The Washington Post called Lester Brown "one of the world's most influential thinkers." The Telegraph of Calcutta refers to him as ”the guru of the environmental movement.“ In 1986, the Library of Congress requested his personal papers noting that his writings ”have already strongly affected thinking about problems of world population and resources.“

Brown started his career as a farmer, growing tomatoes in southern New Jersey with his younger brother during high school and college. Shortly after earning a degree in agricultural science from Rutgers University in 1955, he spent six months living in rural India where he became intimately familiar with the food/population issue. In 1959 Brown joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service as an international agricultural analyst.

Brown earned masters degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Maryland and in public administration from Harvard. In 1964, he became an adviser to Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman on foreign agricultural policy. In 1966, the Secretary appointed him Administrator of the department's International Agricultural Development Service. In early 1969, he left government to help establish the Overseas Development Council.

In 1974, with support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Lester Brown founded the Worldwatch Institute, the first research institute devoted to the analysis of global environmental issues. While there he launched the Worldwatch Papers, the annual State of the World reports, World Watch magazine, a second annual entitled Vital Signs: The Trends That are Shaping Our Future, and the Environmental Alert book series.

Brown has authored or coauthored 50 books. One of the world's most widely published authors, his books have appeared in some 40 languages. Among his earlier books are Man, Land and Food, World Without Borders, and Building a Sustainable Society. His 1995 book Who Will Feed China? challenged the official view of China’s food prospect, spawning hundreds of conferences and seminars.

In May 2001, he founded the Earth Policy Institute to provide a vision and a road map for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy. In November 2001, he published Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth, which was hailed by E.O. Wilson as ”an instant classic.“His most recent book is Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble. Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum called it, ”A great book which should wake up humankind!“

He is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including 23 honorary degrees, a MacArthur Fellowship, the 1987 United Nations' Environment Prize, the 1989 World Wide Fund for Nature Gold Medal, and the 1994 Blue Planet Prize for his "exceptional contributions to solving global environmental problems." More recently, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Italy, the Borgström Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, and appointed an honorary professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Alexis Karolides, a Principal with the RMI/ENSAR Built Environment Team, is a registered architect who came to Rocky Mountain Institute with six years of experience in commercial, institutional, and industrial architecture. Her consulting projects for RMI's Green Development Services have included a retrofit project at Hickam Air Force Base to set a new "green" standard for the Air Force, a prototype energy-efficient supermarket for Stop & Shop, a sustainable design and energy plan for Madison, Wisc., environmental consulting for the Wildlife Conservation Society, and campus-wide energy planning and building retrofit strategies for Berea College. She has also provided educational seminars and integrated design workshops for communities, businesses, and institutions, including Shell, Perrier, the Departments of Environmental Protection and Urban Planning in Tianjin, China, and the cities of Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh. Ms. Karolides is a frequent speaker at national conferences and guest lecturer at colleges and universities; she was the sole representative for the United States at the First International Symposium on Urban Eco Sustainability in Padua, Italy. As a frequent contributor for broadcast and print media, she provides input on topics of energy efficiency, healthy design, and environmental sensitivity for commercial and residential building projects. Ms. Karolides graduated magna cum laude from Carleton College with a bachelor of arts degree in physics and distinction for research work on solar and alternative energy systems. Following a Richter Fellowship in Germany, where she studied post-war architecture, Ms. Karolides completed a master of architecture degree at Rice University. Prior to coming to RMI, she was a project arcThe Washington Post called Lester Brown "one of the world's most influential thinkers." The Telegraph of Calcutta refers to him as ”the guru of the environmental movement.“ In 1986, the Library of Congress requested his personal papers noting that his writings ”have already strongly affected thinking about problems of world population and resources.“

Gina Baker is the Director of Sustainable Design for Burt Hill, one of the primary design firms that created the award winning Master Plan for Noisette.  Her research in and passion for sustainability began over 14 years ago.  She has been working on the Noisette project since it was introduced to the public in 2001.

Burt Hill and BNIM Architects led a team of national experts in designing a master plan that creates a sustainable vision for the 3,000 acre historic center of the City of North Charleston. In partnership with the Noisette Company, the city is embarking on the largest and most comprehensive urban redevelopment project in the U.S. This project is a prototype for the ”New American City,“ a vibrant, healthy urban center, embracing its heritage and celebrating its role as community, ecosystem, and marketplace.  The master plan is based on a principle called the triple bottom line – a balance among people, planet, and prosperity – embodying the belief that sustainable cities must be equally responsive to social needs, environmental responsibility, and economic vitality. The project includes redevelopment of the former naval base on the Cooper River, a connecting 200+-acre urban park surrounding Noisette Creek, 7,000 new housing units, 3,000 rehabilitated housing units, and six to eight million square feet of commercial and retail space. A starting point for this plan was to understand the natural environmental systems that existed before human settlement began.