Connecting people and resources to meet the complex environmental challenges of our time

The Foundation is a small catalytic organization that seeks to convene other collaborators in strategic ways, and thereby leverage its small resources for maximum effect.  The Foundation’s name, Sustasis, is a Greek word that means “to stand together” or “to come together into integrality.”  The Foundation’s mission is to help to bring people and resources together to collaborate on the vital challenges of our time. 

Our small board includes Michael Mehaffy, Stuart Cowan, and Kathryn Langstaff.    Stuart is a physicist with a PhD from Berkeley who became committed to sustainable architecture after working with Christopher Alexander.  Stuart is co-author, with Sim Van Der Ryn, of the classic book Ecological Design, now in its ten-year anniversary edition.  Kathryn Langstaff is Stuart’s business partner and spouse, and a former student of Christopher Alexander, an architect and member of the Building Process Alliance.

Michael Mehaffy, our executive director, is a researcher, author, educator, consultant and practitioner in sustainable urban development.  Michael is the author of many journal papers and popular articles, as well as eleven book chapters, and he is a member of the editorial boards of three international research journals in sustainable urbanism.  He serves as a consultant to governments, university research projects and others.  His expertise in sustainable urban development and climate change was recognized when he was invited in 2009 to present a paper at the prestigious IARU Scientific Congress in Copenhagen, a briefing session for the treaty negotiations of December 2009.