World-leading visionary, innovator, designer, and author, Bruce Mau is committed to creative, healthy, ecological and economic abundance. Informed by 25 years of studio experience in design innovation and collaboration with some of the world's leading artists, institutions and businesses, Bruce Mau has made the simple commitment to connect his life and work to education and human development. As Co-Founder of Bruce Mau Live, this new initiative is committed to developing purposeful projects in education, health, leadership, and security.

Motivated by the certainty that the future demands a new breed of designer, Bruce Mau founded the Institute without Boundaries – an innovative, studio-based postgraduate program in collaboration with George Brown College, Toronto. Mau and his students created the groundbreaking exhibition and best-selling book, Massive Change (Phaidon) — a project that declared, "Massive Change is not about the world of design; it's about the design of the world."

Bruce Mau's most recent book, The Third Teacher (Abrams) which he and his studio co-authored with OWP/P Architects and VS Furniture, presents a compendium of ways that design can transform teaching and learning for students, families and teachers to thrive in tomorrow's world.

Mau is an author and designer of award-winning books, including LifeStyle (Phaidon), S,M,L,XL (The Monacelli Press) in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas, and the iconic and celebrated ZONE BOOKS series. Translated into several languages, Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for Growth has been an inspiration with his aphoristic articulation of his personal philosophy and design strategies for unleashing creativity.

Bruce Mau's design philosophies and practical applications are featured in the recently released book, GLIMMER: How Design Can Transform Your Life and Maybe the World by Warren Berger (Penguin Press). According to Berger, Mau seeks to prove that the power of design is boundless, and has the capacity to bring positive change on a global scale.

A new world is evolving. It is driven by purpose and committed to sustainable human development. The new world inspires and demands a new approach. Our future is no longer about selling more stuff to more people – it's about understanding our potential as citizens and designing and producing shared prosperity and abundance. Bruce Mau's purpose is to contribute the most that one possibly can to this new world.

Distinguished award highlights from Mau's career include the Global Creative Leadership Award from the Louise Blouin Foundation; the AIGA Gold Medal for Communication Design; The William and Stephanie Sick Distinguished Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and Distinguished Fellow, Segal Design Institute, Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Northwestern University.

What is your favorite thing about your job? I couldn't possibly hold a job any more. I am unemployable. My favorite thing about my work however, is the opportunity I have to work with the people who are trying in so many ways to create the new world. Their challenges and problems, and the energy and commitment they bring to their work, are deeply inspirational.

Where do you go for inspiration? My daughters. They are endlessly creative, beautiful, surprising, brilliant, curious, questioning, and just. They are what citizens need to be. Most impressive, they are unaware of how much they inspire me. They think it's work for me when I do things for them.

What's one thing you do every day to make a difference? I look on the bright side. I can't afford the luxury of cynicism.

What's your favorite thing about where you live? The wildlife. We live near a forest preserve on Chicago's North Shore, and I haven't seen more wild animals since I left the farm in Northern Ontario where I grew up. And it's a five minute walk to the beach. It's awesome.

What's the one thing you'd want people to know about sustainability? Sustainability is cooler—smarter and sexier—than anything that has come before.

Lisa is an author of The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing, to be published by Penguin Press, Fall 2010 and the Mesh Directory live and online at www.meshing.it For more than 18 years, Lisa has been an entrepreneur and environmentalist focused on building companies and supporting social ventures where there is an opportunity for well timed disruption and a resounding impact. A founder and CEO of several internet companies, including GNN (the first web portal sold to AOL) and the largest consumer photo sharing and print service, Ofoto (sold to Eastman Kodak in 2001), Lisa’s attention is on sustainable ventures with positive social impact. She puts a strong emphasis on clean energy, social networks, accelerating community engagement and awareness & exploring new platforms & business models. Lisa currently serves as a Director of Dos Margaritas, an environmental foundation with programs focused in Latin America. She is an advisor & investor in several social ventures including: New Resource Bank, Convio, Squidoo, Slide, TasteBook, MePlease, Instructables & Greenbiz.

Multi award-winning industrial designer Yves Béhar is founder of fuseproject, the integrated design agency renowned for its game changing projects in areas as diverse as technology, furniture, sports, lifestyle and fashion. Béhar has attained international acclaim for a broad range of clean-lined and consumer-aware products that are deeply in-tune with the needs of a sustainable future including: PACT sustainable underwear; an electric vehicle charging station for GE; a task chair for Herman Miller made from 93% recyclable materials; and, a groundbreaking packaging design innovation for PUMA reducing waste consumption by 60%. Béhar is a founder of Green Products Innovation Institute. A frequent speaker on sustainable design, Béhar he was invited to speak at the 2009 World Economic Forum.

Where do you go for inspiration? Everywhere: home, work, the beach, the waves (surfing).

What's one thing you do every day to make a difference? Working on non-profit projects that I am passionate about (OLPC, See Better to Learn Better).

What's your favorite thing about where you live? It gets better every day.

Which Compostmodern speaker are you most excited to hear from? Really? How is that going to help me make friends with all of them?

Fill in the blank: Reduce, reuse, recycle, ________. Enjoy. If you don't enjoy what you consume, you won't reuse, recycle or keep things for a long time.

Janine James is a pioneer in the field of experiential branding and culture building. An early leader of environmental innovation, she founded the New York City-based firm The Moderns in 1992 as a brand strategy and multidisciplinary design think tank. The Moderns’ work has brought success to some of the world’s most influential and most environmentally sustainable brands, among them American Express, Planned Parenthood, BASF, France Telecom, Sundance, Knoll Textiles and Shaw Industries.

A cultural visionary in her field and in the community at large, Ms. James is a sought-after lecturer; inspiring audiences across disciplines and professional backgrounds, in both national and international forums. Most recently, she led an executive education program at Harvard University’s prestigious Graduate School of Design and has spoken at major conferences assembled by AIGA, IDSA, RGD Ontario, and Sustainable Brands.

Scott Thomas, who goes by the moniker SimpleScott, lives by the idea that the simplest solution is the best one. Back when he had free time he could be found at a letterpress fashioning original prints and collaborating with fellow members of the design collective, The Post Family. In 2008 he became the Design Director for the Obama Campaign. Soon enough SimpleScott found himself redesigning WhiteHouse.gov and trying to impress politicos with his Lincoln-like beard. He recently self-published Designing Obama, a chronicle on the role of art and design in the political realm. SimpleScott plans to continue working on creative projects that might just one day change the world.

Julie is currently the Director of Communications at (RED), a brand created to engage business and consumer power in the fight against AIDS in Africa. Julie joined (RED) in 2006 prior to its launch and was part of the start up team that shaped the business model, introduced the brand in the US and developed the initial brand partnerships with companies such as Gap, Apple, Converse, Emporio Armani and more. Over the past four years, she has led the companies communications efforts and helped establish (RED) as one of the most successful cause marketing initiatives in history, delivering more than $160 million to the fight against AIDS in Africa.

Prior to joining (RED), Julie was the senior director of communications and part of the start-up team at HELIO, a new mobile brand that delivered cutting edge technology and applications to young, connected consumers. Julie also spent five years in Motorola’s mobile devices division where she led the global category marketing group and was part of the team that orchestrated the RAZR launch in 2002. The RAZR went on to sell more than 100 million units, making it the third most popular mobile phone in history. Julie holds a B.A. in Communications, with an emphasis in Business Administration, from UCLA and an M.B.A. from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Jonah's pioneering communications work as the creative director at Free Range Studios has helped hundreds of social-mission organizations (like ACLU, Amnesty International, Conservation International, WWF) break through the media din with strategic, inspiring messages. His company’s visionary use of viral marketing has been featured in dozens of top TV networks (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) radio outlets (NPR, BBC, CBC) and newspapers (The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times). In 2004, Food and Wine Magazine featured him as a "2004 Tastemaker" for thinking up the most successful Flash advocacy movie in the history of the web, The Meatrix (themeatrix.com). In 2008, Fast Company named Jonah as one of the Fast 50 people who might just save the planet. His work has three times won best website awards at the nations leading digital festival, South by Southwest. And in 2010,Free Range was nominated for the National Design Award from the Smithsonian. Recently, Jonah has been a lead writer, along with Annie Leonard, on the iconic The Story of Stuff series. Viewed by more than ten million people around the world, The Story of Stuff remains one of the most talked about viral and sustained social message campaigns on the Internet.

What's one thing you do every day to make a difference? Think about the stuff I'd rather not think about.

What's the most surprising thing that's currently on your desk? A cork from a champagne bottle some NBA players used to spray each other after winning the championship.

What would you like to see change in your neighborhood? I'd love a communal toolshed, and then communal bikes, cars, everything...

Which Compostmodern speaker are you most excited to hear from? Micki Krimmel

Fill in the blank: Reduce, reuse, recycle, _________. Revolt.

Debera Johnson has been a catalyst for transformative change at Pratt Institute for over 20 years and a lifetime advocate for collaboration. She is currently the Academic Director of Sustainability at Pratt Institute and is leading Pratt’s commitment to integrate sustainability through its academic programs. Deb is the executive director of Pratt’s Center for Sustainable Design Studies, a regional resource to support teaching sustainability in an urban environment. While Chairperson of the Industrial Design program at Pratt she founded and continues to direct the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation whose dual purpose is to support start-up sustainable/social enterprises and engage Pratt alumni, faculty and students in projects that focus on sustainable innovation for industry and the non-profit sector.

What's one thing you do every day to make a difference? Pay attention.

What's your favorite thing about where you live? Brooklyn is a global, neighborhood that's passionate, creative, entrepreneurial, and gutsy.

Which Compostmodern speaker are you most excited to hear from? Scott Thomas. Design for politics has really shifted through the Obama campaign. I'm interested in what worked, what sustained and what was missed in continuing to engage people in Obama's vision.

What's the one thing you'd want people to know about sustainability? I think we spend too much time asking people to stop doing things when we should be envisioning a future that is exciting and even better than what we've got now.

Fill in the blank. Reduce, reuse, recycle, _______: Rejoice!!

Nathan Waterhouse co-leads OpenIDEO, a website that enables design collaboration crowd-sourcing. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Nathan develops and explores the potential of open innovation as it grows and matures as a business, designing new concepts and offerings for IDEO clientele in the US market.

Nathan has always been fascinated by how technology can be used to increase cooperation within groups of people, from professionals employed by the same company to colleagues connected by online social networks. His innovative work in this area has been featured by the BBC, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the International Furniture Fair (Milan).

What is your favorite thing about your job? That you can release something to the world unfinished, in beta, and your community figures out better than you can how it should be improved. The inspiration never ends.

What's the most surprising thing that's currently on your desk? A pirate ship.

What would you like to see change in your neighborhood? I'd like there to be a really good pub.

What's the one thing you'd want people to know about sustainability? Less is more. Small actions can create big results if we can work together. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Fill in the blank: Reduce, reuse, recycle, _________. Reward? Motivation is key to change.

Award winning designer, historian and design researcher Nitzan Waisberg is the co-creator of Sustainable Abundance, a radically human-centered approach to sustainability. While important technological innovations aid in creating a sustainable future, Nitzan believes equal emphasis needs to be placed on the perceptions, constructs and social worlds that afford sustainable abundance. At the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school) at Stanford, she and Debra Dunn guide multidisciplinary teams as they solve complex ecosystem level sustainability issues through design.

What's your favorite thing about where you live? I live on campus at Stanford in 1950's housing designed around a communal courtyard. Everyone has the same little house and everyone has the same giant yard. It's very liberating.

What would you like to see change in your neighborhood? I'd love longer stretches of sidewalks with shopfronts that make walking rather than taking a car more appealing.

What's the most surprising thing that's currently on your desk? I have a sword bridging the printer and a pile of books!

Which Compostmodern speaker are you most excited to hear from? I'm excited about all of the speakers really, but I'm definitely looking forward to hearing Debera Johnson, Dara O'Rourke and Nathan Waterhouse.

Fill in the blank: Reduce, reuse, recycle, _________. Remember. History is an amazingly rich resource for designers. Understanding the past gives us tools to reframe the present in ways that create real change.