Campus Sustainability Day on Wednesday, October 26

10/18/05

Have you wondered what all the buzz is about sustainability on campus? Come to the Campus Center for Campus Sustainability Day from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26 and find out! There will be displays, demonstrations, and presentations about all the many campus activities related to sustainability. The day-long event will feature a two-hour national webcast, “A Six-Pack of Sustainability Lessons,” and an evening talk by noted economist and author, John Ikerd, on “The Economy and Ecology of Sustainability.”

Campus Sustainability Day is an annual observance sponsored by the Society of College and University Planning (SCUP), which will host the webcast.

The preliminary schedule of events can be viewed at: https://www.ithaca.edu/provost/SustainDayPoster.pdf.

Displays by various campus departments, organizations and programs will be running in the Campus Center lobby all day. Among these will be EarthCafe 2050, an interactive exercise designed to help you assess your “ecological footprint,” a measure of how much of the earth’s resources you consume. The Resource and Environmental Management Program (REMP) will be on hand to help you “Change the World” by changing your patterns of energy use. IC, along with a number of regional partners, has recently undergone a pilot study through NYSERDA’s Energy$mart Office program to assess our “plug load” -- find out what this means and how you can help reduce the College’s overall energy use through smarter use of electrical equipment. Out on the Quad, take a peek inside one of the Toyota Prius sedans from our campus rental fleet, and check out the renewable energy being generated by the two solar trailers.

Presentations will be offered throughout the day as well. Faculty and students will present on their research and class projects related to sustainability in the Klingenstein lounge; check the schedule posted outside for speakers, times and topics. At 10:00 a.m., if you really want the straight skinny about sustainability, don’t miss Jason Hamilton, assistant professor of Biology, delivering his thought-provoking talk, “What is Sustainability and What Does it Mean to Me?” Jeff Scott, director of dining services, will offer information about “Sustainability in Dining Services” during a sustainability café from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., accompanied by “teachable edible” snacks (local, organic, seasonal foods).

The national SCUP webcast, “A Six-Pack of Sustainability Lessons”, will be shown in the Clark Lounge from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Moderated by Joe Palca, science correspondent for National Public Radio, Ithaca College will be one of nearly 90 sites to host this national broadcast, which reprises sustainability-themed presentations from recent conferences of several higher education professional organizations. For more information about the webcast, visit http://www.scup.org/csd/3/.

A group from Cornell University, which is also observing Campus Sustainability Day, will also view this webcast, and a teleconference debriefing between the two campuses will follow, to share reactions to the telecast and to brainstorm ideas for advancing sustainability on each campus. More faculty and student presentations will follow the webcast; the sustainability displays and demonstrations will continue until 5:00 p.m.

Campus Sustainability Day will be capped off with an evening presentation in Textor 103 at 7:00 p.m. by John Ikerd, speaking on “The Economy and Ecology of Sustainability.” Ikerd, author of “Sustainable Capitalism: A Matter of Common Sense,” is professor emeritus of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri. He worked in private industry for a time and spent thirty years in various professorial positions at four major state universities before retiring from the University of Missouri in early 2000. Since retiring, he spends most of his time writing and speaking on issues related to the sustainability of agriculture.

"For years, John Ikerd's writings and speeches have provided precious insights into the economics of this nation's food system, exploding the myth that factory farms are economically imperative. [Ikerd] makes a powerful case for a new capitalistic economy: one that is environmentally sound, socially just, and economically sustainable." -- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

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