Conference Series Mission

Our society needs ideas and actions that enhance the environmental health and integrity of the places where we live and work. Educational institutions are complex human communities that pose unique opportunities to explore, understand, and respond to the interrelationship of environmental issues. College and university campuses can be a vital link bridging current community needs and understandings with future visions.

"Greening" directly influences every aspect of human culture.  It impacts economic, political, technical, philosophical, and cognitive practices in a complex interweaving of ideas and actions.

Management of environmental resources on college and university campuses can have long-term effects on the institutions themselves and on society as a whole. This is a unique opportunity to share effective ideas on environmental issues.

These interdisciplinary conferences allow people representing different areas in university communities to share information on environmental issues. These areas range from the practical day-to-day management of the physical plant to "green" curriculum development and "green" utilization of campus resources. The areas are bound by common concerns for achieving environmental soundness through safe and sane management of resources. The campus community can become a "green" model for society as a whole by gathering and sharing this information.

Each conference is described in detail on the pages linked in the menu to the right. Also, copies of many of the event proceedings are available for purchase as described on the “Purchase Proceedings” page also linked in the menu.

To provide a sense of the breadth of the Greening of the Campus conferences, below is a list of keynote presenters who have participated in the conference series:

Greening of the Campus I (1996)
Robert Tree Cody Native American Performance Artist
Randy Croxton Croxton Collaborative Architects
L. Hunter Lovins President and Executive Director, the Rocky Mountain Institute
Howard R. Oliver Institute of Hydrology in Wallingford, England; Natural Environment Research Council
David Orr Professor and Chair Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College
George Page Director, Science and Nature history programming at WNET New York
David Quammen Author and former correspondent, Outside Magazine
   
Greening of the Campus II (1997)
Hazel Henderson Independent Futurist, Worldwide Columnist and Consultant on Sustainable Development
Sabine O’Hara Professor Economics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
David Orr Professor and Chair Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College
Sara Parkin Director, Forum for the Future
David Quammen Author and former correspondent, Outside Magazine
Sharon Stine Professor of Landscape Architecture, California State Polytechnic University
   
Greening of the Campus III (1999)
Robert Costanza Senior Fellow, National Council on Science and the Environment; Senior Fellow, Stockholm Resilience Center; Affiliate Fellow, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics
Susan Flader Author, Thinking like a Mountain: Aldo Leopold and the Evolution of an Ecological Attitude Towards Deer, Wolves and Forests; The Great Lakes Forest: An Environmental and Social History; Professor, History
Hilary French Vice President for Research, Worldwatch Institute
David Orr Professor and Chair Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College
John Ryan Research Director, Northwest Environment Watch
   
Greening of the Campus IV (2001)
Janine Benyus Author, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature
John DiBiaggio President, Tufts University
Richard Norgaard President, International Society for Ecological Economics
David Orr Professor and Chair Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College
John Perlin Author, A Forest Journey: The Role of Wood in the Development of Civilization
Cindy Shea Founding Director, Sustainability Office, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
   
Greening of the Campus V (2003)
Christine Ervin President and CEO, US Green Building Council
Pliny Fisk III Co-director, Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems
Michael Ogden Founding Director, Natural Systems International
David Orr Professor and Chair Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College
David Quammen Author, Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction
Jane Shaw Senior Associate, Political Economy Research Center
Mathis Wackernagel Director, Indicators Program at Redefining Progress
   
Greening of the Campus VI (2005)
George Basile Executive Vice President & Director of International R & D, The Natural Step in the United States
Robert Berkebile Founding Principal, BNIM Architects
Anthony Cortese President, Second Nature
Jonathan Harris Director, Theory and Education Program at Global Development and Environment Institute, Tufts University
Nan Jenks-Jay Director of Environmental Affairs, Professor of Environmental Studies, Middlebury College
David Orr Professor and Chair Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College
   
Greening of the Campus VII (2007)
Eban Goodstein Project Director, Focus the Nation
Chris O’Brien Director, Responsible Purchasing Network
David Orr Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, Oberlin College
Debra Rowe Founder & Director, Environmental Solutions Center; President, U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development; Co-chair, the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium
Michael Shuman Author, Going Local: Creating Self Reliant Communities in the Global Age
Dorceta Taylor Program Director, The Minority Environmental Leadership Development Initiative at University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment
   
Greening of the Campus VIII (2009)
Ray Anderson Founder, Chairman and COO, Interface, Inc.
Geoff Chase Dean of Undergraduate Studies, San Diego State University
Frances Moore Lappe Co-Founder, Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy
Jerome Ringo President, the Apollo Alliance
   
Greening of the Campus IX (2012)
Bill Browning Co-founder, Terrapin Bright Green
Majora Carter Founder, Sustainable South Bronx, the Majora Carter Group
Debera Johnson Founder & Executive Director, Pratt Design Incubator
Amory Lovins Chairman & Chief Scientist, the Rocky Mountain Institute
David Orr Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Special Assistant to the President, Oberlin College
Louise St. Pierre Author, Okala Ecological Design