Keynote Speaker — Janine Benyus

Janine Benyus is a biologist, innovation consultant, and author of six books, including Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. In Biomimicry, she names an emerging discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature's designs and processes (for instance, solar cells that mimic leaves). Since the book’s 1997 release, Janine has evolved the practice of biomimicry, consulting with sustainable businesses and conducting seminars about what we can learn from the genius that surrounds us. Her favorite role is Biologist at the Design Table, introducing innovators to organisms whose well—adapted designs have been tested over 3.8 billion years.

Janine is co-founder, with Dr. Dayna Baumeister, of the Biomimicry Guild, an innovation consultancy that helps designers learn from and emulate natural models with the goal of developing products, processes, and policies that create conditions conducive to life. She is also president of The Biomimicry Institute (TBI), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to nurture and grow a global community of people who are learning from, emulating, and conserving life's genius to create a healthier, more sustainable planet.

Janine has received several awards including the 2009 Champion of the Earth award in Science and Innovation from the United Nations Environment Programme, the Time Magazine Heroes of the Environment award, the Rachel Carson Environmental Ethics Award, the Lud Browman Award for Science Writing in Society, and the Barrows and Heinz Distinguished Lectureships award.

Tedd Benson

Since 1972, Tedd Benson has been the founding owner of Bensonwood Homes. During that time the company has built over 700 timberframe homes and commercial structures across North America and overseas. He and the company have been featured on a number of shows in the PBS series This Old House, as well as Good Morning America, and the Today Show. Tedd has authored four books on timberframing. With the release of Tedd’s fourth book, TIMBERFRAME, the Art and Craft of the Post-and-Beam Home, (Taunton Press 1999), there is perhaps the best visual reference yet for this venerable form of construction. Over the past decade, Tedd’s unwavering search for a new and better way to build has resulted in an exclusive design/build system called Open-Built®. Open-Built acknowledges what actually happens in the building process and seeks to eliminate inefficiencies and waste. But its first principle is that truly sustainable homes should be as unique and adaptable as the people who inhabit them.

Samuel R. Coplon

Sam Coplon is the founding principal of Coplon Associates, an award winning landscape architecture and land planning firm located in Bar Harbor, Maine. Sam has over 30 years of experience in environmental planning and design, and is a registered landscape architect in Maine, Massachusetts, and New York. Sam received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Tufts University School of Engineering and a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. He holds a LEED™ design professional accreditation from the US Green Building Council.

Kamalesh Doshi

Kamalesh Doshi serves as the Biomass Energy Resource Center's program director for projects. Before coming to BERC in 2004, he was the deputy director for the Gujarat Energy Development Agency involved in the promotion and development of renewable energy-based projects including biomass. Since 1980, his work has centered on engineering and management consultancy for energy efficiency and various renewable energy projects. Doshi is currently responsible for the gasifier-based small- and medium-size combined heat and power (CHP) demonstration projects using sawmill waste; district heating systems for communities; and the biomass-based central heating systems on university, hospital, and institutional campuses. Doshi also performs technical reviews of biomass energy project proposals prepared by energy service companies under the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) for various federal facilities. He holds a BE in Chemical Engineering from MS University of Baroda and a post-graduate diploma in Industrial Management from the Indian Institute of Science, India.

Thomas RC Hartman, AIA

Tom Hartman is a partner at Coldham & Hartman Architects in Amherst, MA.  The firm provides professional design services for residential, commercial and institutional clients committed to creating green buildings and communities throughout the Northeast. The firm’s completed work includes the Student Housing at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, ME, Union Crossing in Lawrence, MA, the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock, NH, the Hawthorne Valley Farm Store in Ghent, NY, and Rocky Hill Cohousing in Northampton, MA among other notable green and high performance buildings. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association for two terms and has been Treasurer. Additionally for NESEA, he has been Chair, Co-Chair, and organized and presented at numerous Building Energy Conferences. He is currently the President of the Western MA Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. 

Allen Hershkowitz, Ph.D.

Dr. Allen Hershkowitz is a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a leader in the movement to make environmental responsibility understandable and achievable for every individual and institution –an accomplishment that earned him the name “The Godfather of Greening” by Yoga + Joyful Living Magazine in 2009.  Dr. Hershkowitz joined NRDC’s senior staff more than two decades ago, and has been the force behind some of the organization’s most effective and visible initiatives. Through the years, he has championed systemic change on critical issues ranging from recycling to sludge, paper industry impacts, mountaintop coal mining and medical wastes. Dr. Hershkowitz has directed the greening of American icons including pro sports leagues and major record labels, and he was the architect of the greening of the 2007 - 2010 Academy Awards, and the 50th and 51st GRAMMY Awards.  His leadership in helping Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) go green earned him the U.S. EPA’s 2008 Environmental Merit Award. 

William C. Johnson

Bill Johnson is Vice President at Haley & Aldrich, Inc., where he participates in a broad range of team building and business development activities with the firm and its clients.  He is responsible for relationship management with higher education and other institutions, which involves strategic participation with leading organizations along with continuous contact to develop targeted, client-focused services to meet emerging needs. Mr. Johnson is intimately involved with the geothermal initiative at Haley & Aldrich and works closely with the leadership team on client development and education. He also has experience with capital planning and budgeting, facilities management and environmental compliance; and previously served as New Hampshire Director of Energy Conservation. 

Steve Oakley, AIA

Steve Oakley is an architect and planner at Stonehill & Taylor Architects and Planners, with 25 years of experience programming, planning, and designing campus master plans and new facilities for leading academic university / college clients, public / private research institutions, and corporate / commercial mixed-use development. His contributions have delivered long-term sustainable site solutions and award-winning projects for education, research, and administration programs. His completed projects for the Food and Drug Administration, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Rutgers University, General Electric, Amgen, Schering-Plough, Bloomberg, and his work with developers has re-focus mixed-use development programs to introduce sustainable building materials and enabled leading edge energy conservation measures to realize “living campus and building strategies”.

Neill Parker, AIA

Neill Parker's three-decade architectural career has been centered on creatively adding to, enhancing, and preserving existing environments and buildings of high architectural and environmental quality. Principal of Stonehill & Taylor Architects and Planners, a mid-sized architectural practice based in New York City known especially for educational and hospitality design work, his clients have included academic, commercial, and governmental owners and developers of campus, historic, and unique properties. His projects have included master plans for multi-acre developments, designs for new buildings, and renovation/restoration designs for historic and existing buildings. He has been dedicated to designs and lifestyles in support of increasing environmental awareness with various projects he has been involved in since the inception of his career.

Rob Pratt

Rob Pratt is CEO of EnergyClimate Solutions, a company dedicated to helping colleges and universities become climate leaders while reducing energy, water and infrastructure costs.  Mr. Pratt was formerly the CEO of Energia Global International (now Enel Latin America), a company that became one of the leading renewable energy development companies in Central America.  He also served as Director of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, a $250 million state fund to promote the development of renewable energy as well as clean energy economic development in the state.   Rob is a national and regional leader in clean energy and currently serves as Chairman Emeritus of the American Council on Renewable Energy;  Chairman and founder (1984) of the International Institute for Energy Conservation;  Treasurer, Executive Committee and board member of the Alliance to Save Energy;  Executive Committee and board member of the New England Clean Energy Council;  and President and board member of the Cambridge Energy Alliance.  He received an MPA degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a JD degree from Georgetown University Law Center, and a BA degree from Wesleyan University. 

Lowell Rasmussen

Lowell Rasmussen is Vice Chancellor of Finance and Facilities at the University of Minnesota, Morris. He has over 30 years experience in planning, construction and operation of campus physical plants. The Morris campus has made significant improvements in reducing the dependence on fossil fuels through energy conservation and green energy initiatives. The campus is the largest user of wind energy in the U of MN system and is actively developing a renewably-fueled combined heat and power plant. The campus is nationally recognized as a leader in hybrid renewable energy systems.  

Mike Suomi, AIA

Mike Suomi is an architect and interior designer with 20 years of experience designing unique and award-winning projects including hotels, hospitals, corporate headquarters and restaurants which incorporate custom tailored furniture, fixtures and finishes. His approach includes out-of-the-box thinking in the earliest stages to realize custom solutions which incorporate both technology and hand-made into projects that incorporate both social and environmental sustainability. His current work with includes numerous LEED hotels in and around New York City and the invention of new environmental products and technologies for these projects.