Topic: Sustainability/Environment
August 31, 2007
"Partnering for Sustainability: Enabling a Diverse Future" is the theme for Ball State University's seventh Greening of the Campus Sept. 6-8.
The interdisciplinary conference for faculty members, staff personnel and students from colleges and universities around the country and the world will take place in the Pittenger Student Center. It is presented by the Ball State's University Council on the Environment (COTE) with support from the Provost's Office.
The conference will explore the role colleges and universities play in cultivating awareness, understanding and the ability of students, faculty, staff and the public to enhance the health, integrity, and long-term sustainability of where they live and work.
Environmental leaders Eban Goodstein, Chris O'Brien, David Orr, Debra Rowe, Michael Shuman and Dorceta Taylor will be the keynote speakers. A sample of the workshops includes ecological medicine and the ecological economics of health care, sustainable dining, strategies for carbon neutrality, energy conservation, buying green, recycling, and college and community partnerships for sustainability.
This year, participants will tour several local facilities including:
- Paws Inc., which has a solar aquatic waste treatment facility
- The Ball State Field Station and Environmental Educational Center
- LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified buildings on campus.
Past conferences have attracted more than 200 participants from about 30 states and several foreign countries.
Conference partners include the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium, the National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Program and the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development.
A complete schedule can be found at www.bsu.edu/greening.