JOHNS BIO’S

Most of us don’t see connection. But John Picard sees connection everywhere.

Writing a biography of John Picard means disrupting biography. There’s the graphein — Greek for what can be scratched down as a record of achievement, in contrast to the graphene battery system John is working on right now. 

And then there’s the bios — the systems that really have to be experienced first-hand, his Basic-Input-Output-System that we can inhabit right now. Let’s start there.

We’re all connected to John because he has been imagining, advocating, designing and building a sustainable, smart, regenerative world economy since he was a sunburned surfer, fresh from high school. And we’re starting to live in John’s world.

Have you ever stepped on a piece of carpet made by Interface Group? You almost certainly have because Interface has made billions of tiles. You’ve probably been standing on a carbon negative tile, thanks to the work John did with Interface founder Ray Anderson. John helped transform a carbon-intensive manufacturer into a sustainable, yet profitable, global powerhouse for green products.

Have you ever visited the City Center Hotel Las Vegas or the Grand Wailea in Maui, Hawaii? Both resorts are icons of sustainable hospitality, thanks to John who also planted the seed of what is now the US Green Building Council with the Clinton administration.

Have you ever been to Greensburg, Kansas? John empowered the community to rebuild after a deadly tornado. He built his first sustainable, off-grid home by hand in 1991, a model for what is only now becoming mainstream. 

Have you ever been to Atlantic Station, the giant shopping district in Atlanta? It was the largest sustainability project ever conceived in the US — conceived by John. If you ever stand in Hangar 25 at Burbank, California, it’s LEED Platinum because of John.