AASHE is pleased to announce that L. Hunter Lovins, president and founder of the Natural Capitalism Solutions (NCS), will kick off the AASHE 2012 Conference & Expo as the featured keynote speaker.

In her "Innovation in Higher Education: Leading the Change" keynote, Lovins will outline ways that higher education institutions can take a lead role in creating the next generation of thought leaders by including sustainability as part of their campus management programs, curriculum and offerings.

"In a field that did not exist when I went to school," says the Bainbridge Graduate Institute professor and Time Magazine 2000 Hero of the Planet, "most of the thought leaders are still among us, and are making it up as we go forward. This may challenge academic traditionalist but it excites students. Unleashing this creativity will create the future for higher education."

Also dubbed a "Green Business Icon" by Newsweek in 2009, Lovins has co-authored nine books including Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution with Amory Lovins and Paul Hawken, and her latest, The Way Out: Kickstarting Capitalism To Save Our Economic Ass, released in April 2012.

Lovins' areas of expertise include natural capitalism, sustainable development, globalization, energy and resource policy, economic development, climate change, land management, and fire rescue and emergency medicine. She developed the Economic Renewal Project and helped write many of its manuals on sustainable community economic development. She was a founding professor of business at Presidio Graduate School, one of the first accredited programs offering an MBA in sustainable management.

Don't miss Lovins on Sunday, October 14 in Los Angeles! For more information and to register for the conference, visit the AASHE 2012 website. Registration ends October 8.