Mr. Cusack is founder and director of Gifford Park Associates, an Eastchester, NY firm specializing in strategic environmental and sustainability management. Mr. Cusack also advises colleges and universities about sustainability goals for their institutions. In 2005 he became part-time Executive Director of the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability, which remains his largest client.

Mr. Cusack’s training, knowledge and expertise cover the technological, financial and environmental aspects of global warming and climate change. He advises businesses, investment funds and governments about the “triple bottom line,” the need to recognize and integrate the environmental, social, and financial aspects of their businesses and everyday life experience.

In an interview at the time of his appointment to NJHEPS, Mr. Cusack stated “we must apply the principles of sustainability to solving the many problems, such as hunger, lack of clean water, disease, poor sanitation, illiteracy, wealth differentials, AIDS, climate change, deforestation, etc., that the world faces. The key question is: how can we find sustainable solutions that are cost-effective, efficient, and benefit society with a full understanding of their potential impacts, both good and bad, on society and the planet?”.

Mr. Cusack will place the processes of global warming and climate change in a human context, explain how greenhouse gases work, describe how it is the poor and disadvantaged who will be first affected by the negative impacts of climate change, and explore the positive steps we should take as individuals and community groups to “lessen our carbon footprint on the earth.”