Towards Sustainable Future
Environmental Management, Planning and Innovation
Team Members
Tom Flynn
Tom Flynn has a distinguished record in developing and managing many innovative and uniquely successful energy, water efficiency, water quality, and community environmental projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. Using his interdisciplinary skills, Tom has helped build local teams, which delivered significant environmental and economic benefit. Tom was Co-Director of the San Francisco Community Energy Coalition to promote energy efficiency and energy cost savings with funding from the California Energy Commission and PG&E. He developed a model demonstration project for collective discount purchasing and community collaboration for energy efficiency measures installed in Marin County homes. He was selected by the Federation of American Scientists to serve as the expert representative for community organizations nationally in a U.S. Departments of Energy (D.O.E.) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) think tank focused on developing solutions for multifamily housing. Tom has a network of some of the top energy and water efficiency professionals in the U.S. with whom he has worked to produce state-of-the-art energy and water efficiency projects. Tom is the Founder of the energyXxchange, formerly referred to as GreenSave.
Jim Benya
Jim Benya is an internationally recognized professional lighting designer and consultant with 39 years of experience. He is a Registered Professional Electrical Engineer, Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (FIES), and Fellow of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD). A member of the legendary Smith Hinchman & Grylls Lighting Group, he established and led California’s seminal lighting design firm Luminae Souter Lighting Design as Principal and CEO. His design work has been published in every major lighting design and architectural journal and has won numerous lighting design awards. Jim will serve as a technical advisor for lighting energy efficiency projects.
Gary Klein
Gary Klein is an internationally recognized expert on the relationship between energy and water. He has been intimately involved in energy efficiency and renewable energy since 1973. Gary was an Energy Specialist with the California Energy Commission for 19 years developing energy policy, managing public interest energy research and liaising with energy and water utilities. He was lead author of the CEC study, which determined that in California, 19% of the electricity and 32% of the natural gas is used to pump, heat, and treat water. In the late 1980s, Klein was one of the leads in a 3-company team that provided technical assistance on energy efficiency to not-for-profit organizations in Central New York. The team audited the facilities and provided recommendations on low-cost, no-cost measures, water heating, space heating and lighting. Educational workshops, arranging for group discounts and assistance in applying for grants were also part of the program. His firm, Affiliated International Management LLC, provides consulting services and training to architects, engineers, builders, contractors and homeowners on the most effective ways to achieve sustainable buildings, particularly in the area of “hot water as a system.” AIM also works with a variety of organizations to develop an effective strategy to reduce the carbon footprint of their water-energy relationship. Gary will serve as a technical advisor for energy and water efficiency projects.
John Rosenblum
John Rosenblum, Ph. D, has been an industrial water and energy efficiency consultant for 21 years. John's Ph.D. thesis and 24-year working experience have focused on energy efficiency related to water use and wastewater treatment. In the public sector, he has evaluated energy efficiency improvements for many municipal water and wastewater agencies and facilities. In industry, John has focused on reducing water use to avoid the capital cost of wastewater treatment upgrades, and on reducing refrigeration loads to avoid increasing capital and electricity costs. Beyond energy efficiency for individual processes and equipment, John has evaluated the regional impacts of water efficiency measures on energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. In almost all cases he has found that combining water and energy efficiency is very cost-effective - and less risky - than expanding water supply and wastewater treatment infrastructure. John has a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering and a M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from the Technion in Israel, where the focus of his education was design and operation of wastewater treatment systems. His Ph.D. is from Stanford University's department of Civil Engineering, where his research focused on solar cogeneration, energy efficiency, and waste minimization in the food-processing industry.