Lonny Grafman

Lonny Grafman is an Instructor at Humboldt State University; the founder of the Practivistas summer abroad, full immersion, resilient community technology program; the project manager of the epi-apocalyptic city art project Swale; the managing director of the entrepreneurship programs BlueTechValley North Coast and AWEsome Business Competition; and the President of the Appropedia Foundation, sharing knowledge to build rich, sustainable lives.

Lonny has developed courses at universities in many countries and facilitated engagements around the world. He has worked, and led teams, on hundreds of domestic and international projects across a broad spectrum of sustainable design and social entrepreneurship – from solar energy to improved cookstoves, from micro-hydro power to rainwater catchment, from earthen construction to plastic bottle schoolrooms. Throughout all these technology implementations, he has found the most vital component to be community.

His first books, To Catch the Rain and Atrapando la lluvia, cover inspiring stories of communities coming together to catch their own rain, and how you can do it too.  His newest book, co-authored with Joshua Pearce, To Catch the Sun, covers inspiring stories of communities coming together to harness their own solar power, and how you can do it too.