Michael Kinsley: Senior Consultant

Contact Information

Rocky Mountain Institute
Attn: Built Environment Team
1820 Folsom Street
Boulder, Colorado 80302

e-mail: BET@rmi.org
phone: 303-245-1003

Michael Kinsley is a senior consultant, specializing in community energy planning, sustainable communities, and workshop design and execution. He is a frequent speaker on such topics as local sustainability, economic development, natural capitalism, energy, integrative and collaborative decision-making, and community-growth problems and solutions. (http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid445.php)

Kinsley provides strategic guidance and workshops to communities that are working toward a greener energy future — most recently in Omaha, Savannah, Charleston, and the Salinas Valley. Also, he designs and conducts innovation workshops for communities and corporation helping them find solutions that serve both the environment and their bottom lines. Kinsley is leading a research project to accelerate efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from college-campus operations (http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid566.php). His work has taken him to 46 US states and several foreign countries.

Background:

For over thirty years, he’s wrestled with the problems of building viable local economies while preserving environmental quality. First as the director of citizens' organization, then as a local elected official (1975-85) he pioneered programs in environmental and growth management and affordable housing. Co-founder of a community-based mediation service and a regional citizen advocacy coalition, Kinsley worked with various local, regional, and state agencies on community issues.

Since 1983, Kinsley has headed RMI’s communities practice, which is now targeting efforts to reduce fossil fuel use. For over fifteen years, he helped communities green their economic development efforts. His writing includes Economic Renewal Guide (1997), “Natural Capitalism on the U.S.-Mexican Border” (2000), “Cuyahoga Valley Initiative: A Model of Regeneration” (2004), Grappling with Growth (2007), and Sustainability Initiatives in the Salinas Valley (2009). He also is a lecturer, trainer, author, mediator, and landscape painter. He holds a BS in political science from the University of Houston and has taken advanced environmental and governmental management training.