Robert Abbott is a business and NGO consultant specializing in sustainability strategies. A core focus of his current work is helping energy and resources firms worldwide make the transition to a less carbon intensive economy. He is the author of Uncommon Cents: Thoreau and the Nature of Business, and the forthcoming (2009) Conscious Endeavors: Essays on Business, Society and the Journey to Sustainability. While at the Mesa Refuge, Rob will be working on his next project, a meditation on the evolution of the city provisionally titled Where We Live: Chasing the Dream of Urban Sustainability.