About Us
Welcome to Dorband & Associates (D&A). We have been providing products/services/programs to individuals, non-profit organizations and for-profit companies around the world since 1976. Dorband & Associates has been a preeminent consulting firm in the world of environmental leadership for over 40 years. We have founded and consulted many ventures over the years by putting our partners and clients first.
Since about 2012 we have been doing much of our environmental consulting business through The Center for Ecolonomic Excellence and Development, LLC (CEED) which serves as our primary umbrella organization, governing all our various operating entities while also providing physical locations around the globe where multiple businesses converge. Within CEED, some businesses are wholly owned by us, while others operate in strategic partnerships. Driven by our passion for spirituality and our commitment to “making a little money making the planet better,” CEED embodies the principle of being ecolonomic—combining profitable ventures with sustainability. This framework allows us to spread our vision worldwide, support emerging enterprises that share our values, and guide them toward fostering positive environmental and economic impact in every location we establish.
D&A resides in our relatively new Southwestern Idaho campus in Nampa, Idaho. We additionally have offices in Ohio, west-central Idaho (Riggins), Arizona, and Colorado. D&A is one of the Founding Partners of the paradigm shifting Enviornmental Professionals Network, LLC (“EPN”) that also offices in the Idaho CEED campus.
As described above, Dorband & Associates was founded originally as the parent company for a suite of ventures by Dr. Wayne Dorband to provide a variety of services in the areas of sustainability and environmental consciousness. The companies and most of the business categories that now fall within the umbrella of CEED include:
D&A Consulting – Providing consulting services for environmentally impaired real estate owners and developers as well as strategic consulting and coaching for business development of environmentally oriented companies.
Mountain Sky Communities – We are passionate about creating resilient small communities of people living where they can thrive and be completely self-sustaining. Our current projects are in Idaho, South Dakota, and Texas.
Ecolonomic Action Team -and research and development involving a huge vision of enabling 1,000,000 ecopreneurs to teach the world to feed itself.
Innovative Indoor Aquaculture and Agriculture – Research and business development for marine shrimp, hydroponics, tropical fish, and many other areas for the last 40+ years.
WorldWide Aquaculture – Consulting, research and business development in sustainable and regenerative aquaculture.
Mountain Sky Ranch – Proof of Concept commercial and research ranch in Northern Colorado demonstrating sustainable agriculture and providing agritourism. For almost seventeen years (2006-2023) we operated and Ecological Business Park in northern Colorado at Mountain Sky Ranch. We are very proud of taking an overgrazed cow pasture and turning it into a beautiful mecca of water, forest, and grasslands.
Premier Stone – In the mid-2000s, when we purchased Mountain Sky Ranch, we were approached by a young man, John “Doc” Holliday, and asked if we would let him ecologically quarry sandstone. We said NO! He persisted, and we ultimately agreed, and today, his operation has had many years of success and has led to Premier Stone. What a great ecolonomic success.
Mountain Sky Sporting Dogs – For over 50 years we have bred, raised, and competed with retrievers and pointing dogs around North America. We currently have Golden Retrievers and Brittany’s and are active in the industry in the Pacific Northwest.
Mountain Sky Alpacas – Premier breeding/show alpaca business located at Mountain Sky Ranch in the Andean-like beauty of the Rocky Mountains for over 15 years and now moving to the Rocky Mountains of Idaho at our new project, The Community at Riggins Hot Springs.
Dorband & Associates also supports and provides management services to the Institute of Ecolonomics, LLC, (IOE) which co-offices with D&A in our Nampa, ID headquarters. IOE’s mission is to improve the planet by linking ecology and the economy. As IOE founder, the famous late actor, Dennis Weaver, would say – “we have spent thousands of years and billions of dollars screwing the planet up; now we need to spend then next many years showing people how they can make money making it better!”
D&A is one of the Founding Partners of the paradigm shifting Enviornmental Professionals Network, LLC (“EPN”) that also offices in the Idaho CEED campus.
Please see below some information on our professional staff and partners. We are very proud of the quality of the people on our Team, and we know you will want to get to know them better.
Dr. Wayne Dorband – Founder, CEO and Chairman
Dr. Dorband founded Dorband & Associates after spending over 30 years founding and directing a number of companies in the environmental field. Wayne founded ATC Environmental in 1979 while serving as a college professor at Augustana College, in Sioux Falls, SD.
ATC grew from meager beginnings of Dr. Dorband and his partner Will Miller to thousands of employees by the mid 1980’s. Dr. Dorband took ATC public in 1984 as only the second company in the history of South Dakota to be founded in the state and then to go public. ATC is now Atlas Environmental, one of the largest environmental businesses in the world.
Later in the 1980’s, Dr. Dorband was also a co-founder of the environmental insurance industry as one of a select group of professionals at the Environmental Risk Group (ERIC) in Denver, CO. Wayne developed the actuarial models and underwriting criteria for the now broadly used Pollution Legal Liability insurance coverage, as well as the Remediation Cost Cap coverage.
In the mid-1990’s, Dr. Dorband was also a pioneer in the environmentally impaired asset development (brownfields) industry as a co-founder of Cherokee Investment Security with Tom Darden, John Mazzarino and Randall Clark. Cherokee grew to be the largest private investment fund in the world acquiring environmentally impaired properties. Wayne directed the environmental risk management services for Cherokee and then later co-founded International Risk Group as a successor to the risk management, risk assumption and consulting services of Cherokee.
Dr. Dorband is, as his wife Deb calls him, a serial entrepreneur, as he has formed and owned close to one hundred businesses in the last 35 years. He is proud of the fact that many of his partners and employees have gone on to successfully begin their own businesses and ventures. Wayne and Deb have four adult children, and Dustin has been a partner with us here at D&A.
Wayne has a PhD in Fisheries and Aquatic Ecology from the University of Idaho, a MS in Marine Ecology and Aquaculture from San Diego State University, a BS in Biology from the University of California, Irvine, and an AA in Liberal Arts from Bethany Lutheran College. He enjoys sustainable farming, tennis, pickleball, fishing, running, golf, reading and many more fun things.
Theresa Weeks is D&A’s Project Manager for environmental projects throughout North America. Theresa is responsible for Phase 1 assessments and project management for large industrial sites. She resides in the Dayton, Ohio area and has considerable experience.
John Nillen is the business development director for D&A. John has worked alongside Dr. Dorband for over 25 years and is well-known in the brownfields development industry. John has been responsible for selling some of the largest risk assumption deals in the world. John worked alongside Dr. Dorband at both IRG and Cherokee. He has a Bachelors from Regis College in CO. John has a 35-year history coaching in elite level basketball, including the NBA. He is married and has two amazing adult children. John resides in the Denver, CO area.