Hedstrom Associates

Ralph Earle is the founder of the Assabet Group, a consulting firm working with market-leading companies and financial organizations to catalyze superior financial performance through investments and action on energy efficiency, clean technology, and pollution reduction. Mr. Earle is also a founding Managing Director of the Clean Energy Venture Group, an investment organization with activity in the areas of fuel cells, wind power, clean coal, and energy conservation. He is the author of numerous papers and speeches on the link between environmental performance and shareholder value, environmental strategy, environmental management, recycling, life cycle analysis, and solid waste management.

Previously, Mr. Earle was the founding Director of the Alliance for Environmental Innovation, a project of the Environmental Defense Fund and The Pew Charitable Trusts. The Alliance's projects with SC Johnson, Starbucks, and United Parcel Service are widely hailed as examples of positive environmental change. Before the Alliance, Mr. Earle spearheaded Arthur D. Little's Competitive Environmental Strategy practice, where he helped corporations integrate environmental considerations into their long-term decision making. Prior to Arthur D. little, Mr. Earle served as Assistant Secretary of Environmental Affairs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. There he set and managed state policy in the areas of solid waste disposal and recycling. He managed the issuance of the state's ten-year Solid Waste Master Plan, negotiated voluntary recycled paper purchase agreements with the state's newspaper publishers, and supervised five operating agencies in their solid waste and recycling policy making activities.

Mr. Earle serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Sustainable Product Design, on the Board of Directors of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, and on the Faculty of SustainAbility. He holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a BA, cum laude, from Harvard College.