Greg Norris

Practicing, Teaching, and helping advance life cycle assessment (LCA) since the mid-90s has provided wonderful opportunities to inform and inspire people and organizations in reducing their sustainability footprints. And that's what lead us to found Earthster.

It's also lead me to discover and recently start working full time on methods, frameworks and projects to help people and organizations grow their handprints – positive sustainability impacts, and to achieve NetPositive, which for me means handprints greater than footprints. Handprint creation starts with reducing your own footprint, but goes beyond to include restorative actions (cleaning up a beach, planting a tree, building a playground or school), and things you do (as a person or organization) to help others reduce their footprints. Reducing your own footprint is the right place to start, but frustratingly is not enough, and faces diminishing returns; handprint creation is as wide open as life itself, is inherently social and value-creating, and inspiringly positive.

With colleagues in SHINE@MIT I'm grateful to be working to open up our eyes (and decision-making) within LCA and sustainability assessment to the ways that organizations can pursue net positive impact creation. And with the amazing team at ILFI, I'm grateful to be helping a growing community of manufacturers deliver Living Products -- products which give more than they take, for people and planet, in production and over their entire life cycles.