Burack Returns to Sheehan Phinney

After serving for more than 10 years as the commissioner of the NH Department of Environmental Services, Thomas S. Burack returns to the Manchester-based law firm Sheehan Phinney Bass & Green as a shareholder and a member of the firm's Environment & Energy and Nonprofit groups.

Burack has 30 years of experience working in all three branches of government as well as the private sector. He announced earlier this year he was stepping down as commissioner. “I’m very excited to be returning to Sheehan Phinney, where I’m working with a skilled team of professionals to help clients to both prevent and solve environmental and other problems by pursuing systemic, root-cause solutions and approaches, because the best problem of all is one that never arises.” 

Burack spearheaded the creation of E-Enterprise for the Environment, a shared governance approach among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, states and tribal governments to modernize and streamline the business of environmental protection and regulation in the United States. He served as the first state co-chair of the E-Enterprise Leadership Council, which provides strategic direction for the overall initiative and oversight of dozens of E-Enterprise projects. He now serves as an executive advisor and consultant to the initiative.

Burack has also been actively engaged in helping businesses and communities to become more sustainable, including by increasing their energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources. He led the effort to develop the NH Climate Action Plan, played key leadership roles in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and co-facilitated efforts to develop voluntary agreements among more eastern and mid-western states to address the challenge of ozone transport. He also served as chairman of the NH Site Evaluation Committee, which oversees the siting and permitting of energy facilities in NH.

Burack has worked to support efforts to fund water infrastructure needs, and helped create NH Lives on Water — a public-private partnership that is building public awareness and understanding of the need for good quality drinking water and wastewater systems and wise stewardship of the state’s water resources. He also helped to develop the Northeast Ocean Plan, the first regional marine spatial plan in the nation. Within NH, he initiated and for eight years led a voluntary, informal group of some two dozen state agency commissioners in efforts to improve the operations of state government.