This year's first lecture was May 12^th with Timothy O'Shea. Timothy is an eco-entrepreneur, co-founder and chairman of CleanFish, fish you can trust^TM. With an eclectic background as an outside-the-box thinker and doer, Timothy has shown how commercial enterprise can accelerate positive environmental benefits and leverage transformative, profitable, marketplace change. His work with CleanFish earned him the 2008 Innovation Award Winner by Social Venture Network, and BusinessWeek Online's 2009 Finalist for America's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs.

Timothy spoke about connections to markets and leading trends that most do not implement, and identified viable opportunities where others see only limits and constraints. He's been known to pull together fairly unlikely successes from conditions most would have given up for dying, or dead-most of which he learned (he thinks) from years cultivating garden compost.

Save the date! Next up in the Series, on March 15, 2010 Charleston Business Owners will talk about their companies and going green.

2010 Lecture Series Schedule

Spring Lecture

Monday March 15, 2010 6:00pm Local Charleston Green Business Owners

Adam Bernholz-Founder and CEO of GreenWizzard LLC GreenWizard LLC is an analytical tool and workflow solution for the sustainable construction industry. The Company's flagship product allows the AE (Architecture and Engineering) communities to research, evaluate, and document the most appropriate building materials for LEED-oriented commercial construction projects.

Adam is a serial entrepreneur, having founded GreenWizard in Charleston over three years ago, after selling his previous Charlotte-based company, The Service Source. Prior to his stints as a CEO, Adam was an associate in SABi Venture Capital, based in Raleigh, NC.

See you there!

All lectures will be held at the Charleston Visitor's Center Theater, 375 Meeting Street (map), with reception and book signings following at the Lulan Artisans Showroom, 469 King Street (www.lulan.com 843-722-0118). Entrances to the building for this event are via the Meeting Street and Bus Shed sides of the building. Parking is available-see the Lulan Artisans website for more information.

Past Events

Eric Corey Freed, a licensed architect and recognized pioneer in the tradition of Organic Architecture, founded OrganicArchitect, his San Francisco firm, in 1997 “as an alternative to traditional design practice”. A graduate of Temple University, Freed designs “environmentally friendly buildings” and also advises companies around the world on various issues of design, sustainability and green building. He teaches at UC Berkeley and is the author, most recently, of Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies and the forthcoming book, "The Inevitable Architect: A Phase By Phase Guide to Green Building."

Eric's work has been exhibited in numerous venues. He has been a visiting critic at several schools of architecture and the recipient of various awards and accolades. He is currently on the Board of Directors of Architects, Designers & Planners for Social Responsibility (NorCal ADPSR), Natural World Museum and a Committee Member of the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) and the Friends of Kebyar. In addition, Eric is a Program Coordinator for the Environmental Committee of The Commonwealth Club of California.

Nate Garvis is responsible for political, legislative and regulatory affairs at the international, federal, state and local levels for Target Corporation. Nate also consults internally on business issues that have a public component and require engagement strategies. He is widely recognized as a thought-leader in the areas of integrated public engagement strategies as well as emerging trends in the inter-relationships between multi-national corporations, non-governmental advocacy groups and governmental institutions.

Nate is on the executive committees of a number of other boards throughout the nation. He is a former policy fellow at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Policy at the University of Minnesota and serves on the board of the Institute’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance. In 2004, Nate was honored as the first ever corporate public affairs recipient of the Hubert H. Humphrey Public Leadership Award. Minneapolis St. Paul recently named Garvis as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the State of Minnesota.

Cameron Sinclair co-founded Architecture for Humanity in 1999, which seeks sustainable architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brings design services to communities in need. In 2007 Architecture for Humanity launched the Open Architecture Network, the worlds' first online community dedicated to improving living conditions through innovative and sustainable design.

Sinclair has spoken at a number of international business and design conferences on sustainable development, including appearances on BBC World Service and CNN International, National Public Radio and PBS. He is a recipient of the ASID Design for Humanity award and the Lewis Mumford Award for Peace. In 2004 Fortune Magazine named him as one of the Aspen Seven, seven people changing the world for the better, and in 2006 Sinclair was named one of three winners of the TED Prize, which honors visionaries who have shown they can "positively impact life on this planet." He was trained as an architect at the University of Westminster and at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

Warren Karlenzig has worked with nations, the State of California, major cities, and the world's largest corporations developing policy, strategy and critical operational capacities for 20 years. Current and recent clients include the US Department of State; the counties of Riverside and San Bernardino, California. As the Chief Strategy Officer of SustainLane, Warren planned, designed and directed the SustainLane US City Rankings and the SustainLane Government knowledge base for sustainability best practices in state and local governments. He also led consulting engagements with the State of California focused on green city performance metrics.

Warren has been a consultant with clients including the White House Office of Science and Technology, for which he helped plan an eco-industrial park; the US EPA Futures Group and the US Dept. of Energy. He authored A Blueprint for Greening Affordable Housing (Global Green USA, 1999) and he co-authored San Francisco's influential Sustainability Plan, which was adopted by the city in 1997. He has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, CNN, CNBC, Forbes, The New York Times and The Washington Post. How Green is Your City?, which Warren authored, was published in 2007 by New Society Publishers. He has an MFA from Naropa University and a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Nathan Shedroff is the Chair of the MBA in Design Strategy at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco. This program melds design and business strategy with a vision of the future of business as sustainable, meaningful and innovative. He is one of the pioneers in Experience Design, an approach to design that encompasses multiple senses and requirements in all media that make experiences successful. He speaks and teaches internationally and has written extensively on design and business issues, including, Experience Design 1. He’s a serial entrepreneur and consults strategically for companies to build better, more meaningful experiences for their customers.

Nathan co-wrote his latest book, Making Meaning, which explores how companies can specifically create products and services to evoke meaning in their audiences and customers. In 2006, Nathan earned a Masters in Business Administration at Presidio School of Management in San Francisco, CA, the only accredited MBA program in the USA specializing in Sustainable Business. Nathan earned a BS in Industrial Design from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. In 1990, he co-founded vivid studios, an interactive media company and one of the first Web services firms. He is a founding member of the International Academy or Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS). Nathan was nominated for a Chrysler Innovation in Design Award in 1994 and 1999 and a National Design Award in 2001.