Matt Grigsby is an Industrial Designer by trade, entrepreneur by passion and sustainability fanatic who is implementing new ways to address the tough environmental challenges facing us today. He oversees consulting projects, trend forecasting and collaborations at Ecolect. With a BFA degree in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and a love for all things big picture, Matt has a passion for problem solving through creative and viable approaches. In addition to his role as CEO and Co-founder of Ecolect, Matt runs the sustainable transportation blog, Alternative Transit (alternativetransit.com), focusing on remarkable transit-related projects taking place around the world. Locally, he is Chair of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), Rhode Island chapter and nationally, Co-chair of IDSA's Eco Design Section. You can reach Matt via email at matt@ecolect.net.

Joe Gebbia is a quintessential designtrepreneur, graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Product Design and another BFA in Graphic Design. During a RISD field trip to the state landfill, he was struck with the Ray Anderson 'spear in the chest'; that moment when a designer realizes their impact on the environment. As his career took off, Joe was soon developing products for corporate clients like LG, Intel and Staples, and his own product, CritBuns. In each project he longed for a central resource to identify, compare, and select sustainable materials. Taking matters into his own hands, he collaborated with classmate and advocate Matt Grigsby to fill this crucial gap in the design process. Ecolect is the result. Joe can be reached at joe@ecolect.net.

Originally from a small town near Ann Arbor, Mich., Elizabeth Redmond earned her BFA from the University of Michigan School of Art and Design. As a designer/inventor, she is inspired by physics, technology, social environments, ecological phenomena and any design that saves jaw-dropping amounts of energy, materials, time, transportation and other resources. With a keen eye for contemporary issues, she strives to combine radical concepts relating to energy and sustainability with function and practicality. Elizabeth currently lives in Chicago, where she is working on a semi permanent installation of her lifelong project, POWERleap: energy generating sidewalk tiles. Elizabeth can be reached at elizabeth@ecolect.net.

Andy Culter is the founder of Cutler & Company, a communications counseling company based in Providence. Building on his twenty years of experience in the field of strategic communications, Andy has advised a number of leading institutions, including the Rhode Island School of Design and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. Working extensively with leaders in design, science and technology, his firm helps clients tell others about their cutting-edge advancements and how they will improve the world.

Alice is a designer and researcher with a strong interest in the environment. She graduated from Politecnico di Milano in Italy with a degree in Industrial Design. Her desire to learn more about the industry brought her to Ecolect in San Francisco, where she is uncovering the latest in sustainable materials. When not teaching the SF office how to speak Italian, she can be found dancing to Salsa music in Berkley.

Than is an industrial designer based in New York City, with a passion for issues related to sustainable design, architecture, and clean technology. After graduating from Washington College with a with a BA in international affairs, he soon developed an interest in art, architecture and design, and went on to acquire an MS in Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute in 2000. Having been struck by the more negative aspects of the industrial design industry during school and in his professional experience, Than is determined to make a long career of designing practical and sustainable products, and advocating for sound environmental stewardship and energy efficiency. He currently multi-tasks as communications director for o2NYC, and industrial design consultant in the realm of furniture, lighting, and tabletop.

Alberto Villarreal is a Senior Industrial Designer based in Mexico City. For over six years he has been creating innovative products in fields as varied as sports equipment, consumer electronics, educational toys, medical equipment and transportation.

Formerly a member of the Industrial Design team of LUNAR in San Francisco, his current work is a combination of consulting for clients internationally as well as development of philanthropic projects with organizations such as Engineers Without Borders and Project H Design. His credits include such prestigious design awards as Red Dot Best of the Best; the Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award; the iF Hanover Product Design Award, and the IDSA/Business Week Industrial Design Excellence Award among others.

Valentina is an industrial designer based in Italy who is passionate about research focused on sustainability. Her thesis project at Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche (ISIA) focused on the LCA of retail displays - the materials, breakdown, and assembly. To extend ecological thinking into her project, she collaborated with the Laboratory in Sustainable Design at ISIA, and the fashion brand Sixty SPA. Following graduation, Valentina worked at Capellini Design studios in Italy. Her role was material search for the MATREC (MATerial RECycling) project in Rome, Italy. She was recently hired by printer company Océ N.V. in the Netherlands to consult on greener printers. When she's not studying eco materials, the bilingual designer enjoys reading, visiting museums, traveling, and biking.

Corine is a textile designer based in Montclair, New Jersey. She is originally from Providence, Rhode Island, where she studied Textile Design at Rhode Island School of Design. Corine specializes in color development and forecasting in the home furnishings industry. She has been awarded by the Joined and Woven: 7th Annual Fidelity Investments Juried Textile and Furniture Exhibition and the International Textile Market Association’s Virginia Jackson Design Competition. Her experience in the manufacturing industry led her to a deep passion and commitment to sustainability, particularly to the improvement of human health through addressing indoor air quality issues. Currently, Corine studies sustainable design at New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Daniel hails from good old Macungie, Pennsylvania and hangs out at Brown University studying chemical engineering. He became interested in sustainability from his Group Independent Study Project called Energy Science and Education where he was introduced to sustainable energy sources and materials. At Ecolect, he hopes to be a part of new and ongoing environmental initiatives and to become a better equipped engineer in the future.

Boram is passionate about establishing appropriate design applications that not only solve the existing problems but also address other bigger issues evolving around them. She finds learning to choose suitable materials that are functional and environmental an important step in her design career. She is pursuing her BFA degree in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design.

Lauren is studying to get her BFA in Interior Design at Cal State Chico with an emphasis in sustainable design and hopes to eventually get her MA in Architecture. Hailing from the East Bay Area, her passion for all things sustainable started through an interest in environmental science and grew into the area of design as she noticed a serious disconnect between the two. Her main focus is on materials that are durable, environmentally sound from start to finish, community friendly, and still fresh on the eye, especially in hospital design. When not interning for Ecolect, Lauren can be found DJing at KCSC student radio or hiking the beautiful trails around Chico.

While at the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University, Neha cultivated a deep interest in sustainable product design, both for ecology and society. As a designer she has worked with Ecolect partner Project H Design to create a playground that teaches math for AIDS orphans in Uganda, designed grant-funded eco-conscious products for the Pittsburgh area, and created sustainable packaging for Domestic Aesthetic, a Brooklyn-based company specializing in sustainable housewares. She currently works full-time in New Jersey, and when she's not designing you can find Neha reading, running, or biking around.

Horace Ko was raised in a technology-rich environment, and so has harbored an interest in high-tech developments all his life. The increasing accessibility and pervasiveness of the Internet led him to rekindle an affinity for developing web applications that started in high school. Horace earned his B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of California at San Diego, and currently lives and works in San Jose.

Sally Kuchar is a native of San Francisco. She studied Interior Design and completed both residential and commercial projects. She is a board member of the Directors for the American Society of Interior Designers, where she focuses on sustainability. She is also a regular contributor for MoCo Loco, a contemporary design and architecture blog. Sally’s own website, called sallyTV, is a video blog about Sally and her world of design.