Website: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/

Profile: Kaid Benfield is the Director of the NRDC's Smart Growth Program in Washington, D.C.

Read Kaid's (updated nearly every day) at NRDC's Switchboard.

I believe there is a positive, solution-oriented story to tell about smart, sustainable development, and we in the environmental movement have an obligation to do better than we have in the past to articulate it and to speak up in favor of pragmatic, attractive solutions.

I am unabashedly pro-development when I recognize that it provides beneficial alternatives to sprawl or conventional, unsustainable land use. We have wonderful examples from enlightened developers, architects, and planners, and they deserve to be celebrated as the environmental heroes that they are.

I won't hesitate to criticize UNsustainable development, and I also won't hesitate to criticize those who cloak themselves as environmentalists for selfish, anti-environmental ends. But I hope to keep the tone more positive than not.

I was raised in the mountains of western North Carolina, surrounded by some of the most beautiful environment nature can provide. Although it took me a while, it was an easy leap from there to working on behalf of the natural world. I spent the first 20 years of my career as a litigating attorney, and then a few as a lobbyist. But my heart is with crafting and advocating the solutions in a non-adversary way.

I like working on smart growth issues because, unlike some causes, it’s less a holy war and more an attempt to solve a very complicated puzzle in a way that works for people and business as well as the environment. There’s a lot of room for collaboration and creativity. My wife is also an attorney, and we live in a village-y part of DC where we can enjoy trees, peace and quiet, yet still walk to Metro and restaurants.

I love music of all kinds, sometimes make it, and consume it vociferously. And I love riding my bikes, especially with people who make me push the pace. I like all kinds of sports, too, cities, literature and travel. I want to be an architect when I grow up.

Roots in: North Carolina, USA

Favorite place: At the moment, the Leopard Bar in Geneva

Why "environmentalism" matters: Because the environment matters.