Nobel Laureate to Talk Sustainable Communities on Monday Night

It’s not often that a Nobel Prize winner lives in your community, but we have one here in Beverly Hills.

Resident and qualitative economist Woodrow “Woody” Clark II, MA3, Ph.D., was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with colleagues from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A longtime advocate for the environment and renewable energy, Clark is a world-renowned author, lecturer and adviser who specializes in sustainable communities. In 2004, he founded Beverly Hills-based Clark Strategic Partners, a consulting firm devoted to sustainable environments and renewable energy infrastructures.

Clark is giving a free lecture titled “Global Sustainable Communities: The Third Industrial Revolution” as part of the Beverly Hills Forum Series at 7:30 p.m. Monday in City Hall's Council Chambers.

Beverly Hills Patch: How did you get into the field of climate change?

Dr. Woodrow Clark: I realized while living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area that climate impacted everyone around the world. This was not an issue just in California or the United States, but global. The world is round, so that means what happens in California impacts other regions of the United States as well as the EU and Asia. I am concerned about the future, especially for my 3-year-old son, Paxton, named for “peace” after the Nobel Prize I won about the time that he was born.

Patch: What does “green” mean to you?

Clark: "Green" is the most accurate word for all environmental and renewable technologies, systems, economics and policies. "Clean" is only a short cover-up word for fossil fuels like natural gas, nuclear power and clean coal. In short, the use of "clean" with renewable energy and the environment is an oxymoron. None of these fossil fuels are good for the environment.

Patch: What simple things can the city of Beverly Hills do to be more sustainable?

Clark: First, install walking and bike paths for people that are safe and inexpensive. Some European cities have bikes that can be rented while people go from one place to the other and then returned to racks located all over the community. Personally, I walk when I can. Right now, I cannot ride my bike here because it is not safe in this city or the county.

Secondly, we need to have a citywide program to put solar panel systems on all of our public buildings, as well as office buildings, retail shops, parking structures and our homes.

Patch: What about constructing , which are internationally recognized as being green? Is it a good first move?

Clark: LEED is only a beginning. Most cities say that they have LEED-certified buildings [but they meet] the lowest level of LEED standards. 

Patch: What are the easiest actions a household—whether young or old, single or a family—can take to be green?

Clark: Reduce, recycle and reuse... Also, buy Energy Star appliances and hybrid vehicles.

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