Alex Steffen | Emily Carr Speaker Series

Alex Steffen has been the Executive Editor of Worldchanging since he co-founded the organization in 2003, as the next phase in a lifetime of work exploring ways of building a better future. 

In the last six years, Worldchanging has become one of the world's leading sustainability-related publications, with an archive of over 10,000 articles and a large global audience (Worldchanging was rated the second largest sustainability site on the web by Nielsen Online in 2008). Worldchanging's solutions-based journalism has played an important role in revealing formerly obscure innovations and groundbreaking ideas, thereby pushing forward the sustainability movement and changing the way we think about the planet's most pressing problems. 

Steffen also edited of Worldchanging's wildly successful first book, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century (Abrams, 2006), a 600-page compendium of leading solutions from around the world, with a foreword by Al Gore, an introduction by Bruce Sterling, and design by Stefan Sagmeister (winner of the 2005 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award). Worldchanging (the book) has been an Amazon bestseller in the U.S. and Canada, won the Green Prize for sustainable literature and has gleaned wide acclaim, including being named as one of the books of the year by BusinessWeek. The book has been translated into French, German and Korean, and will soon be available in several other languages. 

The critically-acclaimed site has won the Utne Independent Press Award, and been nominated for Webbys (the Oscars of the Net) for Best Blog and Best Magazine, as well as Bloggies for Best Writing and Best Group Weblog. Worldchanging's work and Alex's role as a leading voice in planetary futurism have inspired over 600 stories in the media, including a CNN documentary and a New York Times Magazine profile. 

Steffen works tirelessly to share Worldchanging's ideas and message worldwide through regular speaking appearances to influential audiences and at leading companies such as Weiden + Kennedy, Nike, Amazon, Ideo, Arup, Nau, Steelcase, Carrier, Yahoo!, the World Travel and Tourism Council the sustainability venture capital conference ResourcePoint. He has also spoken and keynoted at the most renowned design and innovation conferences in the world, including TED, Pop!Tech, Tallberg, Design Indaba, South by Southwest Interactive and Doors of Perception, as well as at some of the world's leading universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford. 

7-9 pm | September 8, 2010
Lecture Theatre |  Room 301 | South Building

This talk has been made possible through the support of Powertech Labs Inc.