About Us

CLEAR offers powerful resources for civic leaders and project teams to create enduring community capability to heal, thrive, and prosper.

About CLEAR

We believe that current global and local challenges are begging us to reconsider fragmented and broken ways of working. By refocusing our attention toward healing and generating wellbeing for people and communities everywhere, we can envision a future where true wealth is generated, not through extraction and exploitation, but through increasing our human and ecological capital.  Our experience is that place-based projects have tremendous potential to generate health, vitality, and creative expression of life.  We are dedicated to sharing and growing that understanding.

Board and Faculty

Jim Newman

Jim Newman

Board Chair, LENSES Faculty

Founder and Principal of Linnean Solutions

Jim uses his regenerative training and strategic thinking to help CLEAR build a regenerative development movement. He works with municipalities, institutions, and companies to build regenerative projects and plans and to enhance the resilience of communities. He knows that people in a place have all the smarts that are necessary to do transformative work. Jim is a trained LENSES Facilitator, a LEED AP O+M, a Regenerative Practitioner, and a fantastic networker.

Josie Plaut

Josie Plaut

Executive Director, LENSES Faculty

Associate Director, Institute for the Built Environment

As the Executive Director of CLEAR and a founding developer of the LENSES Framework, Josie uses a process centered approach to facilitate regenerative development in individuals, teams and projects focused on the built environment. Josie believes that humans have the potential to be positive, contributive members of natural and social systems. As Associate Director for the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University, Josie works with companies to develop capacity and action plans for regeneration. Josie is an engaging and sought after facilitator, with recent work spanning domestic and international projects across a variety of scales including individual buildings, master plans and district scale projects, and in organizational development and municipal programs. Josie holds a degree in Sustainable Enterprise from Fort Lewis College and a Masters of Construction Management with an emphasis in Sustainable Building at Colorado State University. Josie is a founding developer of The LENSES Framework, a Patterson Center Certified StratOp Facilitator, and was an early Living Building Challenge Ambassador.

Max Zahniser

Max Zahniser

Board Vice Chair, LENSES Faculty

Founder and CEO, Praxis|Building Solutions

Max is a green building, sustainable development, and integration facilitator and educator. His professional and academic roots lie in his background in architecture, including professional practice across many building types. On staff at the U.S. Green Building Council, Max oversaw the certification of a majority of the first 500 LEED building certifications, supported technical and process development of nearly every LEED program, managed project teams and LEED technical staff. Max started Praxis Building Solutions LLC in 2007 and continues his involvement in leading green building and sustainability movements as a LEED Fellow.

Brian Dunbar

Brian Dunbar

Board Secretary, LENSES Faculty

Executive Director, Institute for the Built Environment

Brian serves as Chairman of the CLEAR Board and is a founding developer of the LENSES Framework. He also serves as Executive Director of the Institute for the Built Environment and Professor Emeritus at Colorado State University. Brian holds two degrees in architecture from the University of Michigan and is a LEED Fellow. For nearly 30 years, Brian taught Interior Design and Construction Management courses. During his tenure, he created several successful programs including the graduate emphasis in sustainable building, two professional certification programs in green building, and sustainable design and construction courses offered in Costa Rica and on the island of St. John, USVI.

John Zwolinski

John Zwolinski

Board Member

Principal, ZWO Branding & Marketing

John has more than 20 years experience in marketing, communications and ad agency account management. He began his marketing career with Sports & Recreation, Inc. (a national big box sporting goods retailer) in the early ‘90s where he focused on developing sports promotions to drive in-store traffic and increase brand awareness in the Southeastern region. Since joining ZWO as a founding partner, John has served as the guide for the brands of some of ZWO’s most significant clients in the apparel, student housing, youth, and non-profit segments. Providing strategic counsel and direction, conducting strategy sessions, managing complex promotional and advertising campaigns, and leading key shifts in brand direction, formation, and growth. John has lead marketing and branding projects for a large number brands including Campus Crest, The Game, Nike, Reebok, Shumano, Dreamworks, Junk Food Clothing, Salt Life, The Grove & Copper Beech.

Jodi Lane

Jodi Lane

LENSES Faculty

Founder, ScribesForwarding

Elizabeth Walsh

Elizabeth Walsh

LENSES Faculty

Scholar in Residence, University of Colorado – Denver, College of Architecture and Planning

Powered by her love for people and places, Elizabeth delights in bringing her talents as a facilitator, planner, and scholar-practitioner of regenerative development to the collective challenge of advancing environmental justice and community resilience for all. While completing her masters and doctoral degrees in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin, Elizabeth collaborated with diverse leaders to co-create interventions ranging from green and healthy housing, to urban agriculture. As a professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo and the University of Colorado at Denver her research and teaching has focused on civic engagement, capacity-building, and collective action for climate justice and resilience.

Helene Lefkowitz

Helene Lefkowitz

LENSES Faculty

Sustainability Consultant Ambient Energy

Helene has been involved in the development of and education about the LENSES Framework since 2008. She spends her work week with Ambient Energy as a Sustainability Consultant, focusing on bringing regenerative concepts to the design table and encouraging clients to see their building project as a catalyst for positive impact beyond the limits of construction. Helene spends her free time enjoying the Colorado mountains, connecting with friends and family, and pondering the impact of human activity on our built environment.

Akasadaka Robison

Akasadaka Robison

LENSES Faculty

Founder Flatfish Projects

Kia ora tātou, Ko te-Tara-o-te-ika-Māui te maunga, ko te Tararu te awa, nō Parāwai ahau, ko Robison tōku whānau, ko Akāsadāka tōku ingoa. Greetings all, te-Tara-o-te-ika-a-Māui is the mountain, Tararu is the river, I am from Thames (New Zealand / Aotearoa), Robison is my family name, my name is Akāsadāka. I am a regenerative practitioner, group facilitator and a passionate friend. I have studied with Urgyen Sangharakshita (Triratna Buddhist Community), Dale Hunter (Zenergy Global), Giovanni Fusetti (Helikos), Carol Sanford, the Regenesis Institute and spent countless years learning at the source. I believe life is the most precious gift that can be given. I believe regenerating people and places is a worthy pursuit. And most of all I love working collaboratively and playfully with others.