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bob-graves

Bob Graves

Contributor

Bob Graves. M.S., associate director of the Governing Institute, is the designated content curator for the FutureStructure initiative and also a co-founder of e.Republic, the parent organization of Governing.  As associate director, Graves writes, presents, moderates and provides advice on smart and sustainable approaches to water, waste, energy, transportation and building systems drawing from his more than 25 years of experience working with private sector companies, nonprofits and state and local governments.

In the 1980s as a co-founder of e.Republic, Graves was instrumental in establishing the Government Technology event and publishing divisions of the company. These divisions expanded rapidly from a single Government Technology Conference in Sacramento, California (1987) to scores of regional and local conferences and print and online publications providing news, in-depth articles, and research to hundreds of governments agencies and IT companies across the country.  He also served as its Chief Administrative Officer and president, ensuring that the company's organization kept pace with its growth into new sectors of research and online publishing. 

In 2006 capitalizing on his academic training in environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Graves co-founded and served as president and editor-at-large of Green Technology, a California based nonprofit publishing organization providing strategy and leadership for clean and sustainable communities. Bob helped produce three international "Governors' Global Climate Summits" with a team from then California Governor Schwarzenegger's office.  He has also headed the production of numerous conferences on green technology, moderated roundtables on high performance buildings and guided training activities for over 5,000 government building officials and design/construction professionals on CALGreen - California's new green building code.

With the technology maturing and public support growing, it's looking more and more realistic.
Technology has a role in moving toward a goal of zero waste, but so does the "soft" infrastructure of citizen activism and effective policies.
Ride-sharing and car-sharing are complicating life for transportation planners, not to mention automakers.
Policy and technology are driving innovation in the energy sector, and much of it is coming from the utilities themselves.
By linking environmental sustainability and economic growth, Charlotte is showing the way.
In guiding the transformation, governments need to be in the driver's seat.
As a new report makes clear, few of our urban areas are adapting to the changes that are revolutionizing the way we get around.
Regulating them will be a challenge for governments at all levels, but we're going to have to figure out how to do it.
As new ways of buying and selling energy emerge, the system of monopoly control is being challenged.
With everything increasingly connected, there is a growing awareness of new vulnerabilities.