Kumar Venkat
14388 NW Eagleridge Lane
Portland, Oregon 97229
(971) 300-1450
kvenkat@cleanmetrics.com
Highlights
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Proven sustainability expert and thought leader.
Experienced engineer, software developer and project/business manager.
Founded two small technology firms in sustainability and electronic design, served as chief
technologist and software developer in both, and directly supported numerous customers.
Technical expertise includes: life cycle assessment, carbon footprinting/GHG emissions, supply
chains, resource efficiency, waste reduction, computer modeling, simulation, and analytics.
Master's degree in electrical and computer engineering. Graduate certificate in computer
modeling and simulation.
Extensive research, technical and freelance publications, and two engineering patents.
Experience
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12/07 - present: Founder & CTO, CleanMetrics Corp., Portland, OR
o Providing analytical solutions for environmental performance and sustainability. Served
nearly three dozen customers in diverse economic sectors.
o Solutions include software tools (ASP.NET web apps written in C#) and consulting for:
life cycle assessment (LCA), carbon footprinting, GHG emissions inventories, supplychain/value-chain analysis including scope 3 emissions, water footprinting, resource
efficiency, and waste reduction.
o Software tool innovations include:
 LCI database: Includes the largest set of commercial North American food LCI
data.
 Food LCA software: The most complete food/beverage LCA tool available today.
 Resource efficiency software: An industry-first business analytics solution for
resource efficiency and waste reduction.
o Selected recent results:
 Completed the largest cradle-to-grave LCA study of North American food
production and consumption (for the Environmental Working Group) – results
disseminated nationally.
 Quantified the climate change and economic impacts of US food waste – first
complete LCA-based analysis for the US (published in the Journal on Food
System Dynamics).
 Conducted LCA study comparing life-cycle carbon footprints of 12 organic and
conventional crops – one of the first such analyses for US production (published
in the Journal of Sustainable Agriculture).
09/95 – 12/07: Founder & CTO, Surya Technologies, Inc., Cupertino, CA & Portland, OR
o Provided electronic design automation (EDA) software for modeling, analysis,
simulation, optimization and verification of large integrated circuit designs.
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Software tools and technologies delivered to customers include: static timing analyzer,
design rules/constraints verifier, signal coupling and noise analyzer, timing optimizer,
and timing-driven design partitioner.
o Programming languages and platforms used for software development: C, C++, Yacc,
Lex, Perl, UNIX, Linux.
o Customers in the US, Japan and India included: Advanced Micro Devices, Equator
Technologies, C-Cube Microsystems, Seiko Instruments, 3Dfx Interactive, Fujitsu
Microelectronics, CadMOS Design Technology (now part of Cadence), Procket Networks,
ReShape, SII EDA Technologies/Japan EDA Technologies, and Atrenta.
06/91 - 8/95: Member of Technical Staff & Project Leader, Silicon Graphics, Mtn View, CA
o Led a software R&D team in the development of a new gate-and-transistor-level static
timing verifier that includes a number of innovative features. Developed detailed timing
models for electronic circuits at the transistor and gate levels. Directed and participated
in a 2-year software development project. This tool has been used to analyze/verify
large standard-cell and custom integrated circuit designs.
o Led a hardware design team in the development of a high-bandwidth memory
subsystem for SGI's Challenge multiprocessor server systems. Responsible for two large
ASICs and complex system design. Also, developed CAD methodology and tools to
support/enhance testability, timing analysis and design rule checking. Received a US
patent for part of this work (US patent # 5,272,664).
06/89 - 06/91: Member of Technical Staff, Sun Microsystems, Mtn View, CA
o Designed a secondary cache-controller chip for Sun's SuperSparc microprocessor. Also,
designed the scan/JTAG test logic for the chip. Contributed to CAD methodology
including timing analysis, synthesis and circuit verification. Received a US patent for part
of this work (US patent # 5,987,570).
03/88 - 06/89: Senior Design Engineer, Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA
o Member of the 486 microprocessor design team. Responsible for processor architecture
issues, microcode development, architecture/microcode verification, and verification
tools.
03/85 - 03/88: Systems Engineer, Reflectone Inc., Tampa, FL
06/84 - 02/85: Design Engineer, Dynamic Computer Architecture, St. Petersburg, FL
Education
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1/05 – 3/06: Portland State University, Portland, OR
o Graduate Certificate in Computer Modeling and Simulation. Focus: System dynamics,
discrete-event simulation, agent-based simulation, optimization, and statistical analysis.
Used software tools such as Vensim, Arena, NetLogo, and MATLAB. GPA: 4.0.
1/99 – 12/99: University of California, Berkeley, CA
o Undergraduate and graduate courses in the natural sciences. Focus: Biology,
biochemistry and ecology. Grades: A's.
9/88 – 3/90: Stanford University, Stanford, CA
o Graduate courses in electrical/computer engineering. Focus: VLSI design and parallel
computer architectures. Grades: A's.
8/85 – 12/87: University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
o Graduate courses in electrical engineering. Focus: Digital communication systems and
digital signal processing. GPA: 4.0.
1/83 – 8/84: University of Texas, El Paso, TX
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MS in Electrical Engineering. Focus: Computer engineering. Thesis: Performance
Analysis of Three Interconnection Networks for Large Multimicrocomputer Systems.
Graduate teaching assistant and recipient of university president's scholarship award.
GPA: 4.0.
7/77 – 5/82: University of Madras, India
o BS in Electrical Engineering. Senior project: Stability Analysis of Electric Grids. Grade:
Honors.
Publications
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Recent Technical Articles
o Getting a Handle on Geographic Emissions, Environmental Leader, 2012.
o When Emissions are Outsourced, Environmental Leader, 2012.
o Is There a Leaner Way to Footprint?, GreenBiz, 2012.
o Six Lesser-Known Climate Facts, Environmental Leader, 2012.
o 3 Ways to Get Ahead of Climate Change, Without Ditching Oil (Yet), GreenBiz, 2012.
o Resource Efficiency vs. Carbon Reduction, Environmental Leader, 2011.
o Climate Change and the Consumption Trap, GreenBiz, 2011.
o Will 10 Billion of Us Have Enough to Eat?, Sustainable Business Oregon, 2011.
o Closing the Materials Loop, Environmental Leader, 2011.
o The Anatomy of Food Waste, Environmental Leader, 2011.
o Scope 3: Pivoting to Material Efficiency, Environmental Leader, 2011.
o Is Sustainability All about the Supply Chain?, Environmental Leader, 2011.
o Framing the Food Sustainability Challenge, Environmental Leader, 2011.
o Waste Not: The Case for Material Efficiency, Sustainable Industries, 2011.
Recent Research Articles
o Comparison of Twelve Organic and Conventional Farming Systems: A Life Cycle
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Perspective, Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, 2012.
o The Climate Change and Economic Impacts of Food Waste in the United States, Journal
on Food System Dynamics, 2012 (in press).
o Measuring the Effects of Food Carbon Footprint Training on Consumers, Sustainability:
The Journal of Record, 2009.
o The Energy and Carbon Intensity of Wine Distribution: A Study of Logistical Options for
Delivering Wine to Consumers, Journal of Cleaner Production 2009.
o Institutional Food Footprint: The Impact of Food Packaging, Waste, and Transportation,
Third Annual Meeting of the American Association of Wine Economists, 2009.
o Red, White and Green: Investigating the Energy Intensity of Wine Distribution,
International Conference on Business and Sustainability, 2007.
o Determining the Effects of a Food Carbon Footprint Training Tool on Consumer
Knowledge, Transfer Intentions, and Environmental Self-Efficacy, International
Conference on Business and Sustainability, 2007.
o Greening the Supply Chain: Improving Carbon Emissions in the Distribution of Food and
Beverages, INFORMS Annual Meeting, November 2007.
o Analyzing and Optimizing the Environmental Performance of Supply Chains, ACEEE
Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry, 2007.
o An Agent-Based Model of Trade with Distance-Based Transaction Cost, Summer
Computer Simulation Conference, 2006.
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Is Lean Necessarily Green?, 50th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the
Systems Sciences, 2006.
o Emergence of Networks in Distance-Constrained Trade, InterJournal & International
Conference on Complex Systems, 2006.
o Using Simulation to Understand and Optimize a Lean Service Process, Spring Simulation
MultiConference, 2006.
Book Chapters
o Food Transportation Issues and Reducing the Carbon Footprint, in Green Technologies
in Food Production and Processing (Ed: Y. Arcand & J. Boye), Springer, 2012.
o Emergence of Networks in Distance-Constrained Trade, in Unifying Themes in Complex
Systems (Ed: A. Minai, et al), Springer, 2010.
o Enhancing the Environmental Performance of Supply Chains, in Positive Development:
from vicious circles to virtuous cycles through built environment design (Ed: J.
Birkeland), Earthscan Publishers, 2008.
Technical Reports
o Meat Eater's Guide to Climate Change and Health - Life-cycle Assessments:
Methodology and Results, Environmental Working Group, 2011. (Plus, clarifying notes
on beef and lamb LCAs)
o MyPlate: An Analysis of Climate Change Impact, CleanMetrics Technical Brief, 2011.
o System dynamics model of municipal recycling, policy options and social dynamics,
Portland State University, 2005.
o System dynamics model of predator-prey dynamics, wildlife management and policy
options, Portland State University, 2005.
o Ecological Consequences of Doubling the Atmospheric CO2 Concentration University of
California, Berkeley, 1999.
Older Research/Technical Articles - Electronic Design and Computer Architecture
o Timing Verification of Dynamic Circuits, IEEE Journal of Solid-state Circuits, 1996.
o Timing Verification of Dynamic Circuits, Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, 1995.
o Follow these guidelines to design testable ASICs, boards and systems, EDN, 1993.
o Generalized Delay Optimization of Resistive Interconnections Through an Extension of
Logical Effort, IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 1993.
o A Structured Design for Test Methodology, 11th IEEE VLSI Test Symposium, 1993.
o ATPG Tools are a Varied Lot, Electronic Engineering Times, 1992.
o Analysis of Ring, Cube and Tree Multimicrocomputer Systems, IEEE Region 5
Conference, 1986.
o A Monitor for a Dynamic Multicomputer System, First International Conference on
Supercomputing Systems, 1985.
Other Selected Writings
o Sustainable consumption: For all our ingenuity, it still comes down to using less, The
Oregonian, 2011.
o Modernization of India Leaves Most of Its People Behind, San Jose Mercury News, 2005.
o The Hidden Costs of Comparative Advantage, GreenBiz, 2005.
o The Trouble with Sustainability, The Oregonian, 2004.
o Choosing the Right Technologies, GreenBiz, 2004.
o We Need a Balanced View of Productivity, San Jose Mercury News, 2004.
o What Kind of Productivity Do We Need?, GreenBiz, 2004.
o Free Trade: Benefit or Peril for the Environment?, GreenBiz, 2004.
o Global Trade = Global Warming, Salon, 2003.
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Global Trade and Climate Change, GreenBiz & ClimateBiz, 2003.
Globalization's Unanswered Questions, Common Dreams News Center, 2003.
Beware the Life Cycle of 'Recycled', The Christian Science Monitor, 2003.
Making Globalization Work, Business Line, 2003.
Thinking Small: Globalization and the Choice of Technology, Orion Online, 2003.
Can Small Still Be Beautiful?, The Christian Science Monitor, 2003.
Can Silicon Valley Stay Relevant?, San Jose Mercury News, 2002.
Combatting E-waste, San Francisco Chronicle, 2002.
Deadly Distraction - Kashmir Conflict Bleeds Two Poor Nations, Pacific News Service,
2002.
o Delving into the Digital Divide, IEEE Spectrum, 2002.
o Digital Divide and Poverty, Journal of Poverty, 2001.
o The Consumption Trap, Business Line, 2001.
o Linking Global Warming to the Energy Crisis, San Francisco Chronicle, 2001.
o Wrong Solution: Technology is Not What the Third World Hungers For, San Jose Mercury
News, 2001.
Blog: Green Metrics, Clean Metrics
Columnist: GreenBiz and Environmental Leader
References available upon request