Environmental leadership recognized the connecting perspective.

In 1995, David Brower convened a conference where leaders of environmental organizations could hear Howard Pearlmutter speak on “Organizing for an Ecologically Healthy Economy.”

Brower said:

“No one has a clearer vision for the future of the environmental movement than Howard Pearlmutter.”

The occasion connected environmental purpose with questions about information, organization, and the economy people were building.

Howard's work had already crossed computing, ecological simulation, graphics, creative communities, and practical software. He was examining how information tools and communication could change what people were able to do together.

That perspective extended beyond treating media as a way to broadcast a message. Interactive tools could help people explore a relationship. Collaboration networks could connect people in different places. Environmental websites could give ideas and organizations another way to become accessible.

By the mid-1990s, Howard had helped bring more than two dozen early environmental websites into existence.

His wider practice also included ecological animation, software-company leadership, maps and infrastructure tools, and experiments in sustainable work. The relationships among those activities were part of the contribution.

Brower's statement is a powerful witness to that historical perspective. The work supplies practical ways to examine what it can mean: NASA's human question, ecological design, communication and transportation, and creative gatherings.

Today, a useful conversation can begin with a specific relationship: information and physical activity, a model and its audience, or several kinds of expertise needed for an environmental undertaking.

Explore a learning session, visual inquiry, or Howard's broader background.

The opportunity is to make creative technology useful to people working toward a healthier whole.