Local Chapters
CASSE’s chapters (see directory below) provide opportunities to collaborate on activities to advance the steady state economy. A chapter can cover one of a variety of geographic scales:
- College or university campus;
- City or county;
- State or province;
- Nation;
- Watershed, ecoregion, or other geographic region.
Chapter directors, in consultation with CASSE staff, determine the activities undertaken by the chapter. Chapters can work on projects such as gaining support for the CASSE position on economic growth, developing outreach materials, and arranging speaking engagements.
If you want to get involved with a chapter, please use the contact information provided in the directory below. If you are interested in starting a new chapter, please download the chapter guidelines and contact us.
Directory of CASSE Chapters
Albany Chapter
Location: Albany, New York, USA
Director: Ted Lawrence
Ted is an Energy and Environmental Policy Analyst for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). His primary responsibilities involve energy modeling, forecasting, policy and economic analysis in support of statewide energy planning and climate action planning. He is also co-chair of the Education and Outreach sub-committee of NYSERDA’s Sustainability Committee. Outside of NYSERDA, Ted is President and Executive Director of the Foundation for Developing Sustainable Societies, a nonprofit organization committed to environmental conservation and sustainable development in Mesoamerica. He has also served as a full-time visiting instructor in Siena College’s Economics Department. Ted’s interdisciplinary education includes public policy, system dynamics, sustainability, ecological economics, biodiversity conservation, and anthropology.
Contact: Ted’s email
Brisbane Chapter
Location: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Director: Tom Byrne
Tom is a reformed lawyer and conscious consumer who is concerned about how rarely people question the systems in which they live and work, and he is keen to start the conversation. He is looking forward to the day when people stop working in jobs they dislike to earn money they don’t need to buy things they don’t really want to impress people they don’t know. His interest in a steady state economy has come from an ongoing journey of self education into the way we do the things we do. He firmly believes that with the right education and understanding, people will consider the ideas put forward by CASSE and bring the concept of a steady state economy into the mainstream debate.
Contact: Tom’s email
British Columbia Chapter
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Director: Neil Dawe
Neil is a wildlife biologist who lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He retired from the Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, in 2006 after 31 years, during which time he managed National Wildlife Areas and Migratory Bird Sanctuaries and worked to protect migratory birds and their habitat. Prior to his work in the biological field, he spent seven years as a banker with one of Canada’s major banks. His current professional efforts focus on the preservation of global biodiversity by addressing the limiting factor of biodiversity conservation on the Earth today: economic growth. He regularly delivers presentations and writes newspaper columns on this topic.
Contact: Neil’s email
Colombia Chapter
Location: Villa de Leyva and Bogotá, Colombia
Director: Claudia Múnera Roldán
Claudia is a biologist whose main interest (from both a personal and professional perspective) is conservation of biodiversity. She has experience working in both Colombia and Guatemala on projects involving endangered species, CITES, protected areas, birdwatching tourism, and invasive species. Her current research focuses on the social aspects of conservation, particularly ways to reconcile nature conservation with other societal goals. Claudia lives in the small town of Villa de Leyva where she works as a consultant for public and private sector organizations. She is very interested in coordinating people and organizations in Colombia who are concerned about the consequences of economic growth and want to develop an economic framework that includes a healthy environment.
Contact: Claudia’s email
London Chapter
Location: London, UK
Director: Miri Sloboda
Miri is an active writer and researcher, primarily interested in exposing the flaws in our current economic system and exploring viable alternatives. She believes the steady state economy holds many of the answers, particularly in the UK, where an economic solution is urgently needed. She also believes steady and stable families are vital to a sustainable society, which is why she runs STEP, an organization dedicated to providing families with information and support on the benefits of staying together. She has previously worked in charity fundraising for organizations such as Oxfam and the NSPCC, as well as in a variety of sales and PR roles within the private sector. She is very keen to help spread CASSE’s message throughout the UK, and welcomes your emails.
Contact: Miri’s email
New South Wales Chapter
Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Director: Stephen Ewington
Stephen is currently a high school teacher in Sydney. Before that he worked in the finance industry. For the last 10 to 15 years he has become increasingly disaffected by corporate greed and power, political incompetence and inaction, increasing bureaucracy and managerialism, as well as the degradation of our resources and environment – all in the name of self-interest, growth and needless consumerism. He is quite aware of the flaws in our current economic thinking and practices and feels the principles and commitment of CASSE provide a necessary and positive approach for the long-term prosperity of all.
Contact: Stephen’s email
Norway Chapter (click here to visit the Norway webpage)
Location: Oslo, Norway
Director: Tormod Burkey
Tormod is a conservation biologist with a Ph.D. from Princeton University on how to protect biodiversity and endangered species. He spent three years in Papua New Guinea as the Environment Programme Manager for the UN. He has served on the boards of the Rainforest Foundation and the Norwegian Carnivore and Raptor Foundation, advised parliamentarians on environmental policy, co-founded a wolf advocacy group, and is active with the Norwegian Green Party. He believes that political will is the limiting factor in bringing about meaningful change, not necessarily a lack of knowledge. Therefore he is drawn toward activism more than research.
Contact: Tormod’s email
Queensland Chapter
Location: Queensland, Australia
Director: Richard Sanders
Richard is an ecological economist, futurist, environmental scientist and change agent who has delved deeply into the concept of sustainability for over 20 years and been a steady stater for over 40 years. He is employed as a principal policy officer within the Queensland government dealing with sustainability and resource management. He is executive officer and founder of Quest 2025, a not-for-profit community organisation which aims to: “help facilitate the transformation of society through informed people power and the democratic process from its current state of social, spiritual and ecological crisis into an enlightened civilisation that is ecologically sustainable and socially just by the year 2025”.
Contact: Richard’s email
Rio de Janeiro State Chapter
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Director: Christopher Amaral Paterson
Chris has a technical background and a strong interest in the social and economic issues of our time. He is a systems engineer from PUC-RJ with a masters course in computer science also from PUC-RJ and a master of science degree in operations research from Stanford University. Chris strongly believes that a steady state economy is a must for all countries, but its implementation has to adjust to the specifics of each country. He further believes that blind economic growth fails to address human development needs and prioritizes profit above well-being. Chris is the founder of the Nova Economia Blog (written in Portuguese), which is dedicated to promoting new economic ideas with a Brazilian perspective.
Contact: Chris’s email
Risaralda Chapter
Location: Risaralda, Colombia
Director: Paola Arias
Paola Arias is an economist with graduate studies in the management of protected areas. She has worked on interdisciplinary projects in the environmental sector, such as environmental goods and services, economic valuation, watershed management and planning, and payments for environmental services. She currently lives in the state of Risaralda where she works mainly in the Otun Watershed. She is very happy to live there, since it is an excellent place to explore local development experiences toward a steady state economy. For example, the Otun Watershed encompasses ecovillages; commitments to conserve seeds, medicinal plants and traditional knowledge; community-based ecotourism in protected areas; children involved in environmental groups; and agro-ecological schools. She believes these activities stem from the high levels of social capital in the communities of the watershed. Besides her work as a consultant, Paola is excited to be working with other steady staters to create sustainable habitats and communities, based on the experience of 11 years of the Ecovillage El Prado.
Contact: Paola’s email
San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Location: San Francisco, California, USA
Director: Tyler Evje
Tyler is a recent graduate of San Francisco State University’s Urban Studies and Planning Department. He is interested in finding and implementing alternatives to the outdated principles and practices that plague our economic and financial thinking. He believes CASSE is an excellent venue for louder and more frequent debate regarding these topics. Currently Tyler works for a small real estate developer and architect in San Francisco. He spends much of his time trying to figure out how to finance, build, and sell zero net energy buildings.
Contact: Tyler’s email
Serbia Chapter
Location: Novi Sad, Serbia
Director: Ante Vujić
Ante Vujić is a biologist with a Ph.D. in diversity of Diptera (Syrphidae). He is a full professor at the Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences (University of Novi Sad, Serbia), whose main interest is biodiversity conservation, entomology, and the protection of endangered species. He intends to implement ecological economics into university curriculum in Serbia, and point out the importance of biodiversity through economic valorizations. He believes that biodiversity conservation through a steady state economy can provide potential solutions for many problems. He wants to help spread CASSE’s concept in Serbia and welcomes your emails.
Contact: Ante’s email
South Africa Chapter
Location: KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Director: Gertrud Lomas-Walker
Gertrud Lomas-Walker has for the past 20 years worked in the field of sustainability, in local economic development, for a large South African financial services organisation, and latterly as an advisor to companies for an international assurance and advisory firm. Her areas of speciality are sustainability strategy, integrated reporting and governance. She is pursuing a non-consumption driven ecological economic agenda and helping organisations and communities prepare for the transition. She is political science major and has an honours degree in organisational development.
Contact: Gertrud’s email
St. Louis Chapter
Location: St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Director: Eric Zencey
Eric is the author of Virgin Forest: Meditations on History, Ecology, and Culture and the forthcoming The Other Road to Serfdom: Essays in Sustainable Democracy. An internationally published (and nationally best-selling) novelist, Eric has been teaching ecological and steady state economics since the 1980s. He holds a Ph.D. in political philosophy, and currently is a visiting professor of historical and political studies for Empire State College. He is also an affiliate of the Gund Institute of Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont.
Contact: Eric’s email
Tolima Chapter
Location: Tolima, Colombia
Director: Sandra Marcela Cely Santos
Marcela works at a Regional Innovation Institute which educates people living in rural landscapes and supports them in the establishment of cooperatives and associations. The purpose is to improve livelihoods, build equitable communities, and re-empower communities to build a better future. Marcela is a biologist with a passion for wildlife conservation and a deep interest in biodiversity conservation in productive landscapes. She believes that agroecology and sustainable food systems are critical to achieving healthy landscapes and a sustainable economy.
Contact: Marcela’s email
Vermont State Chapter
Location: Burlington, Vermont, United States
Director: Aaron Witham
Aaron is a graduate student fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and a transportation research scholar at the University of Vermont’s Transportation Research Center. He is also a candidate for a Master’s in Natural Resources at UVM’s Rubenstein School. Before attending UVM, Aaron served as the interim sustainability coordinator of Unity College in Maine and the managing director of the Center for Environmental Education. His research interests include specific methods of achieving a steady state economy, alternative economic indicators, climate change policy, and sustainable transportation. As an avid hunter and fisherman, Aaron is also interested in steady-state outreach among outdoor enthusiasts.
Contact: Aaron’s email
Washington State Chapter
Location: Seattle, Washington, United States
Director: Josh Nelson
Josh is a structural engineer by day, a writer by night (and on the weekends). He lives in Seattle with his partner and young son. Taking to heart his responsibilities for his son’s future, Josh applies the “campsite rule” — he wants to leave this world in better condition than he found it. Josh runs the blog called Steady State Revolution, collaborates on the blog Post Growth and helps CASSE in numerous ways, particularly on the technical end of things. He also is an avid mead maker, homebrewer and bicyclist.
Contact: Josh’s email
Zürich Chapter
Location: Zürich, Switzerland
Director: Michael Curran
Michael Curran is a Ph.D. student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, focusing on applying the principles of steady state and ecological economics to the problem of land allocation between nature conservation and human use. He holds a Master’s degree in spatial ecology from the University of Basel and a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology from University College Dublin. In Zurich, he is involved in grass roots projects to revive local communities and involve people in locally producing the goods and services they require. This includes founding a community garden at the ETH Zurich, sharing a small farm in the Emmental region, and participating in initiatives from Transition Towns to Citizens Salaries. (Update: Michael is away on fieldwork in Kenya until May, and will forward any correspondence to other members of the Zurich Chapter).
Contact: Michael’s email
