Keynote address by Penn State's Michael Mann: "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: The Battle Continues," focusing on his engagement in the climate change debate, including the the science, impacts, politics and ethical dimensions of human-caused climate change. Michael is the author of "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines" (2012) and "Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming" (2008) as well as over 170 peer-reviewed and edited publications. The question and answer session following Michael's talk gave members a chance to engage with him personally. (Our thanks to Elyzabeth Engle, Graduate Assistant at Penn State's Sustainability Institute for volunteering to shoot this video.)
PERC’s 2014 Fall Conference and Annual Meeting, "Engaging Sustainability," was held on Penn State’s University Park campus in State College on Wednesday, November 12th. Registrants were invited to discover what is happening on Pennsylvania campuses to energize engagement with sustainability.
Agenda (click the agenda links to jump to the item description)
| 8:00 AM | Registration/ Networking/ Coffee and light breakfast |
| 9:00 AM | Welcome/Intros |
| 9:15 AM | Host Institution Highlight-PSU's Sustainability Institute |
| 9:25 AM | Panel: Engaging Sustainability in the Community |
| 10:15 AM | PA Higher Education Food Recovery Challenge panel “Different Campuses, Different Answers--Three Solutions to the Same Challenge.” |
| 11:00 AM | Keynote-Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor of Meteorology at Penn State co-founder of RealClimate.org "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: The Battle Continues |
| 12:00 PM | Lunch/ Networking/ Poster Session |
| 1:20 PM | PERC Bylaws, Election |
| 1:35 PM | Host Highlight: Penn State's Net Impact Undergraduate chapter |
| 1:45 PM | Sponsor Spotlight |
| 1:55 PM | Panel: Engaging Sustainability on Campus |
| 2:45 PM | Coffee/ Dessert Network |
| 3:05 PM | Panel- CSC 2014: Selected Campus Sustainability Champions |
| 3:55 PM | Closing Remarks |
- Chatham University: The Master of Sustainability program relies heavily on out-of-the-classroom projects. One example: implementing sustainability with the Pittsburgh
Center for Creative Reuse - Penn State: Community outreach on changing the moral climate on climate change.
- Bucknell: The Lewisburg Community Garden feeds the hungry and educates the community.
- Penn State: The National Energy Leadership Corps couples leadership development experiences for students with free home energy assessments in their local communities.
“Three Campuses, Three Solutions”
On the surface, Franklin and Marshall, Keystone and Messiah all face the same challenge that many colleges do--what to do with their post-consumer food waste. Each school has come up with a different answer.
- F&M College has their waste hauled for off-site composting, some of which is returned to campus,
- Messiah College composts on campus, and
- Keystone College sends their food through a digester called an Orca.
Find out how each of these three campuses made the choice that best fits their unique situation.
With posters from schools across the state, this year's poster session was a great chance to discover and discuss work happening in other Pennsylvania institutions. Click to download an in-depth look at the submitted projects for the poster session. Attendees found a wide array of topics and authors, from undergraduate to graduate to faculty to staff and many combinations thereof. Check it out!
Penn State's Net Impact Undergraduate Chapter strives to inspire and educate individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world. Find out how you can start a chapter on your campus!
Allegheny College: The Food for Sustainability project utilizes aquaponic systems for indoor, year round production of tilapia and lettuce that blends faculty-student research and service learning with service learning.- Villanova: Nova Bike Share is program that connects students with bikes and the community--teaching job skills to the handicapped and consulting on local bike lanes.
- Penn State: The Sustainability Institute led an effort to integrate sustainability into every college, campus and support unit across the PSU system. Find out the value of integrating sustainability into the strategic planning and assessment process.
- Allegheny: The Carbon Conference project examines environmental and financial costs of the Allegheny softball team’s current participation in the NCAC, as well as costs incurred in a new theoretical conference (the Carbon Conference) that would be constructed based on similarity of schools and reduction in travel among participants.
PERC's 2014 Campus Sustainability Champions (CSC) is a statewide effort to recognize individuals who are doing commendable work on moving sustainability forward on their campuses and communities. Six of the 2014 CSC designees will be giving an overview of their work and answering questions about how their lessons learned might apply to your campus.- Helen Takacs, Associate Professor of International Business and Management (INBM), Dickinson College. Highlights: championed integration of sustainability into the INBM curriculum, developed module on climate change for Fundamentals of Business course, focued a senior INBM seminar on sustainability challenges, Eco-E path Mosaic, led a group to create new certificate in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
- Liesel Schwartz, Sustainability Manager of Villanova University. Highlights include: Implementing Athletic EcoReps, TradePal, hydration stations, St. Francis Pledge.
- Nick Iula, Dir. Dining Services, Shippensburg University. Highlights: Project Clean Plate, composting, donations, campus farm, trayless dining, local sourcing, solar and pedal-powered cookers.
- Lynette Dooley, Biology Major, Lycoming College. Highlights: Integral in Lycoming's
Environmental Audit, Recyclemania, TerraCycle and the Food Recovery Network (FRN). Lynette helped to organize the FRN fall conference at Lycoming attended by 10 colleges. - Josh and Zach Berliner are twins who both are Economics and Environmental Studies Majors at Bucknell. They tirelessly work together to make Bucknell more sustainable. Highlights: the lighting sensor project, LED lamp replacement, co-presidents, Bucknell Environmental Club, Bucknell Green Fund, student leaders of the PERC Student Sustainability Symposium.
- Mariah Murphy, a senior at Dickinson College, is the pivotal force behind the Biking@Dickinson iniatives. She manages the Handlebar (bike co-op), led a student initiative to purchse and instll bike repair stations, lobbies for indoor bike storage, maintains the Biking@Dickinson blog, coordinates events like the Bike to Farm potlucks and much more, all aimed at promoting the use of bikes at Dickinson.
SPONSORED BY
The conference is made possible by PERC Member Institutions, Sustaining Sponsor Sodexo and all of the rest of PERC's sponsors.
HOSTS
The conference is hosted jointly by to Penn State's Sustainability Institute and the Penn State Net Impact Undergraduate Chapter. Affiliated with Net Impact National, nationwide community of students and professionals creating positve change in the workplace toward a more sustainable world. As well as presenting at the conference, Net Impact will have a table where you can find out about starting a chapter on your campus.