ABOUT THE EXPERT:

Garry A. Harris is the President of Sustainability Solutions Institute (SSG&I), an advisory and consulting firm that provides diverse sustainability, energy engineering, and community development services. The SSG&I consists of two organizations’ Center for Sustainable Communities, a nonprofit dedicated to making communities cleaner, greener, healthier, safer and more climate resilient, and HTS Enterprise, energy engineering, policy, research and education.

Mr Harris has over three and a half decades in the field of energy and has worked on nearly eighty (80) large scale power generation, energy efficiency and renewable energy projects worldwide. Mr Harris has worked tirelessly to advance numerous local, regional and statewide coalitions and manages a broad portfolio of projects and programs and special initiatives including but not limited to equitable community development, environmental justice, clean energy deployment, decarbonization, transportation, resilience, technology development, sustainable cities, building electrification and technologies, STEM education, severe weather, emergency preparedness, affordable housing, economic and workforce development, and job creation, air and water pollution, transportation, social justice, and cumulative impacts and health disparities. In 2021, Mr Harris led his team to design, develop and deploy more than ninety (90) projects and solutions to enhance and advance sustainable development in underserved and under resourced communities. He has developed and advanced an JUST Science approach to collaborative problem solving that engages the use of science, engineering, technology and research to advance solution building for the mitigation of disparities in underserved communities. He has founded and created numerous entities and programs to advance equity, justice and climate resilience including National Environmental Justice Institute (NEJI), Center Equity in the Sustainable Building Sector, Regional Center for Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development, Inspire and Empower (Gender Equality in Science and Research), Science Math Academic Reinforcement Tutorial (SMART – Youth STEM Education), ECO District Hampton Roads (Community Development), ReBuild ATL,and Southeast Climate and Energy Network (SCEN), Tech Academy (Digital Workforce Development and Design) Energy for All and JUST Science Scholars. Mr Harris has also worked to advance meaningful community engagement through his co authorship of NAACPs Guidelines for Equitable Community Involvement in Building & Development Projects and Policies. In addition, Mr. Harris won 2017 FEMA Award for Individual and Community Engagement.

Mr. Harris is a graduate of the 2009 Class of Leadership Atlanta; 2013 Class of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership; 2014 Class of Regional Leadership Institute (Metro Atlanta); 2016 Environmental Justice Leadership Academy and graduate of the 2012 Climate Reality Corps Leadership Program Mr. Harris sits on numerous technical, health and community related advisory boards including Emory University Hercules Research Stakeholder Advisory Board (Health) Hampton Roads Transportation and Planning Commission Community Advisory Board, Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience Research Institute and former Board Member Elizabeth River Project. Mr. Harris has earned numerous engineering and technical credentials in energy, environmental fields and holds a BS in Nuclear Engineering (University of Virginia), an MS in Technology Management (Southern College of Technology) and a MS in Quality Systems Engineering (Southern Polytechnic State University) both now known as Kennesaw State University) and MS in Sustainable Energy and Environmental Management (Georgia Institute of Technology).

He is a member of the 100 Black Men of Atlanta and the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.

CONTACT:

Contact Garry Harris at Experts@diversegreen.org.