Steven J. Strong is President of Solar Design Associates, Inc., an interdisciplinary group dedicated to the design of environmentally responsive buildings, and the engineering and integration of renewable energy systems. He founded the firm in 1974 after serving as an energy-systems engineering consultant on the Alaskan pipeline where he became convinced there were easier, less-costly, more environmentally desirable ways to provide comfort and convenience to the consumer than "going to the ends of the earth to extract the last drop of fossil fuel". Drawing on his background in architecture and engineering, he has earned the firm an international reputation for the pioneering integration of renewable energy systems—especially solar electricity—with environmentally responsive building design.