AUDEN SCHENDLER  (Special video recorded for this event)

Auden Schendler spent 25 years running sustainability programs at Aspen One, where he worked on large-scale climate solutions, including clean energy development, policy advocacy, and activism. He played helped develop the only coal-mine methane-to-electricity project in the United States and has been instrumental in mobilizing the outdoor industry as a political force through his decade-long board service with Protect Our Winters. Auden's first book "Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution," was praised by climatologist James Hansen as "an antidote to greenwash." His latest work, "Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul," was published in November 2024. Recognized as a "climate innovator" by TIME magazine and a "climate saver" by the EPA, Auden has also served on Colorado's Air Quality Control Commission, contributing to state climate policy development. An avid outdoorsman, he has climbed Denali, and kayaked the Grand Canyon in winter. He lives in Basalt, Colorado, with his family.