Gil Friend

Gil Friend is Chief Sustainability Officer at the City of Palo Alto, CA, where he’s responsible for the city’s bold sustainability and climate strategies (and its modest initiative to transform transportation in the Bay Area). For nearly 45 years, since his foundational work with Buckminster Fuller, Gil has helped companies and communities design, implement and measure profitable sustainability strategies. Founder and Chairman of Natural Logic Inc., and author of The Truth About Green Business and hundreds of articles on sustainability strategy, Gil is widely considered one of the founders of the sustainable business movement. He was named an inaugural member of the Sustainability Hall of Fame (with Ray Anderson, Amory Lovins, Karl-Henrik Robert and Bob Willard), and “one of the 10 most influential sustainability voices in America” by The Guardian.