Warren Karlenzig, Common Current founder and president, has worked with the federal government, 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; a major mixed-use real estate development corporation; an educational sustainability non-profit; and a product design corporation.

Warren has appeared in media including The Wall Street Journal, CNN, CNBC, Forbes, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The former Chief Strategy Officer of SustainLane, he planned, designed and directed both 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 for a pilot program being rolled out in 2008.

As Lead Strategist for Dimension Data/ Proxicom, Warren led strategy engagements for clients including General Electric and Chevron. His areas of expertise included planning portals, complex information and data systems, and communications. He 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, the first substantial work on the subject (Global Green USA, 1999) and he co-authored San Francisco's influential Sustainability Plan, which was adopted by the city in 1997. The section he co-authored ("Economy and Economic Development") was directly cited in San Francisco's 1999 and 2003 green building ordinances.

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.

What Others Say About Warren and his work:

"Warren is the creator and lead author of SustainLane's US City Rankings. I've been in the sustainability business for 15 or 20 years now. And these types of rankings have been tried dozens and dozens of times and this in my opinion is the best one in terms of its rigor and how much care they've given to apples-to-apples comparisons. A lot of that comes from Warren's commitment."
--Steve Nicholas, Seattle Sustainability Director

"How Green is Your City? is the first systematic report card measuring city quality of life combined with resource impacts....I believe the methodology will become international, and none too soon."

--Paul Hawken, author of Ecology of Commerce
and Blessed Unrest

"How Green is Your City? provides the first benchmark quantifying and qualifying management innovation and the performance of American cities as they seek to define what sustainability is."

--Hunter Lovins, Founder, Natural Capitalism, Inc.;
   co-author of Natural Capitalism

"Warren is one of the country's leading experts on sustainable planning. He has been instrumental in helping the California Department of Conservation choose our recycling communities using sustainability criteria. I have found his work to be really helpful, thoughtful and thorough."

--Bridgett Luther, Director, California Dept. of Conservation

Allison Quaid (Senior Associate) has spent the last ten years greening the operations of more than 500 local governments, non-profits and businesses across the nation. Issue areas include transportation, waste reduction and recycling, energy efficiency and conservation, sustainable economic development, smart growth, green buildings and climate protection plans. Allison has a depth of experience facilitating public, private and non-governmental organizational partnerships which advance sustainability.

She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities. Most recently, Allison was a Project Manager for Flex Your Power, leading regional outreach efforts for energy efficiency and conservation in Southern California and the Central Valley. Prior to that, Allison was Project Director for Strategic Energy Innovations, assisting communities in the use of clean energy technologies while strengthening community relations. Allison co-led the Clean Air/Clean Energy Working Group of the San Joaquin Federal Interagency Task Force, which is composed of federal agencies, research and non-profit organizations striving to improve the air quality in California's Central Valley.

Allison spent four years working with local governments to advance their sustainability efforts, while employed as the Project Director of Communities 21 for ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability. Allison wrote a manual for developing local sustainability plans, and piloted a process called the Sustainability Inventory with fifteen local governments.

Allison has consulted to the World Bank and USAID on international environmental projects. She is a LEED certified professional and a board member of the International Sustainability Indicators Network. Allison is an Advisory Board member for the Business Council on Climate Change. Allison holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Rutgers University and Masters in Urban and Environmental Public Policy from Tufts University.

Upon returning to the US, he decided to start a restaurant grease collection company to produce biodiesel, only to find and join an existing startup with like-minded folks. Ken sold his last remaining car, a Nissan Maxima, in 2006 and has started an organic garden at his parents' 0.3 acre estate.

Ken earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley.