Aligning her deep passion for food and travel with environmental issues, she started working on sustainable tourism and hotel greening in 1996. Since then, she has provided program, policy and training to the tourism industry through many projects, including the Pike Place Market's first environmental program development, an extensive and widely recognized hotel water conservation pilot, program development for tourism businesses in the Salish Sea and asset and opportunity analyses for counties. She and Steve Gersman are principals in Calyx Sustainable Tourism, a regional sustainable tourism company that promotes sustainable tourism as a market mechanism for healthier communities and economies.

She was a staff member of the Puget Sound Partnership and led the Puget Sound Georgia Basin Ecosystem Indicators Workgroup* for over four years which led to the culmination of two reports, the most recent of which is an on-line suite of nine indicators that describe the story of British Columbia and Washington's shared basin ecosystem. She was also the senior analyst for performance measurement for the Washington State Department of Ecology and guided performance management and measurement development across 11 departments, including finance and administration.

Heidi was asked in 2007 to write for American Public Media's ® Greenwash Brigade and specializes in greenwashing and vetting products and companies for legitimate green practices and policies. Her blogs are archived at www.publicradio.org/columns/sustainability/greenwash. She is a Board member of the Partnership for Water Conservation and serves on the Technical Advisory Committee of the Seattle Culinary Academy.

* See Resources page.

As a principal of Calyx Sustainable Tourism, Steve has worked on many projects including partnering on a five year tourism strategy plan for Snohomish County, conducting hotel assessments, developing a statewide survey of environmental practices in hotels, and creating the "Greening Washington's Lodging Industry" program for the Washington Lodging Association.

Steve has also worked as a consultant to Boeing over a period of four years and at Verizon Wireless for nine years, culminating as National Manager of Training. He is skilled in areas of organizational development (OD), project management, training and development (T&D), organizational communications, performance management linked to environmental goals. He is experienced in measurable outcomes with ongoing monitoring and improvement having performed continuous quality improvement work for 15 years.

Steve has incorporated into his work on sustainable tourism many of the techniques that have earned him recognition in earlier positions. He designed an award winning, online performance management system and provided change management support designed to help employees deal with five mergers in as many years. Steve was featured in Training, a respected trade journal, for developing a uniquely innovative multi-modal new hire orientation program. He is a skilled facilitator who has conducted executive retreats, problem solving groups, and quality improvement projects.

Over the years, his work has saved millions of dollars for organizations, increased efficiency and productivity, solved problems at their root cause and motivated employees and executives alike.

Outside of his work, Steve has performed in leadership positions for a number of non-profit organizations including Seattle Schools' Academy of Hospitality & Tourism, P.U.R.E. Travel Collaborative, and Leadership Tomorrow, a joint venture of The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and The United Way. Its mission is "to develop effective community leaders who work to strengthen our region."