International Design Competition | Spark Awards

TED HOWES, SUSTAINABILITY LEAD, IDEO

Ted leads IDEO's efforts in integrating sustainability and business. He has dedicated his career to exploring this intersection and is passionate about using the lens of business and sustainability to guide corporate strategy.

Ted is expert in assessing, designing and implementing corporate sustainability and procurement programs that are customized to the needs and markets of individual clients, as well as examining and reconciling sustainability issues for academic, NGO and corporate stakeholders. Prior to joining IDEO in 2007, Ted was Vice-President of Corporate Social Responsibility and Supply Chain Programs at SCS, an environmental consulting and certification company. At SCS, Ted helped companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 50 corporations, including Wal-Mart, Numi Tea, The Home Depot and
Starbucks.

For Starbucks, Ted led the development, global implementation and audit of the much lauded Starbucks sustainable green coffee sourcing program, C.A.F.E. Practices. He was also helped develop the metrics and indicators for a national sustainable agriculture initiative and managed the global sustainable cut flower certification program VeriFlora.

He started his career covering the environment as a broadcast journalist in Taipei, Taiwan and worked as an eco-tourism consultant upon his return to the U.S. Ted has a MBA from UC Davis in Environmental Management and Strategy, and concurrently completed a certificate in Corporate Environmental Management at UC Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. For his BA in Asian Studies, Chinese History at UC Berkeley, Ted explored the development and use of gunpowder to compare technological innovation in China and the west.