Advisors
Our team of seasoned business and sustainability veterans from a range of disciplines brings experience, knowledge and practical wisdom to accelerate profitable change. Whether your business is seeking improvements in the built environment, social environment or on a project specific basis, we have the skills and talent to deliver on your vision.
Advisors
David DuBois, Ph.D., The Social Design Group
Industrial/Organizational Psychologist
David is an organizational psychologist focused on the social design issues of communities, organizations, and teams. He has extensive experience in applied research and technology development for training, performance measurement, and the identification of expertise. Specialties: Training design, elicitation of expertise and job knowledge, strategic planning for sustainability, research design and statistical analysis. Past: Director of Research and Development at True Market Solutions; Board Member at Brown Street Academy
Allyson Pumphrey Mitchell
JD, LEED AP
Allyson is Founder/President of Sustainable Catalyst Partners LLC, an environmental sustainability consulting firm in partnership with Drewry Simmons Vornehm, an Indianapolis-based law firm; Executive Director of Indy Greenways Foundation, and Associate Professor at Purdue University. Formerly, she was a founding member of the City of Indianapolis’ Office of Sustainability.
Kevin Danaher, Ph.D.
Dr. Kevin Danaher is a Co-Founder of Global Exchange; FairTradeUSA; the Green Festivals; the Environmental Service Learning Initiative, and the Green Guardians. He played a major role in Global Exchange’s 27-year record of merging social enterprise with human rights activism.
Author or editor of 13 books on the global political-economy, including his two latest, The Green Festival Reader: Fresh Ideas from Agents of Change and Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grass Roots, Kevin has appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows, and spoken at colleges and community organizations in 47 states and many foreign countries.
Micheline Erika Birkhead, MBA, LEED-GA
Managing Director for ClearPath Strategies International
Ms. Birkhead offers over 20 years of experience in Sustainability, Strategic Planning, Business Development and Marketing. With a beginning in her family’s commercial construction company, and as a successful entrepreneur, she excels at using business intelligence, technology and sustainable business strategies to improve early-stage companies, and to develop profitable programs within established organizations. Micheline is the Managing Director for ClearPath Strategies International, a boutique consulting firm and is the Executive Director for the Sustainable Entertainment Production Alliance. Birkhead is also an Adjunct Professor and Advisory Board member for Sustainability Programs at California State University. Her memberships include the International Society of Sustainability Professionals, and the Association of Environmental Professionals. She is certified as a LEED—Green Associate, holds a Bachelors of Science degree, and an MBA from Pepperdine University.
Subject Matter Experts
Ann Blake, Ph.D.
Environmental & Public Health Consulting, A Certified B Corporation www.annblake.com
Ann Blake is an independent consultant with over 20 years of experience finding safer alternatives to industrial chemicals in global manufacturing. Her work has included creating criteria for environmentally preferable purchasing, ecolabels and product rating systems as well as local, national and international chemicals policy reform.
Ann has created curricula in green chemistry, chemicals policy and alternatives assessment for UC Berkeley Extension’s professional certificate in Green Chemistry. She is a member of the Green Ribbon Science Panel created by the California legislature to advise California EPA on the implementation of California’s Safer Consumer Product regulations. Prior to consulting, Ann worked for the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Department of Toxic Substances Control as a hazardous waste inspector and Pollution Prevention Coordinator.
Clients include the City of San Francisco’s Department of Environment and the Blue-Green Alliance, a national strategic partnership between labor unions and environmental organizations. Past clients have included Good Guide, the Electronics Takeback Coalition, the Breast Cancer Fund and the Safe Cosmetics Campaign.
Kym Cadle
Founder, Pure Ambition Coaching and Consulting Firm
Kym is the founder of Pure Ambition, a coaching and consulting firm focused on enabling individuals and organizations to do their best work through presence, voice and courage activation. The company was founded following more than 2 decades leading teams to high performance in corporate operations, which included her team’s consistent improvement of customer experience scores during a decade of rapid growth: from $180M–$2B in revenues. Following, Kym moved into a formal Corporate Social Responsibility role to bring the principles that made her function successful to the rest of the organization. Today, Kym’s passion is working with current and future leaders to raise their consciousness, unlock their full potential, and serve them in making the impact they seek.
Aaron Pope
Sustainability and Environmental Educator and Advisor
Aaron is a consultant, and the former Manager of Sustainability Programs at the California Academy of Sciences. He specializes in strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, coalition building, content development, and training. He has served as an adviser to the Business Council on Climate Change, and the Association of Zoos & Aquariums Green Science Advisory Committee.
Bernat Recasens Vert
Co-founder/CEO of CRITflow, Innovation & Creativity Management Services, Barcelona, Spain
Bernat created, customized and deployed innovation management software for over 50 companies to more systematically tap employee intelligence and creativity. Results have been the development of more and better ideas for new products, services, processes and numerous business solutions. He provided training and guidance to support the development of innovation cultures. He is skilled and educated in innovation management, management strategy, problem solving and computer science. His company’s innovation platform was cited in a 2015 Gartner report: Market Guide for Innovation Management. Clients include companies such as Danone, Hesperia, Komatsu, Roche and Seat.
Scott D. Lutocka
Facilities Manager & Zero Waste Achiever at Piazza Produce, Inc.
Scott successfully created a Zero Waste Program that allowed Piazza Produce, Inc. to be the first Wholesale Foodservice Produce Distributor (or any other National or Regional Broad-line Foodservice Distributor in the United States) to achieve Zero Waste Status. In 2012, the company achieved a 94.8% reduction in Waste-To-Landfill via comprehensive recycling and commercial compost program. Scott’s efforts with Crossroads Industrial and RecycleForce in Indianapolis resulted in support of local green economy jobs and through his work in 2015 Piazza Produce received the Go Green Plus Certification for Sustainability practices. Scott also serves on the Board of Directors for the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council.
John Hazlett
LEED AP O+M, Williams Creek Consulting
John has over 15 years of experience working in energy efficiency, water conservation, recycling and storm water management. Prior to joining Williams Creek, John was the Director of the Office of Sustainability for the City of Indianapolis, where he led the implementation of the Mayor’s SustainIndy initiative. John’s extensive experience includes working for municipal and county government in Portland, Oregon in storm water management and helping industrial and commercial customers meet their internal sustainability goals through facility recycling and lighting audits. Currently, John helps clients develop strategies to reduce their water footprint by identifying opportunities to minimize, capture and reuse water. John serves on the Board of Supervisors, Marion County Soil and Water Conservation District, Indiana Chapter Board of Directors, U.S. Green Building Council and is a Founding member of Environmental Leader LLC Editorial Advisory Board.
Steve Raney
Founder/Principal Cities21
Steve has more than a decade of experience in transportation product/project management, planning, analysis, and software development. Specialty areas include on-demand ridesharing, mobility as a service, trip reduction, transportation demand management, system simulation, smart parking, regulation, policy, stakeholder process and behavioral economics.
With extensive experience using research and behavioral insights, Steve has developed business cases and garnered support for new ideas within complex stakeholder hierarchies spanning Fortune 500 and technology companies. His experience includes federal, state and local legislators & staff, community leaders, academics and non-profits.
Steve created Silicon Valley Mobility as a Service business model with feature set specification. He formed a large mobility ecosystem collaboration, leading partner relationships with 40 vendors including Lyft, Uber, RideScout/Daimler, DriveNow/ParkNow/BMW, Genze electric bikes, Silicon Valley cities, transit agencies and major employer commute programs (Google, Stanford, Facebook). He has a history of success integrating technology-rich concepts with business and environmental analytics to create business-friendly solutions.
Julie Fahnestock
Founder & Sustainability Storyteller, B Storytelling
Writing stories of businesses creating positive impact was what Julie Fahnestock did for fun. From fair trade, to closed-loop, to the locavore movement, Julie has always been committed to promoting the sustainable impact of social enterprises. As the Founder and Sustainability Storyteller for B Storytelling, Julie is in her flow.
The idea for B Storytelling was birthed after Julie spent a summer as the Research Director for Canaan Fair Trade, a Palestinian, olive oil company. For three months, Julie canvassed numerous Palestinian villages in the West Bank. After interviewing dozens of fair trade, olive oil farmers as part of an impact assessment study by Canaan Fair Trade, Julie was struck by the power of the farmers’ stories. She knew she wanted to somehow converge her love for writing and storytelling with her desire to see business used as a tool for good.The idea progressed as Julie became a Staff Writer for 3BL Media and Just Means, the largest sustainability, online, news outlet. Julie loved telling the stories of positive, corporate impact. She found her favorite pieces to be the first-person interviews with Benefit Corporation and B Lab Certified companies. She was inspired by their commitment to both profit and mission and became eager to tell their stories. In almost every interview, Julie found a need for deeper storytelling and more focused public relations for the B Corp movement.
And thus began B Storytelling.
Julie holds an MBA in Sustainability from Marlboro College Graduate School and is pursuing a Certificate in Storytelling and Content Strategy from the University of Washington. She has ten years of experience in nonprofit management, serving in roles such as Communications Coordinator and Project Director Assistant. B Storytelling marries her understanding of business, brand building and personal convictions.
Kim Ryle
Founder, Applied Sustainability Group LLC; Founder, Energy Benchmark Services
Kim is a certified energy auditor and former Sr. Account Manager with 25 years at Pacific Gas & Electric Company. He managed a portfolio of customers ranging from residential and small businesses to power sensitive, high-tech customers, numerous cities and agencies and some of the largest businesses in the PG&E system. Over his career he was involved with energy projects which reduced, in total, approximately 300 megawatts of on-peak electricity demand. He has experience with complex rate schedules, efficiency technologies, demand response strategies, and incentives to help identify and produce customer savings. As a founding member, energy manager and coach at True Market Solutions, a sustainability education program, Kim provided energy efficiency strategy and support, developed curriculum, coached and supported a number of successful ‘Sustainability Circle’ programs. Graduates developed internal teams, engaged employees, customized profitability/sustainability action plans and a competitive edge.
