Edward L. Quevedo
Partner
Ed Quevedo is a Partner and Chair of the Sustainability Practice Group at Paladin Law Group. He has over 25 years of experience advising clients on domestic and international environmental and health & safety (EHS) law compliance and litigation matters, sustainability planning and program development, and strategic EHS program development and performance counseling, both as an attorney and consulting advisor. He began to advise corporations regarding and teach university courses on sustainable development and corporate responsibility in 1994, during a period of intense program development, client advising, and university lecturing throughout Europe.
Mr. Quevedo provides his clients with traditional EHS compliance counseling and international EHS auditing program development, implementation of environmental management systems (EMS) and Sustainability Management Systems (SMS), sustainable development strategy, land use and natural resources law, green building and sustainable master planning, and water rights and water law & policy. He has also pioneered the implementation of Regenerative Management Systems (RMS), which have the potential to move organizations beyond sustainable development.
Mr. Quevedo began his GHG and carbon reduction management practice in Europe in 1994, and more recently has broad expertise in advising large multinational clients on AB32 and related national and international greenhouse gas reduction protocols. His clients include large multinational private sector companies in the high technology, wine, agricultural, food and beverage, life sciences, biotechnology, automotive and manufacturing industries, major colleges and universities, and public agencies at the municipal and state levels.
During his legal career, Mr. Quevedo has argued cases before the California Supreme Court, the International Board of Arbitrators in The Hague, and the European Court of Justice. He has led high-impact pro bono litigation teams in important Civil Rights, Clean Water Act, and environmental damages recovery litigation in public interest cases brought in state and federal courts. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors, and Vice Chair, of the Multi-State Working Group on Environmental Performance (www.mswg.org).
Practice Areas
Sustainability; Air toxics compliance; GHG and carbon reduction management, accounting, & strategy; Water rights; Natural resources; Endangered species; Land Use/CEQA & NEPA advising & litigation; OSHA compliance and enforcement defense; Product stewardship & Products liability/CPSC compliance; Hazardous Materials & Hazardous Wastes; and Sustainable water supply management and wastewater compliance.
Education
University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law - J.D., 1984
University of California, Los Angeles - B.A. Philosophy, B.A. Political Science, 1979
Specific Fields of Expertise & Experience - Representative Engagements
Green & Sustainable Building Design
- 1996 - Design and conceptualization - Multnomah County Regional Multimodal Transit Center
- 1996 - Quantum Corporation R&D Operations, Rochester, Minnesota
- 1998 - Advise US Green Building Counsel on LEED® Criteria Development
- 2003-2007 - Sustainably Designed Business School Building, Ithaca College
- Advisor to Malama Kaua'i, a non-profit organization designing master planned community strategies on Kaua'i, Hawai'i
Environmental Management, EHS Management, and Sustainability Management Systems
- Advisor to BMW Group; Genencor, International, Inc.; E&J Gallo Wineries; Coleman Natural Foods; and other firms in implementing SMS programs based on the SMS Guidance Document©
- EMS Advisor to the United States Forest Service, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, Applied Materials, Inc.; Benziger Family Winery; NVIDIA Corporation; Genentech, Inc.; Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc.; Novellus Systems; Quantum Corporation; Allergan, Inc.; and Sun Microsystems, Inc., among others
- Advisor to the University of California system (10 campuses) on development of integrated EHS Management System (ISEM) and an EHS compliance framework.
- Lead Team of EMS Advisors for Multi-Facility EMS registration project on behalf of Western Digital Corporation (including facilities in Santa Clara, California, and Singapore and Malaysia)
EHS Compliance Program Design, Development, Implementation and Auditing (Domestic & International)
- Past advisor and special counsel to Tulane University, University of South Carolina, and University of Wisconsin, on development of university-wide EMS and EHS compliance programs
- Global EHS compliance advisor to NVIDIA Corporation and EHS/EMS/SMS advisor to Gallo Family Vineyards
- EHS program development and auditing advisor to Applied Materials, Inc.
Non-Financial Reporting and Other Engagements
- Non-financial report design and development advisor to Applied Materials, Inc., Cisco Systems, Genentech, Inc., Suncor Energy, Electrolux AG, LP Corporation, and (previously) Quantum Corporation and Allergan, Inc.
- Past advisor to the California Environmental Protection Agency on the Sustainable California initiative, designed to re-orient California's environmental regulatory regime to encourage the private sector to take up Agenda 21 and related sustainability efforts.
- Co-founder of Sustainable Silicon Valley (www.sustainablesiliconvalley.org), a regional EMS implementation which has created one of the most prominent community based climate change efforts in the United States
- Past advisor to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in implementation of a State-wide EMS for the state of Wisconsin
- Past advisor to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on establishment of an EMS auditing framework to support the Clean Texas® Initiative
Professional and Community Involvement
Mr. Quevedo is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Silicon Valley Environmental Partnership (www.svep.org), serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Multi-State Working Group on Environmental Performance (www.mswg.org), and is Past President of the Pacific Industrial & Business Association (www.piba.org).
Since 2004, Mr. Quevedo has also served on the faculty of the Dominican University School of Business & Leadership MBA Program in Sustainable Enterprise (the Green MBA®) (www.greenmba.com). He is also the Faculty Chair of the Executive MBA Certificate Program in Sustainable Enterprise within the Green MBA® Program. He contributed to the establishment of, and teaches in, the Certificate Program in Sustainable Practices within the Professional and Continuing Education (PACE) Program at Dominican University. In addition, Mr. Quevedo teaches regularly at the Advanced Environmental Management Program at U.C. Santa Cruz Extension and the Department of Environmental Studies at De Anza College in Cupertino.
Bar Admissions and Licenses
State Bar of California, 1990
United States District Court, Central, Eastern, Northern, and Southern Districts of California
European Court of Justice
Lectures
Mr. Quevedo has lectured on environmental management, applied ethics, sustainable development, corporate responsibility, and sustainable business practices at various universities, including the Haas Business School and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley; Tulane University; Lund University (Sweden); San Jose State University School of Law, the Technical University of Berlin, and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
