Raised in the mountains of western North Carolina, Kaid Benfield is accustomed writing about the natural environment. After 20 years as a litigating attorney and a few more as a lobbyist, he now lives in Washington, D.C. and works for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental organization with a mission statement "to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depends."

It's a pleasure to profile Kaid as the Sustainable Cities Collective's first Blogger of the Week.

Kaid began blogging about two years ago, crediting NRDC colleague Ian Wilker for inspiration. "It has been immensely rewarding, reinforcing, and expanding my professional relationships and my knowledge base on the issues I work on. Going 'to publication' on an issue forces me to be on my toes to get it right, and I like that."

In recent weeks, Kaid's shared stories about Detroit sprawl, New York City streets, and demolishing California homes. His posts on SCC have been among the highest-viewed.

"I like to write about the intersections between development, community, and the environment," he says in an email. "I believe there is a positive, solution-oriented story to tell about smart, sustainable development; and we in the environmental movement, where I direct NRDC’s smart growth program, have an obligation to do better than we have in the past to articulate it and to speak up in favor of pragmatic, attractive solutions."

"My heart is with crafting and advocating the solutions in a non-adversary way."

Kaid is aware--and recognized--for his environmental advocacy. He's the founder of Smart Growth America, a national land development policy coalition and the LEED for Neighborhood Development certification program. Along the way, Kaid wrote a series of books on sprawl and greenfields. He graduated Emory University and Georgetown University Law Center.

"I am unabashedly pro-development when I recognize that it provides beneficial alternatives to sprawl or conventional, unsustainable land use," he writes in his NRDC bio. "We have wonderful examples from enlightened developers, architects, and planners, and they deserve to be celebrated as the environmental heroes that they are."

"I like working on smart growth issues because, unlike some causes, it’s less a holy war and more an attempt to solve a very complicated puzzle in a way that works for people and business as well as the environment. There’s a lot of room for collaboration and creativity. My wife is also an attorney, and we live in a village-y part of DC where we can enjoy trees, peace and quiet, yet still walk to the Metro and restaurants."

If his blogging and environmental advocacy work isn't enough, Kaid wants to be an architect when he grows up.

Have a question for Kaid? Feel free to add a comment below or tweet him at @Kaid_at_NRDC.