Carl Frankel is a nationally-known writer, journalist, entrepreneur, and consultant specializing in business and sustainable development. His areas of expertise include planning, strategizing, visioning, communicating, green business, and the “art of the start.”
He is currently a Senior Writer for Matter Network, a green media company. Prior to this, he was Vice-President, Business Development for Matchbin, a Utah-based technology company.
From 2005 through 2007, Frankel was Founder and President of Our Community Networks (OCN), a social enterprise that owned and operated online community marketplaces with the purpose of building community and supporting local businesses and non-profits.
Frankel has been working in socially responsible business since the late 1980s, when he authored business studies on green consumerism and the commercial implications of environmental technologies. In 1990 he founded Green MarketAlert, a newsletter tracking green business strategies that he wrote, edited and published until 1994. He then became North American editor for Tomorrow Magazine, an English-language, Stockholm-based publication that tracked issues relating to global corporations and sustainable development. He also served as Contributing Editor to Yes! The Journal of Positive Futures, and as Senior Columnist for Green@Work Magazine.
Prior to this, Frankel served as Manager of Special Projects and Advisor to the Chairman of ManyOne Networks, a cutting-edge social enterprise that aimed to create a "PBS of the Web."
Frankel’s 1998 book, In Earth’s Company: Business, Environment, and the Challenge of Sustainability (New Society) has been called “the best book I have seen about the business aspects of sustainable development” (David Buzzelli, co-chair, President’s Council on Sustainable Development). His 2004 book, Out of the Labyrinth: Who We Are, How We Go Wrong, and What We Can Do About It, “takes the literature on sustainability to a new level” (Hazel Henderson). According to Interface chairman Ray Anderson, it is “a magnificent book and required reading for anyone who yearns for a better world.” Frankel is also a lead author on a major paper on social enterprise, The Fourth Sector, that will be published by the Aspen Institute in 2009.
As a consultant, Frankel has worked with a broad range of large corporations, green start-ups, and non-profits. Clients have included Tandus (Frankel served on the company’s Sustainability Council), the WorldWide Fund for Nature, the Buckminster Fuller Institute, the Conference Board, Canopy Development, Natural Logic, Ecos Corporation, and many more.
As a speaker, Frankel has keynoted major conferences such as GEMI and CERES. He has been an invited speaker at programs like the Sustainable Enterprise Academy, corporations like Nike and Con Edison, and universities, including Cornell University and the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Prior to specializing in business and sustainability, Frankel owned and operated Entelechy Corp., a business research company specializing in the commercial potential of new electronic technologies. At Entelechy Corp., he oversaw the publication of over 80 book--length business studies involving market research and market sizings.
He previously worked as a criminal lawyer and in publishing.
Frankel is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School.
