Bill Shireman
Systems Ecologist • Public Philosopher • Social Entrepreneur • Policy Innovator
Bringing unlikely allies together to solve problems conventional politics leaves unresolved.
For four decades, Bill Shireman has worked across business, environmental, and political divides to turn conflict into practical progress.
He co-wrote California’s landmark bottle recycling bill, brokered the Mitsubishi–Rainforest Action Network accord, guided Greenpeace and ExxonMobil to matching carbon-pricing proposals, founded Future 500, and is the author or co-author of seven books.
About Bill
Think like an ecosystem. Work across the divide.
Bill’s career is built around a simple idea: economies, organizations, communities, and democracies behave less like machines and more like living ecosystems.
That perspective has taken him from recycling policy and sustainable forestry to corporate stakeholder engagement, climate policy, and political bridge-building.
Today, through Solution Citizen and Circle America, Bill is working to organize a pragmatic governing majority around the belief that prosperity, freedom, environmental stewardship, and a healthy democracy can reinforce one another rather than compete.
Speaking
Four decades of unlikely alliances. One very different perspective from the stage.
Bill brings firsthand experience from inside some of America’s most difficult business, environmental, and political conflicts.
His keynotes combine systems thinking, negotiation, humor, and stories from decades spent finding the deal underneath the standoff. Signature keynotes include:
What We Learned in the Rainforest: Redesigning Capitalism as a Living System
What four billion years of natural systems can teach organizations about building resilient, adaptive companies and “human rainforests.”
A Circular Economy and Culture: Our Secret Plan to End the War on Everything
A deeply personal and humorous look at America’s addiction to conflict, the incentives that keep us divided, and what it might take to change them.
Bridging the Political Gap: Uniting Improbable Allies
Drawing on forty years of brokering agreements between activists and corporations, Bill offers a practical framework for finding common interests beneath seemingly irreconcilable positions.
Energy Policy Whiplash: Navigating the Middle 70%
A technology-neutral, revenue-neutral approach to energy policy designed around the pragmatic majority both parties need to build durable policy.
Selected Impact
Four decades of turning conflict into progress.
MORE THAN HALF A TRILLION CONTAINERS RECYCLED
Helped write California’s landmark bottle recycling bill and built an unlikely coalition including Coors Brewing Company, Safeway, and the Sierra Club.
400 CORPORATIONS ALIGNED
Helped design the sustainable-forestry framework that emerged from the Mitsubishi controversy and ultimately protected hundreds of millions of acres of forest.
GREENPEACE + EXXONMOBIL
Guided two organizations on opposite sides of the climate debate to separately endorse the same revenue-neutral carbon-pricing framework.
FUTURE 500
Founded Future 500, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building trust among corporations, environmentalists, investors, and advocates who often viewed one another as adversaries.
BRIDGE USA
Founding father and chairman of BridgeUSA, a national network for young progressives, conservatives, and independents on college campuses to practice listening and collaborative problem-solving.
CIRCLE AMERICA
Bill recently founded Circle America, an affinity group and campaign for advancing a circular economy and culture that is organizing a pragmatic governing majority of voters, consumers, and brands to change the incentives that reward political division.
Books & Writing
Ideas shaped by experience on both sides of the table.
Bill is the author or co-author of seven books exploring sustainability, capitalism, leadership, stakeholder engagement, and political collaboration.
What We Learned in the Rainforest: Business Lessons from Nature
Co-written with former Mitsubishi CEO Tachi Kiuchi, exploring what living systems can teach business about sustainability and organizational design.
In This Together: How Republicans, Democrats, Capitalists, and Activists are Uniting to Tackle Climate Change and More
Co-written with Trammell S. Crow, the founder of EarthX, In This Together makes the case for solving environmental and political challenges through unexpected alliances rather than ideological warfare.
Bring Bill Into the Conversation
Looking for a speaker who can challenge an audience without simply choosing a side?
Bill is available for keynotes, conferences, executive sessions, civic forums, panels, and select media conversations.