He has served as consultant, advisor, and/or strategist for numerous organizations and individuals around the world, including 350.org and the Orion Society, and coordinated many successful community events.
For the past twenty-plus years, Lee has lived the low-carbon life in the remote, high-mountain desert of south-central Colorado. Together with his life partner, he designed and built the Wingspread Sustainable Homestead—an authentic, successful demonstration of 80%-plus carbon reductions for the typical American family—by relocalizing and integrating food, energy, and livelihood – and adopting an exciting, enjoyable, fulfilling and enriching way of life in the process.
Lee is a retired architect/university professor who taught grad-/undergrad-level architecture and urban design courses at Syracuse, Hobart/William Smith and Cornell Universities.
He headed his own architectural firm for over twenty years, and received numerous awards for design excellence, including for the Athena Residence, the Northeast’s first smart home.
Mr. Temple chaired the Social Justice Committee of Cornell University’s Catholic Community for four years, served as a Founding Steering Committee Member for the Tibetan Resettlement Project in Ithaca, New York, and helped found EcoVillage at Ithaca (EVI), where he served two years as an elected EVI Board Member before moving to Colorado. EVI is now an internationally recognized model for sustainable development (learn more at ecovillageithaca.org).
Lee founded the Sustainable Resource Center as a regional sustainability library/consulting organization that published the quarterly SRC Newsletter. He co-founded the Crestone Sustainability Initiative, and founded the publishing houses Temple Mountain Music, Big Rig Records, and Shining Golden Suns, LLC, the developer of the Global Awakening project.
Important teachings, initiatory transmissions, and empowerments from many of the world’s great wisdom traditions enliven his independent path. In addition to his professional, educational, activist, networking, publishing, and philanthropic activities, Mr. Temple has traveled, studied, worked, and pilgrimaged in North and South America, Europe, India, Easter Island, and Hawaii.