Jim Fournier has three decades experience in sustainable systems design, renewable energy and information technology –

Jim is cofounder, Chairman & President of Planetwork, a San Francisco based collaborative network using information technology to address the pressing issues of our time – ocean acidity, mass extinction, ecological collapse, social & economic justice, and true democracy.

In 2000, Planetwork convened the first international conference on global ecology and information technology, and has continued to host major conferences and gatherings since then. Long before anyone had ever heard of social media, Planetwork convened the conversation around creating an online social network to empower individuals and civil society. The Planetwork community remains dedicated to the vision of building a distributed global networksince then. http://www.planetwork.net

He currently serves on the board of Buckminster Fuller Institute, Channel G Network and Threshold Foundation’s Sustainable Planet Grants Committee.

Recently exited Biochar Engineering Corp after five years as the leading entrepreneur in biochar – a carbon sequestering soil amendment – one of the only effective ways to remove net carbon from the atmosphere. Biochar increases soil fertility and has great promise for mine-land reclamation, the focus of Biochar Solutions Inc., a profitable spin-off where he serves as Chairman.

A former industrial designer, entrepreneur, software developer and industrial ecologist; left MIT to found an industrial design firm; owned and operated an international consumer goods design and manufacturing company; and developed 3D software as a Geometry Partner with Silicon Graphics.

Currently working on a narrative that situates energy technology within the context of biological evolution; Meta-Nature shows how and why our moment in history may represent a shift point at the dawn of a new phase of climax technology leading toward a plateau of long-term stability. http://www.metanature.org