Workshop Session
Speakers and Topics

Plenary speakers

Craig Altemose

Craig is a joint degree student at the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Law School, where he is in his third year of a four-year M.P.P. /J.D. joint degree program. Craig is the Co-Coordinator of Massachusetts Power Shift (MA's state network) and the Co-Chair of the National Association of Environmental Law Societies. He has previously worked with Energy Action as an intern and a fellow, and served on the Executive Committee of the Sierra Student Coalition, a group he remains active with. He helped plan PowerShift 2007, and was the Lead Organizer of the Massachusetts Power Shift conference in April, 2008.

Whit Jones 

Whit is the Deputy Field Director of Energy Action Coalition. He got his start in youth organizing at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. Whit helped organize the March to ReEnergize IA with the SSC, was a fellow for Power Shift 2007, and has been working with Energy Action ever since, focusing on field efforts for the Power Vote Campaign and Power Shift 2009.

Julian Keniry

Julian is the senior director of the National Wildlife Federation's (NWF's) Youth and Campus Programs, is a cofounder of NWF's Campus Ecology Program. Since 1989, she has lectured to campus and other audiences across the United States and abroad on sustainability in higher education. She wrote Ecodemia: Campus Environmental Stewardship at the Turn of the 21st Century (1995), co-authored Green Investment, Green Return: How Practical Conservation Projects Save Million on America's Campuses (Eagan and Keniry 1998), and spearheaded the State of the Campus Environment: A National Report Card on Environmental Performance and Sustainability in Higher Education (McIntosh et al. 2001). She currently serves on the board of the Institute for Conservation Leadership and as a member of an ad hoc sustainability committee of the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP).

Mark Orlowski

Mark Orlowski is Founder and Executive Director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a Cambridge-based nonprofit organization engaged in research and education to advance sustainability in campus operations and endowment practices.

Mr. Orlowski heads a team that authors the Institute’s annual College Sustainability Report Card, which evaluates and grades key elements of sustainability at United States and Canadian universities. The Report Card is designed to help schools learn from each other's experiences and adapt campus and endowment sustainability policies that work.

Preliminary List of Session Topics

Leadership

  • Institutionalizing change and how to work with sustainability coordinators
  • Running Effective and Fun Meetings
  • Annual program planning, sustaining energy throughout the year
  • The College Sustainability Report Card: An organizing tool
  • Using mission statements and the College Presidents Climate Commitment
  • Entry points: using orientation and the end of the year for effective change
  • Introduction to Organizing I: Raising Awareness: Planning events, film series,
  • Introduction to Organizing II: Creating effective campaigns
  • Creating Partnerships and Coalitions: How to work with other groups on campus
  • Media Savvy- how to get coverage for your activities and outreach
    Campaigns/National Resources
  • Farm to College Dining Table – Northeast Organic Farming Association, Farm to College
  • Energy Campaigns: Powershift and Campus Climate Challenge
  • Purchasing policies: working with your college bookstore, Forest Friendly Bookstores, Forest Ethics
  • Personal Product Safety : using social events to raise consciousness  - Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
  • Climate Action Day October 2009 - 350.org
  • Eco-Health - Be Safe - PVC - Clean or toxic?  -  Center for Health, Environment and Justice
  • The Graduation Pledge and 1st year pledge
  • Advocacy and Lobbying – Sierra Club. League of Conservation Voters
  • Campus Ecology  - National Wildlife Federation
  • EcoVillages -  Living Routes
  • Town/Gown Collaboration -Transition Initiatives
  • Community Outreach – Bioregional Networks
  • Environmentally Socially Responsible Investing/Shifting the priorities of endowments

Panels

  • Food on Campus
  • Green Campus Transport : Zipcars/Bikes
  • Recycling, Waste and the Ubiquitous Plastic Water Bottle
  • Green Entrepreneurs on Campus
  • Technology and “engineers for sustainability”
  • Campus Restaurants
  • Community partnerships
  • Wind on Campus
  • Students as Eco reps
  • State networking

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For more information about getting involved, or about YSEC generally, please contact: cornelia.twining@yale.edu
matthew.ramlow@yale.edu
rachel.shaffer@yale.edu

This website was created in 2009 by MJ Truong.