Senior Sequence

Forging a Sustainable Future: a two-part event to change San Diego’s Future

Heartland Coalition/United Green is organizing a sustainability conference Nov. 12-13 at Irwin M. Jacobs Hall at Qualcomm Headquarters in Sorrento Valley. Students enrolled in USP and Environmental Studies classes can get in for free. See announcement below:

UnitedGREEN’s Forging a Sustainable Future event series begins on November 12th and 13th at Irwin M. Jacobs Hall at Qualcomm in Sorrento Valley and March 3rd and 4th 2012, featuring Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at SDSU. This is a two-part event covering a wide array of topics such as green building, green job training, building sustainable communities, community redevelopment, renewable energy sources, community centered architecture, and green transportation. Our theme for this series is economic, environmental and cultural sustainability. Saturday the 12th will focus on how the San Diego/Tijuana region can become water, energy and food self sustainable, and Sunday the 13th will focus on what individuals and organizations can do right now in the areas of water, energy and agricultural sustainability.  We will begin to create the collaborative efforts necessary to achieve our goals of sustainability in November. UnitedGREEN aims to nurture this shared leadership and encourage participants to identify key issues and solutions with a commitment to build on these partnerships through collaboration with an eye toward our March event where we will discuss progress and challenges while continuing our efforts to foster grassroots, government, academic and business alliances to ensure a green future.

The March event, featuring a keynote speaker, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will chart the progress made since November and address the challenges still confronting the region as it continues the effort to foster grassroots, government, academic, and business alliances to ensure a green future. The second part of the conference will be held March 3 and 4, 2012, at SDSU.

Kennedy is a Clinical Professor of Environmental Law and co-director of the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law. He also serves as a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and is the founder and chair of the Waterkeeper Alliance which has 191 affiliates around the world.

The public is welcome to attend participate in this town hall-style symposium with federal, state and local policy makers as well as leaders from industry and education to work on actual solutions—a key component of this conference which is lacking in many other events when no direct input or action is sought.

Other speakers and panelists will include local environmental consultant Jim Bell; Dr. Tony Haymet, UCSD, Scripps Institute of Oceanography; Andrew Berg, NECA; San Diego Councilmembers Marti Emerald and Todd Gloria; Dr. Heather Honea, Eco-Economics professor; Jim Waring, former Asst. to the mayor and CleanTECH San Diego Exec Director; Professor Oscar Romo, Coordinator, Tijuana River Estuary; Bill Powers, Ecological Engineer and Entrepreneur; Dr. Bill Roley, applied ecologist, environmental
We would like to get as many students involved as possible. Be a part of this town hall style symposium with federal, state and local policy makers and leaders from industry and education as we discuss actual solutions of these issues which sets us apart from other green conferences where they just educate you on the problems we face but do not give solutions.

November 12th and 13th: $45
March 3rd and 4th: $95
Or $95 for both events
Student Rate: $10

To encourage the participation of the next generation in helping to shape solutions, students enrolled in Urban Studies and Planning and Environmental Studies courses at UCSD will be admitted to the conference for free. Please contact Conference Intern Carline Au at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to RSVP.

For more information, please visit http://www.unitedgreen.org.