San Francisco, CA - October 18, 2002 - Anthony D. Cortese, Sc.D, a founding member of The Natural Step, replaced Ms. Dane Nichols as Chairperson. Ms. Nichols, who has been a member of the Board of Directors since 1996, served as Chairperson from 1998 - 2002 and played an instrumental role in establishing and developing The Natural Step in the United States. She will continue to serve on the Board of Directors as a member of the Executive Committee and the Development Committee. Ms. Nichols proudly passed the leadership role of Chair to Dr. Cortese during a fall 2002 Board of Director's meeting.

"Over the last five years, Dane Nichols and Executive Director, Catherine Gray, have been extraordinary leaders in making The Natural Step one of the premier NGO's in the sustainability movement today," says Dr. Cortese. He believes, "For the first time in history humans are pervasive and dominant forces in the health and well being of the earth and its inhabitants. We are the first generation capable of determining the habitability of the planet for humans and other species. I am honored to serve The Natural Step at a time when is poised to make a quantum leap forward in getting large institutions to operate in ways that are aligned with principles of sustainability."

In addition to his involvement at The Natural Step, Dr. Cortese serves as a member of several boards of directors and advisory committees and is President of Second Nature, a non-profit organization dedicated to making healthy, just and environmentally sustainable action a foundation of learning and practice in higher education. From 1984 to 1993, Dr. Cortese directed the Center for Environmental Management at Tufts University. In 1989 he became the first Dean of Environmental Programs at Tufts where he developed and coordinated thirteen university-wide environmental programs.

A longtime political activist and educator, Dr. Cortese has served as the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and worked for the US EPA and the US Public Health Service. He has been a member of the EPA Science Advisory board and the President's Council on Sustainable Development's Education Task Force. Dr. Cortese has received several leadership awards in environmental protection and public health and he was recently elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Cortese has a BS and an MS in Environmental Engineering from Tufts University and a doctorate from the Harvard School of Public Health.

About the Natural Step
Since 1989, The Natural Step has been guiding companies and local governments onto an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable path. An international advisory and research organization, we work together with some of the largest resource users on the planet to create new models and tools designed to accelerate global sustainability.