Vapor Trails co-authors R.P. Siegel and Roger Saillant, have worked extensively within the environmental movement, both as insiders in the energy industry and also as established environmental advocacy leaders. Their personal and professional experience in academia and sustainability non-profits, as well as their tenure as executives in the private sector, Siegel and Saillant have developed a unique systems-oriented perspective on environmentalism that calls for both environmentalists and industry people to work together on comprehensive issues.
R.P. Siegel currently works as a freelance writer, consultant and inventor. He writes about sustainability, innovation and the environment for various business and technical magazines and blogs for Triple Pundit and Huffington Post. After a successful 20-year career in corporate R&D, he started his own company, Rain Mountain LLC a product-development and business consultation firm. He is currently also Executive Director of Cool Rochester, a not-for-profit organization aimed at reducing one billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the skies around his hometown. Vapor Trails is his third novel.
Roger Saillant is the Executive Director of the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value at Case Western Reserve University. Previously, he served in senior executive positions at The Ford Motor Company, Visteon Corporation, and, most recently, Plug Power where he was the CEO for more than seven years. He has led organizations as large as 10,000 people and has been responsible for operations in 19 countries. He presently serves on several NGO boards and the boards of two start-up companies in the energy field and teaches climate change at the Marlboro Graduate School in Brattleboro, Vermont. He is a strong advocate for sustainability and speaks frequently on various environmental topics. Vapor Trails is his first novel.
Siegel and Saillant wrote Vapor Trails to demonstrate to the broader public the many interests at play in addressing the energy and climate crises. Their narrative not only addresses the socio-political consequences of climate change, but also present systems and solutions for resolving the crisis as well as thought-provoking points of view from all spectrums of the environmental movement. Their primary focus in co-authoring Vapor Trails is to dramatically illustrate the need for comprehensive solutions from both the energy industry and also the environmental movement.