David Wann TOPICS: Culture Ecology Economics Empowerment FEE CATEGORY:* 2.5k to 5.0k TRAVELS FROM: Colorado Video Profile Program Outlines Testimonials/Client List Books & Videos Request This Speaker

David Wann: Profile

In nine books, 25 TV programs and videos, and more than 200 presentations and speeches, David Wann’s overall goal is to help define the meaning of “sustainable lifestyle.” Since over-consumption at current rates is economically unsustainable, psychologically numbing, socially chaotic, and biologically impossible, we need to reinvent our lifestyle, including expectations, habits, and ways of meeting our needs (such as diet, mobility, community and social connections, energy use, work and play.) This cultural change is not about what we give up but what we get back: clarity, purpose, cooperation, trust, and empowerment. “Changing our culture is like changing a radio station from one with poor reception to one that's clear,” he says. “We still use the same radio but we're on a different frequency, a different station that we can hear more clearly. A sustainable lifestyle is that clear station, delivering twice the satisfaction for half the resources.”

Simple Prosperity, the book he has just completed for St. Martin’s Press, highlights the "mother lode" of abundance that remains untapped in our daily lives: efficiency, precision, essential connections with land and people, health and wellness rather than just more "wealth and hellness." Throughout history and across all cultures, human needs are exactly the same; what changes are the methods of meeting the needs. As Wann points out in the best-seller Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, we are neglecting what really matters in favor of possessions, appearances, speed, power, and control. Simple Prosperity, a sequel to Affluenza, offers a pathway to clarity, sanity and security through better design, policy, and a more sensible lifestyle - attributes that will reduce our compulsion to consume more than "enough."

Wann is president of the Sustainable Futures Society, a board member of the Cohousing Association of the U.S., and the recipient of various lifetime achievement awards for his work on sustainability. He’s been a passionate gardener for 25 years and coordinates a neighborhood garden in the cohousing community in which he has lived for 11 years. He is editor of the book Reinventing Community and coauthor of Superbia! 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods; and producer of Building Livable Communities for then-VP Al Gore’s office. He has also produced several other programs on communities and neighborhoods, including the award-winning TV programs Placemakers and Designing a Great Neighborhood, which appeared on Free Speech TV, Lime TV, and PBS stations.

In the TV program Sustaining America’s Agriculture, narrated by Raymond Burr, Wann explores the difference between conventional and sustainable farming, demonstrating how organic agriculture results in better health and happiness, less pollution and energy consumption, and stronger communities.

He is currently at work on the book Value Shift, in which he suggests ways that our decisions can be based on biological and anthropological realities. For example, why is the mainstream American diet dominated by energy-costly meat when the human body evolved to digest a wide variety food? Why do we tolerate life in isolated houses on “life support systems” when we evolved as a socially cooperative species? Why do we work in jobs that don’t deliver a sense of purpose and don’t contribute to a sustainable culture, when meaning is essential to human happiness?

* Please note that while this speaker's specific fee falls within the range posted at the top of this page (for Continental U.S. based events), fees are subject to change without notice. Also note that most celebrity keynotes begin in the $25,000 and up range (most list "Contact for Fee Schedule"). For current fee information or international event fees, please contact your Speakers Platform representative.