Bill Rees

Bill Rees is a human ecologist, ecological economist, professor emeritus and former director of the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning in Vancouver, Canada. He is best known in ecological economics as the godfather of the ‘ecological footprint’ concept, and co-developer with his then-PhD student Mathis Wackernagel of the method for calculating it. Widely adopted for sustainability assessments by governments, NGOs and academics, it has arguably become world’s best-known sustainability indicator. Bill’s most recent writing focuses on neuro-biological, cognitive and cultural barriers to sustainability, including humans’ well-developed capacity for self-delusion. The Vancouver Sun named Bill one of British Columbia’s top public intellectuals; he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada and awarded a prestigious Trudeau Foundation Fellowship.