Rob Watson – Founder and President

Rob Watson, LEED Fellow, is an international leader in market transformation in solid waste, green buildings and sustainable tourism. He is best known as the “Founding Father of LEED,” which he launched in 1993. Under Rob’s direction, LEED became the largest and fastest-growing international standard by which green buildings are measured. Author Thomas Friedman called Rob “one of the best environmental minds in America.” In 2019, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine recognized Mr. Watson as one of the “25 Most Influential Alumni” in the College’s 250-year history.

At the forefront of technical innovation in solid waste management, Watson is a Principal with Upland Road Developers, which develops waste separation and processing complexes called SMART (Sustainable Materials and Advanced Recovery Technology) Centers that can separate and transform 95% of the incoming waste stream into commercial products. As part of transforming the solid waste sector, in 2016 Mr. Watson launched the SWEEP—Solid Waste Environmental Excellence Performance–Standard, a comprehensive framework for triple bottom line performance of municipal solid waste programs.

Mr. Watson received his MBA from Columbia University in 2006, a MS in Energy and Resources from UC Berkeley in 1990 and his AB from Dartmouth College in 1984.

Natasha Dyer – Acting Executive Director & Program Manager

After spending over a decade in the garment manufacturing industry as a production fashion designer, in 2012 Natasha learned that landfilling organic waste was the 3^rd cause of manmade greenhouse gas emissions that was warming the planet.  It wasn’t long after that she was pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Urban Sustainability from Antioch University-Los Angeles where all capstone and fieldwork was based on the theory that municipalities should be accelerating the diversion of organics from landfill.  Within the next decade, she went on to work for a waste industry environmental consultancy, a waste hauler, and a city government with all work focused on organics waste diversion.  Now as a lifelong zero waster, she’s excited to join the SWEEP team, where she can expand her focus to helping municipalities nationwide create circular solutions for their entire waste streams.