to achieve their sustainability goals.
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Dr. Chuck Kutscher is a principal Engineer and Manager of the Thermal Systems Group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. His research interests include solar heating, concentrating solar power, and geothermal electricity generation. He served for nine years on the Board of Directors of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) including a two-year term as Chair (2000-2001). He was also General Chair of the the SOLAR 2006 national solar energy conference held in Denver from July 8 to 13, which focussed on solutions to global warming. He is currently working on a special ASES report due out later this year that will describe the potential for renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies to reduce U.S. carbon emissions.------------------------
Chris Lane is senior director of environmental affairs for Xanterra Parks and Resorts. Lane has more than 13 years of environmental management experience in the resort and tourism industry, and is responsible for developing company-wide environmental management systems and managing all aspects of company environmental affairs including sustainable design, energy and water efficiency, pollution prevention and federal and state regulatory compliance.
Under Chris Lane's leadership, Xanterra has won more than 24 national environmental awards and received nineteen third-party environmental certifications including ISO 14001, Clean Marina, and the US Green Building Council's LEED green building rating system certification.
Prior to joining Xanterra, Lane was with Aspen Skiing Company as director of environmental affairs, director for a regional land conservation project, program director for the Sierra Club,, and an environmental consultant for IRT Environment Inc. Lane has also served as an elected official. He holds a bachelor of science degree in environmental engineering from the University of Florida, and is a LEED Accredited Professional and Certified Environmental Systems Manager.
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Pat O’Donnell, President and CEO of Aspen Skiing Company, is a business leader with broad experience and skills in managing resorts and businesses toward sustainable practices. Under his leadership, Aspen Skiing Company became the first ski resort to address climate change with a corporate policy, reduction targets, membership in the Chicago Climate Exchange, and aggressive efficiency and green building work. ASC offsets 100% of its electricity usage with wind power credits. In his mid-twenties (1968) Pat moved from San Francisco to Yosemite National Park where he worked as a bellman to support his ambitions in climbing. Six years later, Pat built and opened Kirkwood Ski Area, Lake Tahoe as Vice President and General Manager - where he also drove snow cats, loaded lifts, and cleaned the bathrooms. For 10 years Pat worked at Keystone Ski Resort in Colorado as Vice President of Operations, and was asked to join the prestigious Yosemite National Institute in San Francisco as President/CEO. After five years at the Institute, Pat worked for another five years as President/CEO of Patagonia, and then returned to the mountains as President/CEO of Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation in British Columbia. Pat joined Aspen Skiing Company in 1994 as Chief Operating Officer and in 1996 was named President/CEO. Pat has walked the 300 mile-long John Muir Trail three times, solo, sailed a small boat from San Francisco to South America and back, made three ascents of Mount McKinley in Alaska and was on the eight person team that made the first American men’s attempt of 27,000' Annapurna near Mt. Everest.
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John Phelan is an Energy Services Engineer for Fort Collins Utilities, assisting residential, commercial, institutional and industrial electric customers manage their energy use. He is responsible for planning, implementation and evaluation of the Utility's demand side management programs, and also provides strategic planning for the City's renewable energy initiatives.
Mr. Phelan has a long history of association with related fields of energy efficiency, engineering and architecture. Prior to working for Fort Collins Utilities, he led the sustainable design and commissioning teams at a leading consulting firm in Boulder, Colorado. He has a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Bachelor of Science in Conservation of Natural Resources from the University of California Berkeley. Mr. Phelan is a registered professional engineer in the State of Colorado.
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Dan Richardson is the Global Warming Project Manager for the City of Aspen, and oversees the Canary Initiative, the City's effort to confront global warming. Prior to his work with the City, Dan operated an architectural consulting business specializing in environmental efficiency and performance building. Dan served on the Glenwood Springs City Council from 2001 - 2005 and has served as Chairman of the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority Board of Directors, and on the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association Board of Directors. A recipient of the Marshall Memorial Fellowship, Richardson has traveled to Europe to study and discuss a variety of transatlantic topics including climate change with policy makers and industry representatives from several countries.
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Debra Sachs is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Climate Action, an organization of professionals representing state, regional and local governments and non-profits. The Alliance mission is to facilitate and encourage the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 10 percent by 2010. Its purpose is to support, monitor, and celebrate community-based efforts throughout Vermont to reduce emissions. Ms. Sachs has managed several special projects. In collaboration with other entities, Ms. Sachs helps communities and community-based groups understand how they can advance energy efficiency, energy conservation, waste reduction and use of transportation alternatives. She has facilitated several workshops and community discussions to help advance planning and sustainable development.
Ms. Sachs manages the ACA, provides staff support to advance its mission with assistance from federal, state and local and foundation funding sources. She manages the day-to-day activities of the 10% Challenge office, including staff and interns who assist in implementing the mission of the ACA. She oversees communications and special project development and implementation. In addition, she is the statewide coordinator for the Vermont High Performance Schools Initiative. ACA has been a catalyst for several small groups and entities to advance community-based projects. Ms. Sachs has helped advance planning and sustainable development projects that benefit Vermont communities for more than fifteen years. Ms. Sachs is past President of the Vermont Planners Association and has a MS degree in Natural Resource Planning from the University of Vermont.
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Auden Schendler is Director of Environmental Affairs at Aspen Skiing Company, which has won over thirty awards for its environmental work. ASC offsets 100% of its electricity usage with wind power credits, and pioneered such programs as the U.S. Green Building Council LEED system, onsite renewables, use of biodiesel in snow cats, sustainability reporting, and ISO 14001certification. A LEED-certified professional, Auden was previously research associate in corporate sustainability at Rocky Mountain Institute. His writing on sustainable business and other topics has been published widely in journals ranging from Harvard Business Review to the L.A. Times and the Yale/MIT Journal of Industrial Ecology. Auden has been profiled in Outside magazine and was named a global warming innovator in TIME magazine’s 2006 climate change special issue. www.aspensnowmass.com/environment.
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Doug Seiter has been in the business of resource conservation for more than twenty-nine years. Developer and manager of the Energy Star and Green Building Programs for the City of Austin for thirteen years, he promoted resource conservation and sustainable development practices for mainstream building through partnerships with the local homebuilders association and other industry representatives. He left Austin in 1997 to work with the Denver Home Builders Association to coordinate the state implementation of Built Green Colorado, the largest program of its kind in the country, and the first statewide green builder program. Now with the Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Program, Doug is working with a twenty-eight-state region to develop a variety of sustainable energy strategies for communities and states.
The Austin Energy Star new home rating program was one of the first and most successful energy rating programs in the country. The Austin Green Builder Program, first recognized by the international community at the Earth Summit in 1992, was the first program of its kind to rate new homes for a broad range of features related to energy, water, building materials, and solid waste. The Green Builder Program was the catalyst for the development of other sustainability initiatives in Austin and beyond, and was a model for development of Built Green Colorado. Administered by the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver, Built Green Colorado is the largest program of its kind in the country and has registered more than 30,000 homes since its beginning. With sponsorship by major national building industry suppliers and builders, Built Green Colorado is showing a continuing growth in influence and impact.
Doug has been involved in a wide variety of local and national initiatives related to energy efficiency and sustainable development, including the Sustainable Communities Initiative for the City of Austin; the continuous improvement of Built Green Colorado; development of the National Association of Home Builders Green Building Guidelines; and the Sustainable Building Technical Manual for the US Green Building Council. As a member of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society he was the Program Committee Chair for the 2001 CRES annual conference and Conference Chair for the 2002 conference. He is a strong advocate of developing community partnerships to bring sustainable building practices and products to mainstream activities, promoting and maintaining a working relationship with the regional building industry, the local environmental community and national programs.
As president of central reservations agency Stay Aspen Snowmass, Bill Tomcich has been involved with attracting and recruiting commercial airlines to serve mountain resort airports, including Eagle and Aspen, for more than 17 years. As a result of cooperative efforts between the community, the airport, the FAA, the airlines, and even aircraft manufacturers, Aspen/Snowmass was successful in recently upgrading their commercial air service while dramatically reducing fuel consumption and related emissions.