William Becker

Natural Capitalism Solutions and The Future We Want

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Let's Talk Frankly About the Challenges We Face and the Future We Can Build

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Biography

William Becker is an international expert on sustainable development, energy security and public policies to mitigate and adapt to global climate change. He is an author, a regular contributor to Huffington Post and Climate Progress, and a highly acclaimed speaker.

Bill is a Senior Associate at Natural Capitalism Solutions, but that's just one of several hats he wears. He is the founder and co-director of The Future We Want, Executive Director of the National Sustainable Communities Coalition in the United States, and Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. He is a member of Mikhail Gorbachev's international Climate Change Task Force, as well as a board member of several organizations dedicated to sustainable development in the United States.

In The Future We Want project (FWW), Bill and his colleagues partnered with the United Nations to conduct a global conversation about the future prior to the UN's International Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in 2012. The Secretary General of the UN now has adopted "The Future We Want" as his theme for the next 5 years. Meantime, the project focuses on helping the lay public visualize how sustainable development helps us become "architects of our future rather than its victims".

Bill served as a senior official in the U.S Department of Energy from 1992 to 2007, where he founded the Center of Excellence on Sustainable Development. He has specialized throughout his career in helping communities and companies understand and practice sustainability, including their recovery from natural disasters. He has led or participated on expert teams deployed to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Thailand after the 2004 tsunami, and to Beijing to help “green” the Olympic Village for the 2008 Olympic Games.

His interest in sustainable development began in the 1970s when he proposed and helped implement a pioneering project in which a rural Wisconsin village relocated from a floodplain and built the nation's first solar village. Today, that project is recognized as the grand-daddy of climate mitigation and adaptation in the U.S.

Bill is a popular speaker at events around the world, particularly in Europe and the United States. He is a former journalist who began his career as a decorated 20-year-old Army war correspondent in South Vietnam. His most recent book -- The 100 Day Action Plan to Save the Planet -- was published by St. Martin’s Griffin in New York.

Industry Expertise

Energy
Political Organization
Think Tanks

Areas of Expertise

Becoming Architects of the Future
Presidential Climate Action
Climate Action -- Global to Local

Accomplishments

Founder and Co-Director, The Future We Want

Bill founded The Future We Want project to change the global conversation from the future we fear to the future we can build. Among other elements, The Future We Want is demonstrating how modern communications media can help lay people "see" what their communities and lives could be like if they committed to sustainable development.In 2012, The Future We Want is collaborating with the United Nations, which made the phrase its theme for its Rio+20 conference and Ban Ki-moon's ongoing agenda.

Sustainia100 Awardee

2012-06-20

Bill was selected as a member of Sustainia100 -- a program in which the Danish think tank Monday Morning chose the best 100 ideas from around the world to achieve sustainable development by 2020.

Nania Award

2011-06-21

Bill was the 2011 recipient of the Nania Award, a national honor recognizing his decades of work helping disaster-afffected communities rebuild using sustainable development principles. The award praised Bill for "weaving together and strengthening the fabric of disaster-resistant and sustainable communities."

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Education

U.S. Army Defense Information School

Certificate

Combat Journalism

With this training, I became the youngest accredited correspondent in South Vietnam during 1966-1967, the start of a career in journalism that included the Associated Press and ownership of my own weekly newspaper in rural Wisconsin. I went on to become a high-level official in several state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy. Short in degrees, my education has been extraordinarily rich in experience.

Affiliations

  • The Future We Want
  • Natural Capitalism Solutions
  • Presidential Climate Action Project
  • Mikhail Gorbachev's Climate Change Task Force
  • Alliance for Sustainable Colorado
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Testimonials

Newspaper Reporter

http://www.icleiusa.org/blog/archive/2013/05/01/beaverton-kicks-off-sustainability-forums-promotes-ipledge

Beaverton Sustainability Forum

See the Portland Tribune's review of Bill's recent presentation to the citizens of Beaverton, Oregon, on why their leadership on climate change and sustainable development is important globally as well as locally: http://portlandtribune.com/bvt/15-news/135025-city-forum-brings-global-issues-back-down-to-earth

Event Appearances

Our Choice: Architects or Victims of the Future

UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)   Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2012-06-20

Building Resilience to Reduce Climate Risk

Clean Med 2012  Denver, Colorado USA

2012-05-01

Lessons of Leadership

Institute for Sustainable Communities Leadership Academy  Denver, Colorado

2012-06-06

Sample Talks

Local Leadership on Global Problems

Local leadership is crucial on serious global challenges such as climate change and unsustainable development. Why? Because international and national institutions are failing to adequately address these problems. See Bill's recent presentation to the people of Beaverton, Oregon, as they embarked on creating a sustainable development plan for their city:

http://www.icleiusa.org/blog/archive/2013/05/01/beaverton-kicks-off-sustainability-forums-promotes-ipledge

Style

Availability

  • Keynote
  • Moderator
  • Panelist
  • Workshop Leader
  • Host/MC
  • Author Appearance

Fees

$1500 to $5000*Will consider certain engagements for no fee