Session Descriptions
(In chronological order)
8:40am: Sustainability at Penn State
Speaker: Dr. Paul Shrivastava
Dr. Shrivastava is Chief Sustainability Officer of Penn State University and Director of the Penn State Sustainability Institute. He came to Penn State in 2017, having been the Executive Director of Future Earth, an international sustainability program. He’ll share the state of sustaibaility at Penn State.
8:50am: PERC Campus Sustainability Champions
Speakers: Ben Culbertson, Andrew Shelly, Kathleen Schreiber, Rebecca Urban
PERC's Campus Sustainability Champion designation is a statewide effort to recognize individuals who are doing commendable work on moving sustainability forward on their campuses and communities. All of the 2017-2018 CSC designees will be recognized and selected designees will give an overview of their work and answer questions about how their lessons learned might apply to your campus. Lycoming College senior Andrew Shelly will talk about his work on the Lycoming Environmental Audit; Millersville University’s Kathleen Schreiber will discuss her experiences developing new courses on Sustainable Development and Systems Thinking; and Becky Urban of Lebanon Valley College will explain how putting together her college’s new Environmental Science Program led to the creation of a 20-acre Research Preserve.
9:30am: Strength In Numbers
Exploring a PERC group to purchase renewables "in bulk"
Speakers: Liesel Schwarz, Mike Nolan, Chris O’Brien
PERC is looking into the idea of forming a “buying group” to allow a number of PERC institutions to go to market together. Liesel Schwarz, Villanova’s Sustainability Manager, will talk about the concept and feedback we’ve gotten from Executive Committee schools so far. Two experts in the field, Mike Nolan of Schneider Electric’s Energy & Sustainability Services group and Chris O’Brien, a renewable energy consultant who served earlier in his career as Director of Sustainability at American University, will discuss trends in renewable energy as it applies to large load users like higher ed and talk about the “buying group” idea with the ways it could make a difference for your campus. Attendees will be encouraged to participate: sharing their interest in the idea and challenges and benefits they see for their particular situation.
10:30am: Fighting Food Waste on Campus
The PA Higher Ed Food Recovery Challenge
Speakers: Josh Hooper, Ron Wood, Nell Fry and Jim Gurley
This past year, PERC was pleased to announce that one of the participating schools in the PA Higher Ed Food Recovery Challenge won a national EPA award based on the food recovery work they are doing on their campus as part of the PHE-FRC. We’ll hear from the award winner, Ursinus College and learn from Nell Fry, Sodexo’s Director of Sustainability about the value the Food Challenge can bring to a campus. Find out how you can start—or rejuvenate—food recovery on your campus by joining this award-winning program.
11:10am: Less Pizzazz, More Payback
Energy efficiency as a driver for sustainability
Speakers: Larry Myers, Mike Mumper and Mike Kornitas
PERC members have illustrated a keen desire to drive sustainability within their own campuses. Why does such a noble cause often become a challenge for campus Administrators to implement? We will hear from two of PERC’s sponsors, Mike Mumper of NextEra and Larry Myers of Schneider Electric that have some insight into this dilemma.
Larry and Mike will address the importance of reducing consumption via energy efficiency in order to “right size” campus energy profiles. To further this cause, we intend to open a dialogue that is understanding of the competitive nature of a campus’ limited fund stream while communicating in a meaningful way the benchmarking of the community’s energy consumption and carbon footprint. We will then hear from Mike Kornitas, Sustainability Director, Rutgers University, about how he is able to drive sustainability efforts on his campus.
11:50am: Brookfield Renewables
Sponsor Spotlight
Speaker: Reid McDougall
Our newest Silver Annual Sponsor, Brookfield Renewables, owns and operates one of the world’s largest renewable energy portfolios, anchored by more than 215 hydroelectric facilities; a number of those facilities are in Pennsylvania.
11:55am: Poster Session/ Lunch
This year's poster session will be great chance to discover and discuss work happening in other Pennsylvania institutions. Attendees should find a wide array of topics and authors, from undergraduate to graduate to faculty to staff and many combinations thereof. Check it out!
The poster session happens over the lunch hour.
1:00pm: Going to Zero
Connecting communities and colleges on climate
Speakers: Don Brown, Brandi Robinson
The Going to Zero program began last year in PERC and has grown into a partnership of many PERC schools and other non-profit entities. Though the model is still developing, the idea is to provide a mechanism by which colleges and universities can assist local communities’ work on climate mitigation and resiliency. This session will explore the the model and upcoming plans for activating municipalities across the state while also showcasing an example of a campus/community partnership from Millersville and Lancaster. Come to this session and share your success stories about work you’re doing and to find out how to connect with communities to facilitate these important partnerships.
2:00pm: Keynote Address
Climate Change and National Security: People not Polar Bears
Speaker: Admiral David Titley
This talk will discuss why climate change is a national security issue. Climate change is about people, about water, and about change itself. Admiral Titley will cover some of the basic science and why mainstream climate scientists are very confident of their findings, how this challenge is being addressed, and what are the greatest challenges to national security that arise from climate change. He will conclude with an assessment of future challenges and opportunities regarding climate change, from science, policy, and political perspectives. In addition, this talk will address how to effectively talk about climate change through the use of analogies, plain, non-jargon English, and even a little humor.
3:00pm: Sustainability Cafe
Facilitator: Rich Bowden
Learn and share in small groups! This breakout session is a perennial PERC favorite. Some of the tables will form around topics presented earlier in the day, others will be based on during-the-day input from the audience. The Sustainability Cafe is a great chance to connect in small groups with a goal of allowing the participants the chance to walk away with some action items for their own work.