Steve Nicholas

Steve Nicholas

Steve Nicholas is the Director of Climate Programs for the Institute for Sustainable Communities. Prior to coming back to ISC, he was Director of the City of Seattle Office of Sustainability& Environment for 8 years, where he lead several urban sustainability initiatives, including the development and implementation of the Seattle Climate Protection Initiative, winner of the 2007 Innovations in American Government Award. He co-authored Seattle’s first-ever climate action plan, as well as the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which sparked a national movement of more than 850 mayors taking local action on global warming and demanding stronger federal action. He also staffed the Mayor’s Green Ribbon Commission on Climate Protection, led the creation of the Seattle Climate Partnership, a voluntary pact among more than 50 public and private institutions to reduce their global warming pollution, and established the Directors’ Climate Network, a coalition of environment directors and senior climate protection staff from about 20 U.S. cities.

Nicholas worked for ISC previously—from 1995 to 1998—as Country Director for Macedonia, where he lead the Democracy Network Project, which strengthened Macedonia’s fledgling democracy by building the capacity of non-profit organizations through technical and financial assistance. He holds a Master of Public Policy from Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a BA in Public Policy from Colby College.