Greg Searle

Biography: Greg Searle Executive Director BioRegional North America Chelsea, Canada Greg is an experienced international consultant, facilitator, and entrepreneur, and an expert on sustainable lifestyles. As a sustainability facilitator, Greg has lead bid-winning and selected design teams on large mixed-use neighborhood projects across North America from pre-masterplanning onward on a range of often difficult infill sites. The resulting Sustainability Action Plans and Green Lifestyle programs have set the most ambitious and comprehensive targets for green communities yet seen in North America, significantly differentiating them from typical green projects. Greg leads the One Planet Communities program for North America, and sits on the Steering Committee for the global program, which is administered by BioRegional. The program creates coalitions with developers, municipalities, and grassroots groups in influential US regions to build Zero Carbon demonstration neighborhoods that model a truly sustainable future - places where people of all backgrounds and incomes live healthy lifestyles with an 80% reduction in total carbon footprint. BioRegional, an independent non-profit environmental organization with world HQ in London, UK, is the recent recipient of the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and the authors of the sustainability strategy for the winning London 2012 Olympic bid. BioRegional are best known as co-creators of the BedZED urban eco-village that the UK Solar Awards called "Perhaps the most influential of all housing projects this century." Greg founded BioRegional North America in 2006 to bring the One Planet Communities program to North America, and is guided by a Board of Directors comprised of many of the most experienced green architects and real estate developers on the continent. He is the lead author of the Green Living Manifesto. Greg has given over 50 workshops and keyno