Mr. David Wann
Author
Affluenza; Superbia
David Wann is a free-lance writer, filmmaker and speaker on the topic of sustainable lifestyles. He's currently the president of the non-profit Sustainable Futures Society, which in recent years has consulted on energy efficiency, compact development of communities, and has given workshops on creating sustainable neighborhoods. He's also a past board member of the Cohousing Association of the U.S., which represents 200+ American communities that are "neighborhoods on purpose," and a Fellow of the Simplicity Forum, a national association of writers and thinkers on the topic of sensible, sustainable lifestyles. With best selling author Dan Chiras, he wrote the book Superbia! 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods (New Society, 2003), about how to transform existing neighborhoods into models of sustainability by forming neighborhood partnerships. He was producer of the award-winning TV documentary, Designing a Great Neighborhood (2005), which has aired on PBS stations, Free Speech TV (satellite audience of 10 million) and Lime TV (cable audience of 20 million). It recently received kudos at the Princeton Environmental Film Festival.
Before that film project, Wann produced several other documentaries on sustainable communities, including one, Building Livable Communities (1996), for then-Vice President Gore’s office. Others are Placemakers (1997) which aired on PBS; Sustainable Development: Lessons from Nature (1997), which played at the 2000 Olympics; Smart Growth (1995), winner of several awards; Creating Communities that Work (1994); and Mega-Cities (1993), about global cities with more than ten million residents. He's also produced programs on sustainable agriculture, including the TV documentary Sustaining America's Agriculture: High Tech and Horse (1990), narrated by the late Raymond Burr and presented at the United Nations; and programs on transportation; watershed protection; wildlife protection; alternative sources of energy, and green products.
In his ten years at the Environmental Protection Agency (1986-96), he produced four TV programs and also wrote and published many articles, essays, and opinion pieces on sustainable practices. He received a national Bronze Medal from EPA headquarters for this writing. In 1989, he signed a contract with Johnson Books to write Biologic: Designing with Nature to Protect the Environment. That book was selected as a NetLibrary e-book, and has been influential in the thinking of people like Amory Lovins, winner of many "genius awards." Lovins called Biologic "lively, provocative, insightful and delightful," "one of the best environmental books in years." Innovative thinker and author Paul Hawken cited Biologic in his pivotal work, The Ecology of Commerce (Harper Collins, 1994), referring to Biologic as one of the ten books he most relied on when he was writing his best-selling book. In 1996, while still at EPA, Wann wrote another design-oriented book, also still in print, titled Deep Design, (Island Press, 1996) with a foreword by Paul Hawken.
He gave many presentations and keynote talks on this subject, later receiving the Timothy Wirth award for Excellence in Sustainable Development. After leaving EPA in 1996, Wann began to think about writing a book that would examine the psychology, ethic, and economic implications of the American lifestyle. When he saw the brilliant PBS documentary Affluenza (1998), he approached its producer, John de Graaf, about collaborating on the book version of it. That book became a best seller (130,000 now in print) and is translated into nine languages. It was a finalist in the Colorado Book Award for nonfiction, a Critic's Choice Selection by American Educational Studies Association, and the first edition was named one of the 8 Best Nonfiction books of 2001 by the Detroit Free Press. It was chosen as the "town book" in several locations, including the affluent Telluride, Colorado. A series of excerpts from Affluenza appeared as full-page, Sunday articles of the Denver Post Lifestyles section, leading to an assignment with the Post as a columnist.
He once again became very busy giving talks and presentations. David has been interviewed on NPR, New Dimensions, BBC, CBC, Colorado Public Radio, Monitor Broadcasting, History Channel, and dozens of other radio and TV programs, and has recently appeared on NBC and ABC TV affiliates. Affluenza has been a college student favorite, used as the "freshman book" (read by all freshman students) at five different colleges.
In 2003, three more books were published, including The Zen of Gardening (Fulcrum Publishing), Take Back Your Time (contributor, Berrett-Koehler) and Superbia! 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods (New Society Publishers). Take Back Your Time was mentioned in the New York Times, Time Magazine, and on NPR. In 2005, Wann published another book about sustainable lifestyles: Reinventing Community: Stories from the Walkways of Cohousing (Fulcrum Publishing), and in 2007 he completed his most comprehensive lifestyle-oriented book, Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle for St. Martin's Press (December, 2007). In its first four months, 25,000 copies have been printed, and the book recently won a Nautilus Silver Award for non-fiction.
More on David can be found here: http://www.davewann.com/
