A lively, candid memoir of a life spent on the front lines of America's environmental movement — the messes, the fights, and the strange education of becoming "the environmental guy."
Not a lecture. A life.
Most environmental writing tells you what's wrong with the world. This one tells you what it's actually like to spend a career trying to fix it — the toxic wetlands, the skeptical ranchers, the politics that turned "environmentalist" into a fighting word.
It's funny when you least expect it, and honest in a way most memoirs aren't. You don't read The Environmental Guy to learn facts. You read it to understand what it costs — and what it gives back — to spend a life caring about a planet that doesn't always cooperate.
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Compelled by curiosity; propelled by purpose.
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Laugh out loud as Reith recounts the characters and mishaps of a career spent in the field.
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A book for anyone who loves the planet — and loves a good story.
Meet Charles
Before you read his book, meet the man who lived it.
He's spent his life going where the damage was worst — Superfund sites, polluted rivers, deserts spreading faster than anyone wanted to admit — and finding, again and again, that recovery was possible if someone was stubborn enough to start.
Discover…
Why bats are some of the most misunderstood creatures on Earth
What earthworm castings are actually worth — and why farmers pay for them
What it's really like to clean up a toxic Superfund site
How a microforest can grow ten times faster than nature intended
What it means to advise governments and corporations who'd rather not listen
Why being an environmentalist in Florida became its own kind of adventure
He's Not Finished
After decades of dealing with environmental problems, Charles is still looking for ways to make things better.
Today, working with Veterans for Common Sense, Charles plants microforests across Sarasota using the Miyawaki Method — dense, native plantings that grow into thriving forest ecosystems in years, not decades. It's the same instinct that's driven him for fifty years: find the damage, and get to work fixing it. The book tells you how he got here. The microforests show you he isn't done yet.
Charles's blog is under construction — reflections on the book, the microforests, and whatever's on his mind that week. Check back soon.
Beyond the Book
Writing & Research
Coming Soon
Papers, talks, and technical writing
A home for Charles's academic and professional writing — research, speaking engagements, and consulting work — is on the way.
Beyond the Book
Reith Energy & Environmental Development
After decades of international consulting work spanning twenty countries on four continents, Charles turned Reith Energy's focus toward his own backyard: Greater Sarasota. What started as a global sustainability practice is now a platform for hands-on advocacy and activism on the environmental issues closest to home.
From industrial plants and mining sites to ceremonial welcomes in Yola, Nigeria — two decades of work across twenty countries.
Sarasota built its reputation on a rare quality of life — natural areas, green building, and a community of environmental nonprofits and engaged citizens. Charles's view is that this legacy is now threatened by over-development, declining water quality, and a creeping complacency, and that reversing course means raising environmental engagement to a genuine tipping point — not just slowing the damage, but actively restoring the region's ecological resources.
Storm Water & Lakes
Florida House Institute
As a board member of the Florida House Institute, Charles works to bring the property's permaculture-inspired, storm-water-retaining landscape design into wider use across Sarasota's residential and commercial developments — a direct answer to the estuary's declining water quality, red tide, and worsening flooding.
Community Water Stewardship
Mira Lago & Palmer Ranch
Closer to home, Charles serves on his community's board and lake committee, coordinating monthly water-quality monitoring and working to keep the neighborhood's lakes ecologically healthy — work he echoes as a member of Palmer Ranch's Natural Asset Committee.
Microforests & Veterans
A Katrina-Informed Demonstration Project
Drawing on lessons from his time studying New Orleans's urban forest after Hurricane Katrina, Charles is coordinating the design and installation of a high-performance microforest in Sarasota — funded by a Rotary Sarasota Bay grant and built by Florida Veterans for Common Sense as part of a veteran-operated enterprise.
Presenting the Suncoast Microforestry project at Rotary International's Environment Hub.
Climate & Clean Energy
100% Renewable by 2030
As a Sierra Club steering committee member, Charles helps carry Sarasota's commitment to 100% renewable municipal energy by 2030 out into the community — making the case, in plain economic and environmental terms, for why the shift matters.
Renewables in practice — from rooftop solar to wind turbine maintenance.
