Green Century Institute

Michael Gosney, Founder, Co-director
Michael Gosney is an expert on Information and Communications Technology applications for sustainable development, green technology and ecocity design. An early pioneer in new media publishing, he has produced multimedia projects in partnership with firms such as Apple Computer, Kodak, Toshiba, Peter Norton, Adobe and Microsoft.

Gosney began researching and publishing material on environmental sustainability in the early 1980s when his Avant Books released some of the most noteworthy “green” books of the period, The Life and Adventures of John Muir, Deep Ecology, After Eden and eco-architect Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti. Gosney joined the Board of Trustees of Soleri’s Arcosanti ecocity project in Arizona in 1995, and produced the Paradox Conferences at Arcosanti in 1997, 1999 and 2001, bringing together leaders in cyberculture and sustainable community development. In 2002, Gosney co-founded the Green Century Institute in San Francisco to research and educate the public on sustainable community solutions. GCI co-produced the Green Cities Expo during the June 2005 UNEP World Environment Day in San Francisco with Al Gore, Daryl Hannah, and the series of Earth Day Digital Be-In events since 2006 (www.be-in.com) with Paul Hawken, Ervin Laszlo, Janine Benyus and other sustainable culture and green technology leaders. Currently, in addition to his ongoing support of GCI’s Califia Bay Area ecocity project and his consulting practice, he directs the Techné Verde initiative to build a major Internet-based sustainability platform with the United Nations and other partners.

Marc Kasky, Co-director
Marc Kasky has spent the last forty years working on a variety of projects that have enhanced the quality of life in communities throughout the United States. Predominantly as Executive Director of non-profit organizations – but also working with public agencies and commercial developers – he has worked in urban and rural settings to create projects, places and institutions which have strengthened the connections people have to their geographic and social communities. These projects have included:
• The eight-year conversion of a 360-acre former naval base in San Diego into Liberty Station, a dynamic award-winning multi-use community, with housing, retail, office, hotel, education and cultural uses. Much of this has occurred in historic buildings.
• Serving as Executive Director of the Fort Mason Foundation for over twenty years, guiding the conversion of ten historic buildings at Fort Mason in San Francisco into a dynamic cultural center, which the National Trust for Historic Preservation views as the model for converting former military bases into community-based cultural facilities.
• Consultant and advisor on projects in Northern California and Baja California, Mexico, which are attempting to create culturally, economically, and ecologically sustainable communities.

In addition, over the past twenty years, he has advised public and private sector institutions and businesses on similar projects in Seattle, Boston, Buffalo, Orange County California, Fort Ord, New York City, and Kobe, Japan.

He has served on over twenty-five non-profit boards for organizations dealing with issues ranging from homelessness to job training, green cities to cultural preservation. He co-founded the Green Century Institute in 2004. He has been a consumer activist advocating for increased corporate accountability and responsibility. He has had five articles on political and cultural issues published. He graduated from Wesleyan University (Connecticut) with a Bachelors degree, and from Yale University with a Masters in City Planning. He lives in the Presidio, a former military base on the San Francisco Bay.

Marjorie Athwal, Director, Secretary
Marjorie Athwal, a resident of Berkeley, California, was born in India where she spent her formative years. A travel industry professional, she has travelled extensively, with the study of community and cultures as a central interest. She has worked with several non-profit groups, and holds a real estate license for practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has also been a grassroots activist and was an organizer for the Oaks Project that does training in citizen democratic participation. Marjorie has been a student and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism in the Nyingma Lineage for 10 years. Presently she is living and working in a Buddhist community in Berkeley.