Simple Prosperity, the book he has just completed for St. Martin’s Press, highlights the "mother lode" of abundance that remains untapped in our daily lives: efficiency, precision, essential connections with land and people, health and wellness rather than just more "wealth and hellness." Throughout history and across all cultures, human needs are exactly the same; what changes are the methods of meeting the needs. As Wann points out in the best-seller Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, we are neglecting what really matters in favor of possessions, appearances, speed, power, and control. Simple Prosperity, a sequel to Affluenza, offers a pathway to clarity, sanity and security through better design, policy, and a more sensible lifestyle - attributes that will reduce our compulsion to consume more than "enough."

Wann is president of the Sustainable Futures Society, a board member of the Cohousing Association of the U.S., and the recipient of various lifetime achievement awards for his work on sustainability. He’s been a passionate gardener for 25 years and coordinates a neighborhood garden in the cohousing community in which he has lived for 11 years. He is editor of the book Reinventing Community and coauthor of Superbia! 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods; and producer of Building Livable Communities for then-VP Al Gore’s office. He has also produced several other programs on communities and neighborhoods, including the award-winning TV programs Placemakers and Designing a Great Neighborhood, which appeared on Free Speech TV, Lime TV, and PBS stations.

In the TV program Sustaining America’s Agriculture, narrated by Raymond Burr, Wann explores the difference between conventional and sustainable farming, demonstrating how organic agriculture results in better health and happiness, less pollution and energy consumption, and stronger communities.

He is currently at work on the book Value Shift, in which he suggests ways that our decisions can be based on biological and anthropological realities. For example, why is the mainstream American diet dominated by energy-costly meat when the human body evolved to digest a wide variety food? Why do we tolerate life in isolated houses on “life support systems” when we evolved as a socially cooperative species? Why do we work in jobs that don’t deliver a sense of purpose and don’t contribute to a sustainable culture, when meaning is essential to human happiness?