5 ECO-FRIENDLY PEOPLE
The POLICYMAKER
Doug Coward is a former environmental planner and county commissioner who now works as a consultant.
BY SUSAN BURGESS
Doug Coward lights up the room with his passion for
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synergy, for making things work together in ways
that many people never imagined.
“The triple bottom line is creating economic solutions
for people and the environment,” he says. “I think it is
time to build the new American landscape.”
Now 44, Coward began developing his vision of a green
St. Lucie County in 1991, when he worked for the county as
an environmental planner. He began setting policy on smart
growth in 1998, when he was first elected to the County Commission.
During his second term, he worked toward a green
economy to dig the county out of recession.
After three terms on the commission, Coward took a job as
a private consultant for a budding statewide environmental
company. When he was an environmental planner, Coward
saw pristine lands bulldozed into oblivion, trees snatched up
ED DRONDOSKI
by the roots, shaken and beaten by giant earth moving equipment
and dropped into piles like so much trash to dry out
until they could be torched.
Asked by the county to work on the $20 million Environmentally
Sensitive Lands bond issue, he ran with it,
spearheading efforts to explain its importance. “This was a
real turning point,” he says. “We had to go to voters, and it
passed by 67 percent. We were very fortunate to set these
lands aside before the housing boom.”
As a community planner for 1000 Friends of Florida from
1995 to 1998, Coward invited the public to charrettes to plan
the design of the Oxbow Eco-Center — the county’s first
public “green” building — and walking trails.
Charrettes became a hallmark of Coward’s collaborative
style. He used the collaborative technique extensively when,
as a commissioner, he spearheaded creation of the nationally
showcased Towns, Villages and Countryside Element of the
county’s land-use plan. >>
LIVING GREEN