The Firm's Owner and Principal Consultant

R. Warren Flint is Principal of Five E’s Unlimited in Napa, CA. As a sustainability professional, natural scientist, public participation practitioner, conflict mediator, and ecologist Flint assists regions in creating authentic choices and providing effective responses to environmental degradation, economic decline, and community disintegration through scientific inquiry and consensus building. Warren provides international leadership in developing research, management, policy protocol, public inquiry, and education strategies toward achieving sustainable development goals, as defined by governments, corporations, academic institutions, communities, and non-governmental organizations. He encourages looking beyond solving problems one at a time, to a position where one can envision the development of systems that prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Through his project design and leadership, he encourages shared relationships among ecologic, social justice, and economic development interests. Dr. Flint's complete curriculum vitae can be found here.

Warren is an internationally-recognized expert on sustainable development whose advice is regularly sought and who has worked on the theoretical foundations and practical applications of sustainability in many different global contexts. He has initiated and directed interdisciplinary research and public consensus-building targeted at contemporary and emerging natural resource and economic development issues. He has provided leadership for many Projects focused upon multiple discipline, international inquiries into scientific, technological, and societal problems related to the management and remediation of large ecosystems. Flint has also served on many local, state, federal, and international scientific, technical, and advisory committees, boards, and task forces whose mandates were enhanced economic development in line with sound protection and conservation of natural resources and remediation of environmental quality.

Flint obtained his Ph.D. in Ecology in 1975 from the University of California at Davis. He possesses an M.S. in Marine Science from Long Island University (1971) and a B.S. in Biology from Canisius College in Buffalo, NY (1968). He held research and administrative posts at several large universities through his 25 year academic career. Overall, Warren possesses a unique set of skills because he is able to ground his community facilitation and conflict mediation talent in 33 years of content expertise as an environmental scientist and sustainability specialist. Since leaving academia his 12 years of consulting work in sustainable development, adaptive watershed and coastal zone management, education, and urban revitalization have equipped him with a wealth of experience in collaborative fact-finding programs, providing visionary inspiration and pragmatic, science-based understanding to problem-solving, community development, and strategic planning. Warren enables clients to integrate self-defined community and business goals with environmentally sound decisions. He is a trained facilitator (Institute for Cultural Affairs) accomplished in many public participation methodologies, a certified mediator in Environmental Conflict Resolution (U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution – USIECR; Tucson, AZ), has served on the USIECR mediation roster for 9 years, and has worked as an effective community planner and stakeholder interviewer. He has conducted more than 1,000 hours of public participation and conflict resolution activities over the last 5 years.

His internationally recognized work in sustainable community development is centered on promoting sustainable community improvements and resiliency by working with groups to seek common ground solutions in their integration of economic, environmental, and social equity concerns. For example, his project design and leadership in directing strategic sustainability planning in 2007 for Dauphin Island, AL (USA), after the destructive forces of two hurricanes, is notable. This work resulted in Flint developing a perspective on “Seeking Resiliency in the Development of Sustainable Communities” that he has made presentations on around the U.S. He has also assumed leadership roles in revitalization of urban neighborhoods in Buffalo, NY, New Orleans, LA, and Washington, DC. He works with citizen groups to design and implement comprehensive strategies for rebuilding communities, while at the same time empowering people to take control of their own destiny.

In his university work Warren developed a dedication to the interdisciplinary application of knowledge learned from science toward real world environmental resource problems, land-use issues, and corresponding economic development. He has taught university courses in environmental science, marine biology, and ecology, and conducted research in estuarine ecology, coastal oceanography, freshwater ecosystem science, aquatic resource conservation/restoration, and areas of community-based sustainability. Flint has also devoted many years to the innovative development and application of interdisciplinary environmental studies education through the adoption of "ecology across the curriculum" strategies in support of both formal and informal education processes in sustainable development. More recently he has actively contributed to interdisciplinary program development in sustainability education, through his work on Sustainability Education Competencies, and taught two courses (2007-08) for the Bainbridge Graduate Institute (MBA Program, Bainbridge Island, WA): “Sustainable Community Economic Development: Design, Tools, and Practices” and “Introduction to Sustainability in Business.” Warren also taught a course, “Integrative Environmental Science” (2007), for the Center for Community Change Master’s Degree program at Antioch University, Seattle.

Dr. Flint's Publication List includes more than 60 peer reviewed journal articles, monographs, book chapters, and books on his research and community development work, including a book in 2001 entitled "Living a Sustainable Lifestyle for Our Children's Children" that captures much of his understanding regarding sustainability as it relates to the average citizen. He also published an on-line, Internet newsletter entitled "Sustainability Review", subscribed to by more than 3,000 persons from 90 different countries around the world.