Growing up in Philadelphia, David Stern-Gottfried thought entering Fairmount Park was like going into a great forest. After moving to California post-college, though, Stern-Gottfried got a look at what's regarded as some of the most lush and breathtaking wilderness in the world.

Even still, the Mt. Airy native and Cheltenham High School grad felt a strong pull from his old city, his former neighborhood. It wasn't merely because he still had a lot of family there. He saw an opportunity to become a player in Greater Philadelphia's rapidly maturing sustainability market. For a guy who has just about done it all -- everything from public art to software development to TV and films -- it might seem like just another changing wind.

But in less than a year Stern-Gottfried has found enough consulting work -- he has consulted for sustainable advisory firm W2 Group and now is helping startup Solar States with project management -- to hold him over while he has started pursuing his MBA at Drexel University.

It was only about a decade ago that Stern-Gottfried was one of the few artists working in the computer lab with PhDs at Carnegie Mellon University, where he worked on rapid prototyping virtual reality software for children, before moving to California to get into video game world. That was followed by a transition into film and TV production. On a visit back to Philly he and his wife Erin Crowley met Jane Golden, the dynamic leader of the Philly Mural Arts program who inspired the couple to use their skills (husband's artistic talents and wife's environmental education) to travel abroad and work with international non-profits to help extend and enhance their missions � like transforming a coliseum in the tiny village of Santa Rosa on the Galapagos Islands into a semblance of the famous Galapagos tortoise Lonesome George. He even tried starting an arts non-profit in the Bay area in 2008, but with the economy being what it was at the time, nothing fully developed. Stern-Gottfried, however, began to understand that many of the talented nonprofit folks he found himself working with had a lot of passion and idealism but often lacked management experience.

That, and an emerging Philadelphia that was noticeably different from the city of his youth, led him to apply at Drexel. He recently enjoyed a "sustainability conference binge" in the region -- PV America, Brownfields 2011, a Sustainability Symposium at Rutgers�-Camden, Solar America Cities in Philly and Focus the Nation at Drexel -- and made time to talk to us about his starts, stops, and dreams.

Flying Kite (FK): What's the sum total of your many different work experiences?
David Stern-Gottfried (DSG): It's a process. Going from art student all the way to business school hasn't been a straight line, that's for sure. Getting all these different experiences has allowed me to work with different people. I've worked with schools, nonprofits, museums, corporations, independent contractors, engineers and artists. The commonality is organizing and coordinating and management. I've got a fair amount of project management experience and that's opened some doors for me.

FK: What was doing international non-profit work like?
DSG: It was a life-changer. I had never done this. I didn't speak Spanish. I had never been abroad. But all at once, it was extremely rewarding. I had a laptop with me, created a Flickr account, and we started to have a portfolio of our work. That helped us have credibility and it culminated for us in doing a large mural project on the Galapagos Islands.

FK: What was the deciding factor moving back to Philly?
DSG: I was looking all over. The big part of it, too, was my family is from here and my wife loves my family. When she got pregnant, we thought Philadelphia is a great place for community and family. It's exciting to see all the great opportunities in Philly right now. The Office of Sustainability formed in 2008 and they have some pretty large grants going on. Pennsylvania is really turning a corner and becoming a hotspot for solar energy and wind. There's the whole Energy Innovation cluster at the Navy Yard. I just focused on networking and meeting all these people. The nice thing about Philly is it's easier to be a bigger fish here. In the Bay area, I felt like a dime a dozen. It was very competitive and oversaturated. So it's very refreshing to be here. It's more real. People are more open to talking with me. It's a great place to start doing something like this.

I was really surprised how ambitious and active and how seriously Philadelphia is taking all these steps. That's not the case in other cities. While Philly is edgy and sometimes sits in the shadow of New York or D.C., there's so much growth happening. That's not as possible in those other cities.

FK: It mustn't be all orchids. What's one thing you're not crazy about Philly?
DSG: How lame the public transportation is. With Bay Area rapid transit, you miss your train and the next one comes in six minutes. I've been getting a lot of reading done waiting on trains. I always keep a textbook with me. I show up for my train and it's 40 minutes away and the next one doesn't come for 90 minutes. Regional rail, what century are we in?

FK: What's life in East Mt. Airy like?
DSG: My best friends now are my neighbors. It's that kind of tight community I'm really appreciative of. I'm two miles from my dad, 15 minutes from my mom, three blocks from the train station. I have an app on my iPhone so I know when the next train is.

JOE PETRUCCI is managing editor of Flying Kite. Send feedback here.