2012 Central Texas Campus Sustainability Practitioners Meeting Series

March 23, 2012, Co-hosted by St. Edwards University (SEU), the National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program (NWF), and the Texas Regional Alliance for Campus Sustainability (TRACS).

Purpose:

• To provide a regular space to share ways to better practice campus sustainability for staff, faculty, administrators, students and others interested in putting campuses in the Central Texas region on a more sustainable footing;
• To share information and resources and to provide and receive support for challenges pertaining to campus sustainability, including those related to physical infrastructure and operations, curriculum, resource allocation, administration, finance and accounting; socio-cultural and behavioral; regulatory matters, community engagement, student engagement, and more.

 

2010 Texas Greenforce Summit

October 28, 2010, Co-hosted by National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Program, Jobs for the Future, South Texas College and the Texas Greenforce Network

In Texas the Greenforce Initiative is engaging campuses in San Antonio, Houston, South Texas and surrounding areas. The first summit for the network took place on October 28 at South Texas College, drawing 65 participants from a total of 23 organizations including community colleges, businesses, and non-profit organizations throughout the Houston, San Antonio, South Texas border and Valley regions. In addition to building relationships among community colleges, the summit focused on identifying the types of green jobs in Southern Texas, employer engagement and local economic development, creating greener careers and greener campuses, green career pathways, and connecting campus sustainability to green career pathways. Following the summit, the initiative is forming a steering committee to guide the network around innovation grants, future conferences as well as research topics.

 

2009 North Central Texas Campus Climate Summit

The first-ever North Central Texas Campus ClimateSummit brought together over 50 participants from 15 different universities and colleges in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The summit provided opportunities for faculty, students, staff and administrators from the region to get together to share ideas, best practices and resources to accelerate climate change and sustainability solutions. The main themes explored were 1) Transforming the Curriculum to Address Eco-literacy 2) Green Workforce Development and 3) Comprehensive Greening of Campus Operations.

Visit the NCTCCS Page for more information about the summit including the Mission Statement, Presentation Files, Workshop Descriptions and the Sponsors and Organizers.

Speakers included:

• Richard Greene, Former EPA Region 6 Administrator and Arlington Mayor, Adjunct Professor, School of Urban & Public Affairs, UTA
• James Yarbrough, US EPA Region 6
• Arne Winguth, Climate Scientist and Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas at Arlington
• Joyce Williams, District Director Workforce Development – DCCCD, President, Texas Association of College Technical Educators
• John Hall, Vice President for Administration and Campus Operations, UTA
• John Porretto, Verde Capital LLC (a higher ed sustainability project financing consulting group)
• Sidney Bolfing, Coordinator, Renewable Energy Technologies Texas State Technical College/Texas Renewable Energy Education Consortium

PPT Presentations from the summit: 

Higher Education and Climate Change,Lisa Madry, Field Director, National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology program (NWF)

Climate Change and North Texas, Arne Winguth, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, UTA

Issue Briefing – Eco-literacy: Sustainability Across the Curriculum, Jeff Howard, Assistant Professor, School of Urban & Public Affairs, UTA

Presentations from North Central Texas Campuses on On-going Campus Climate/Sustainability Initiatives. 
– Becky Richards, Texas Christian University
– Brandon Morton – University of North Texas

Issue Briefing – Green Workforce Development and Student Engagement –Lisa Madry, NWF

Workshop – Preparing Students for the Green Economy, Sidney Bolfing, Coordinator, Renewable Energy Technologies Texas State Technical College/Texas Renewable Energy Education Consortium
Joyce Williams, District Director Workforce Development – DCCCD, President, Texas Association of College Technical Educators

Workshop – Student Engagement, Praween Dayananda, Field Coordinator, NWF

Workshop – Developing a Climate Action Plan, Praween Dayananda, Field Coordinator, NWF

 

2009 ReEnergize Houston Campus Climate Summit
November 2009, Co-hosted by Public Citizen, National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology program, University of Houston, TRACS

2009 ReEnergize Texas Summit
March 28-April 2, 2009, 
Co-hosted by Huston-Tillotson University, Public Citizen, ReEnergize Texas and the National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology program
http://www.reenergizetexas.org/summit2009

The second youth climate summit in Texas brought 170 students from over 25 colleges and universities across Texas to inspire and empower youth to advocate for bold climate and clean energy policy. The weekend included inspiring speakers, including Congressman Doggett, ‘father of environmental justice’ Dr. Robert Bullard, and Austin Energy renewable energy expert Mark Kapner. 25 workshops and trainings, led by experts around the state and country, provided students with information and skills to be effective leaders. The lobby day on April 2, saw students hold 75 meetings with elected officials at the Texas State Capitol.

2009 TRACS Statewide Summit
March 27, 2009, Co-hosted by the Environmental Science Institute at University of Texas at Austin, State Energy Conservation Office, National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology program

The first formal gathering for TRACS was at the University of Texas Austin and brought over 50 representatives from 20+ campuses. It was held the on the same weekend as the 2009 ReEnergize Texas youth climate summit.

2008 Central Texas Campus Climate Summit

October 22, 2008, Co-hosted by National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology program, St. Edwards University, City of Austin
http://ctccs.wordpress.com/stedwards-summit/

The Summit provided colleges and universities in Austin (and neighboring cities) and the City of Austin an opportunity to come together to identify and share global warming solutions, solutions that achieve immediate reductions in emissions. The Summit provided a forum for a discussion and sharing of successes, challenges, strategies and resources in reducing emissions from various sectors of campus and city activity.

ReEnergize Texas Summit 2008

Feb 8 -10, 2008,  Co-organized by the National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program, Public Citizen and the Campus Environmental Center of the University of Texas Austin 

The 2008 ReEnergize Texas Summit held Feb 8-10 at the University of Texas Austin was a major success! The first and largest-ever youth conference on global warming in Texas drew over 200 young adults representing 28 different colleges and universities from across Texas. Over the course of the weekend, participants listened to inspiring keynotes speakers, attended empowering workshops and trainings, and worked with each other to formulate action plans to tackle global warming in their campuses, in their communities, and in the corporate and political scenes in Texas. The Summit also marked the launch of the Re-Energize Texas youth coalition, a coalition comprised of young people from across Texas committed to safe, clean, efficient and sustainable solutions to the climate crisis.

Keynote Speakers
– Mayor Will Wynn, Mayor of Austin
– Dr. Camille Parmesan, professor at UT – Austin, author and reviewer of reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
– Ted Glick, coordinator of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council, and spokesperson for 1Sky
– Gary Hirshberg, President and CEO, Stonyfield Farms Inc,
– Rev. Lennox Yearwood, a minister, freedom fighter, hip-hop connoisseur and CEO Hip-Hop Caucus,
– Peter Illyn, Founder and Executive Director of Restoring Eden: Christians for Environmental Stewardship
– Jim Hightower, National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author
– Br. ChiSing, an ordained disciple of Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, a minister with the United Church of Christ, spiritual director of Interfaith Mindfulness Ministries in Dallas, Texas.