Experts & Staff

Charles (Chuck) Kent is the Brazil Lead for the Sustainable Cities Initiative, which also has projects in China and India. He also advises WRI on the development of a more permanent presence in Brazil.

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Chuck comes from a 34-year career at EPA where, for the last 10 years, he directed the Office of Community and Business Innovation – which included the Smart Growth Program, a Green Building Policy staff, the Sector Strategies Division, and the Performance Incentives Division. He also supported innovative work on the potential use of environmental information in the financial sector. Chuck chaired the Senior Management Steering Committee on Green Building Policy, and the Office Directors Policy Committee on Environmental Management Systems. During the Clinton Administration, he was part of the team that produced the report, “Reinventing EPA,” for which he received recognition from Vice President Al Gore.

In addition to his career at EPA, Chuck has studied environment and development issues at the University College, Nairobi, worked as a Science Policy Specialist at Brazil’s Institute for Space Research (INPE) and for Brazil’s National Research Council (CNPq), and helped establish the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He holds a B.A. in Government from UCSC, and an M.A. in Science, Technology and Public Policy from The George Washington University.

Chuck enjoys travel, sailing and photography. He is also developing a taste for fair trade, single origin dark chocolates from the forests of Africa and South America.