ViewCraft is a unique consulting firm that helps organizational leaders understand and leverage the value of context to improve the sustainability of their operations.
We’re not “specialist” kind of consultants. We’re generalists who see the leverage points and help you connect them in ways you never imagined. Since sustainability is about integration, we’ll work with you to build a systems perspective that helps you identify efficiencies and synergies that not only transform your operations and achieve cost-savings, but more importantly, provide you with a more informed and motivated staff; the best insurance policy against the risks of a rapidly changing world.
If you have decided to invest in the sustainability of your company this does not mean you immediately need to hire an in-house sustainability manager or set up a new team/department. You only hire a guide when you need help getting through unfamiliar territory, but then you usually don’t need them after a trip or two. As the lead consultant, John Garn systematically works himself out of a job by integrating sustainability practices throughout organizations.
John Garn has more than two decades of skills and experience integrating green quality:
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How can we expect to move our culture in a more sustainable direction if the majority of the public remains eco-illiterate? Huge amounts of money are left on the table when companies invest in key performance indicator tracking systems but fail to translate and share that information with employees, customers, retailers, distributors and other key stakeholders. Businesses can also be educators, not just marketers. And pursuing opportunities to communicate your approach to sustainability often creates benefits that may be more difficult to quantify but still have incredible value - increased employee retention, additional customer memberships, new distribution opportunities and so on.
At ViewCraft we try to contribute to a smart sustainability dialogue as much as we can, and share valuable resources we come across with our colleagues, partners and customers.
Here are a few examples:
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Anna BrittainAnna has a broad background ranging from green building advocacy in Washington, DC to coordinating a study abroad program on environmental and public health in the U.S., Tanzania and Vietnam. She has spent nearly three years working as a sustainability consultant for the California wine industry, helping businesses assess and reduce their energy and water use and waste generation, and helping to develop and organize energy efficiency and environmentally preferable purchasing workshops for wineries statewide. Anna spent over a year working with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ Environmental Office on a climate change vulnerability assessment, community outreach and awareness building, and green marketing for the progressive environmental initiatives of the Chumash Casino Resort. Her extensive international experience provides her with valuable perspective and insights. In 2009 she worked in the Hanoi office of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature on national and local climate change adaptation. In 2010 she collaborated with the European Director of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in Geneva providing research and analytical support to partners in Latin America, Africa, South and Southeast Asia on regional and international climate change impacts and policy. Anna received her B.A. in Political Science and Environmental Studies from Williams College and her M.S. in Environmental Science & Management from the UC Santa Barbara Bren School. |
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Marie GewirtzPreserving agriculture as a way of life has been Marie Gewirtz’s mantra since 1980, when she relocated from New York City and Paris to raise a family in Sonoma, California. Since then Gewirtz’s career in marketing, brand development and public relations in the specialty food and wine industries has spanned more than three decades and as many continents. Her namesake-marketing firm passionately advocates sustainability as a way of life for current and future generations by promoting organizations with a commitment to land and resource stewardship, economic viability, education and community involvement. Marie’s forte lies in guiding clients in identifying authentic themes that set them apart, and developing innovative outreach strategies that resonate with media, trade and consumers. |
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Alexa Bach-McElroneAlexa Bach-McElrone is an independent sustainability advisor based in the San Francisco Bay area. Driven by her passion to create a better world, she has built a career helping nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, government agencies and corporations construct creative solutions that enhance the natural environment, embrace social equity, and ensure the bottom line. Alexa strives to make sustainability understandable and attainable by distilling complex systems into bite-sized pieces. Challenges become opportunities for innovation and clients become industry leaders. Diverse experience as a conservation biologist, business advisor, policy analyst, and freelance author enables Alexa to translate between disciplines, to wear many hats, and to transform loads of data into concise messages that are both useful for businesses and meaningful to consumers. Previously, Alexa advised the Urban Land Institute, World Wildlife Fund, and The Conservation Fund in matters related to sustainable development, conservation policy, ecotourism, green building, environmental education and communication/outreach. She continues to promote her passion for advancing environmental communication as a freelance author, and her dedication to global change through international work. She earned her master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University and her bachelor’s degree in environmental science from the University of Maryland. Alexa currently resides in the small, waterfront city of Benicia, California with her husband, young son, and an aging half-Siamese cat. When not at work she can be found putting her hiking boots to good use, scouring playgrounds for the best monkey/toddler climbing walls, or behind her camera. |
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Fraser Murison SmithFraser Murison Smith is a clean tech and energy professional with a background in ecological economics, the science behind sustainability. He is founder of ElectraDrive Inc., which won the 2008 California Clean Tech Open, and inventor of the Add-On Electric Drive for light trucks. He implemented and managed San Francisco's GoSolarSF solar incentive program for residents and businesses, and for ten years has provided technological, economic and financial expertise to various renewable power and demand-side energy programs. As Director of Product Management at Datafusion in the late 1990s, Murison Smith worked with John Garn to develop a unique knowledge-mapping and digital library software platform, which later formed part of the technology suite in use at ViewCraft. As a member of the International Society for Ecological Economics and Research Fellow at Stanford University in the 1990s, Murison Smith made important contributions to the advancement of the theoretical underpinnings of sustainability. He has a PhD in mathematical biology and BA in zoology, both from Oxford University. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and boy-girl twins. |