David Wann

Ten years of writing and film work inside the United States Environmental Protection Agency sit behind everything David Wann has argued since. He co-wrote Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic with John de Graaf and Thomas H. Naylor, which framed over-consumption as an illness with symptoms. Simple Prosperity, published by St. Martin's Press in December 2007 and subtitled Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle, is the treatment half of that argument, asking readers to count wealth in health, time, skill and neighbours rather than in things bought. Wann helped design Harmony Village, the cohousing neighbourhood in Golden, Colorado where he has lived for decades and grows vegetables for the households around him. With Dan Chiras he wrote Superbia! 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods, published by New Society Publishers in 2003, and he has made television documentaries on the same subject, among them Designing a Great Neighborhood.