Paul is a long-term environmentalist, playing a major role in initiating Harvard’s Environmental Studies Program in the 1990’s; initiating and contributing the Zofnass Tree Identification Program to NYC’s Central Park; creating the Zofnass Family Preserve/Westchester Wilderness Walk, a 250-acre nature preserve with a 10-mile long hiking trail in Pound Ridge, NY; designing and donating a permanent New England Forest Exhibition at the Harvard Museum of Natural History; creating the Zofnass Infrastructure Sustainability Program at Harvard to develop a rating system to measure “Sustainability” as it applies to major civil infrastructure projects.

 

This system is now known as “Envision”, and is managed by the Institute of Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI),  founded by three major engineering professional associations (ASCE, ACEC, and APWA), and on which Paul previously served as a Board Member.The Envision Rating System is now used around the world, including the recent renovation of LaGuardia Airport and the Tappan Zee Bridge, and over 9,000 engineers have been trained and credentialed as an ENVSP (Envision Sustainability Professional).

 

Paul is also a member of the Advisory Board of Harvard’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.  He’s a Board member of Riverkeeper and served on the Board of the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and on the Board of the Westchester Land Trust for many years.