Charlotte at a Crossroads: Building a Sustainable City for Generations to Come with Shannon Binns
TOPIC: Charlotte at a Crossroads: Building a Sustainable City for Generations
SPEAKER: Shannon Binns, Founder/Executive Director Sustain Charlotte
Charlotte is growing faster than almost any city in the nation. With this growth come big questions: How will we move around safely and efficiently? How do we keep housing affordable? How do we protect our air, water, and natural spaces?
In this talk, Shannon Binns, founder and executive director of Sustain Charlotte, will share how smart growth and better transportation choices can make our community more equitable, connected, and healthy. He’ll highlight local success stories, current challenges, and ways that all of us — at every stage of life — can play a role in shaping a thriving future for Charlotte.
BIOGRAPHY
Shannon is the Founder and Executive Director of Sustain Charlotte. Before moving to Charlotte in 2007, Shannon worked at The Nature Conservancy in Washington, D.C., where he was part of their climate change science and policy team.
Shannon served in the Peace Corps in Senegal, in AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps, and helped found a tsunami relief organization in Thailand. He worked as an industrial engineer for Motorola, General Motors and Trane in the for-profit sector. He holds a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering from Iowa State University and a Master of Public Administration in environmental science and policy from Columbia University.
He has previously served as a supervisor on the Mecklenburg County Soil and Water Conservation Board, an adjunct professor in the Sustainable Technologies program at Central Piedmont Community College and a member of the North Carolina Advisory Board for Environmental Defense Fund. In 2015, he was named one of “Seven to Watch” by The Charlotte Observer and one of the Charlotte Business Journal’s “40 Under 40.” In 2018, Charlotte’s NPR affiliate, WFAE, named him one of “The Most Powerful Voices in Charlotte.” In 2024, the Charlotte Business Journal named Shannon one of the region’s “Top 100 Innovators.”
Website: https://www.sustaincharlotte.org
Book Recommendations:
- Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design — Charles Montgomery
- The Smart Growth Manual — Andres Duany, Jeff Speck, Mike Lydon
- Reimagining Sustainable Cities: Strategies for Designing Greener, Healthier, More Equitable Communities — Stephen Wheeler
- Toward Sustainable Communities — Mark Roseland
- The Death and Life of Great American Cities — Jane Jacobs
