Worldwatch Institute Staff

Biography

Erik Assadourian, Research Associate

Email: eassadourian@worldwatch.org
Phone: +1 (202) 452-1992

Erik Assadourian is a Research Associate at the Worldwatch Institute and director of the Institute's Sustainable Communities Project. Currently, Erik is examining how to mobilize communities, towns, and cities to drive societies to become sustainable. In 2008, he published a chapter on "Engaging Communities for a Sustainable World" in Worldwatch's State of the World 2008 report. He is now conducting an investigation of the most sustainable neighborhoods, towns, and cities in the United States, with the goal of identifying the leaders and encouraging other cities to learn from them.

At Worldwatch, Erik has explored many aspects of what a sustainable world could look like, including investigating a new economic system built around well-being rather than consumerism, how corporations could drive sustainability rather than hinder it, and a broadened definition of global security that incorporates human and environmental considerations, rather than just military dimensions. Erik co-directed the publication State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security and directed Vital Signs 2006-2007 and Vital Signs 2007-2008.

Erik has addressed a wide range of audiences both in the United States and abroad. He launched the report Vital Signs 2007-2008 in Barcelona, Spain, and the foreign editions of State of the World 2006 in France, Italy, Serbia, and Spain. He has also traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss the links between global security and sustainable development and presented at conferences in Japan, Spain, and the United States. He has given interviews on the Earth's "vital signs" on National Public Radio; on the problems of overconsumption on CNN, Voice of America, and BBC's Up All Night; and on corporate responsibility with many U.S. and European journalists.

Before joining Worldwatch in 2002, Erik was an environmental organizer with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. He advocated for increasing chemical security in the United States and an improved understanding of the links between toxics and health. Erik earned a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Religion modified with Anthropology from Dartmouth College. He transitioned to sustainable development after psychological research in India, development work in the Dominican Republic, and research on advertising that alerted him of the threats posed by a rapidly spreading consumer culture.

Selected Publications

"Engaging Communities for a Sustainable World," in State of the World 2008 (W.W. Norton & Company, 2008).

"The Evolving Corporation Series," World Watch, May/June 2005, September/October 2005, and March/April 2006.

"Transforming Corporations," in State of the World 2006 (W.W. Norton & Company, 2006).

"Laying the Foundations for Peace," in State of the World 2005 (W.W. Norton & Company, 2005), co-authored with Hilary French and Gary Gardner.

"Rethinking the Good Life," in State of the World 2004 (W.W. Norton & Company, 2004), co-authored with Gary Gardner.

"The State of Consumption Today," in State of the World 2004 (W.W. Norton & Company, 2004), co-authored with Gary Gardner and Radhika Sarin.

"What is Sustainability, Anyway?" in World Watch, September/October 2003, co-authored with Tom Prugh.

"The Growing Value of Gardens," in World Watch, January/February 2003.